Clips From the Hawkins File

According to the AP, the 200 pages of newly released documents from Robert Hawkins’s file include “hundreds of pages of court transcripts, drug tests and letters from caseworkers, therapists and family members. They give the clearest picture yet of a young man who told a therapist in April 2005 that ‘he is not sure if there is a God or life after death and that when he dies, he’ll probably go to hell.’” Consider these details:

–At age 14, Hawkins was diagnosed with psychosis, schizophrenia and other undiagnosed disorders.  

–In custody in Omaha, staff explained that Hawkins “routinely refused medication, praised the Nazi Party and continued to smoke marijuana.”

–In January 2006 Hawkins was sent to the emergency room after swallowing about thirty pills of Tylenol. He later explained to his social worker, Angela Pick, that he wanted to die.

–In March 2006 Hawkins went before Judge Robert O’Neal to consider his status as a ward of the state. O’Neal told Hawkins, “This isn’t acceptable. I mean, I don’t know why you got the idea that we ought to be terminating jurisdiction when you’re testing positive for marijuana and it’s your own admission that you’re smoking every day and you’re not in school and you’re not employed. What should that tell you, Robby?”

–On August 17, 2006, upon being released from state custody, Angela Pick wrote, “Robbie has been in the court system for many years and has reached maximum benefit from what the department can provide…. He has continued to make some poor decisions but not any that are a safety concern at this time.”

–In a letter dated August 18, 2006,  Hawkins’s father wrote, “Robbie wants the benefits and privileges of that age but the responsibilities and behaviors of a child. I told him I felt bad that he seems to insist on learning every life lesson the hardest way possible instead of listening to or believing anything I or anyone else tells him. I truly believe and I told him exactly this, that he has the capacity to do well.

“I love my son, but he will not believe or even listen to anything I try to tell him. He wants to be released and treated as an adult. I don’t think this is in his best interest, but I can not make decisions for him, particularly when he will not follow instructions. I am way past sad that I can not reach him or get him to take actions that would improve his situation. I think the only thing that will work is for him to learn it the hard way. He will have to stand or fall on his own to learn these lessons about life. It is beyond my ability and I have to release him to God, praying that He will make sure that nothing happens to him that can not be undone.”

More Info on Hawkins

A juvenile court judge in Sarpy County, Nebraska, has released more information on Westroads Mall shooter Robert Hawkins, including medical and social workers’ reports and transcripts of court proceedings. (Background and analysis here.)

California’s Dropout Crisis

A new report put out by a group of law enforcement officials in Los Angeles County, titled “School or the Streets: Crime and California’s Dropout Crisis,” finds a direct correlation between high school dropout rates and rates of violent crime. No surprise there, I suppose, but surely it’s important to collect the data and examine the implications. A 10 percent increase in the graduation rate in California, the study finds, would prevent 500 homicides and more than 20,000 aggravated assaults each year; LA County alone could see an annual drop of 214 homicides and 7,241 aggravated assaults.

“The real problem isn’t deciding whether dropout rates are linked to crime,” the LA Times reports. “The problem is figuring out how to keep students in school.” The report pairs some common-sense solutions with its common-sense analysis, with recommendations to improve, among other things, the quality of mentoring, teaching, preschool and monitoring of at-risk students.

The catch, of course, is that these solutions are only as good as state funding will allow. The Governator has just proposed a 10 percent budget cut, pledging to spread the cuts across many departments so that none will feel a disproportionately sharp pinch. But as the Modesto Bee points out, “Education, health and welfare programs command nearly two-thirds of the state’s $102 billion general fund.” Which means that young and needy people will be the hardest hit.

Kevin Gordon, a consultant on education budget issues, said across-the-board cuts mean fewer textbooks, canceled field trips and no school bus service.

“Given that a majority of our expenditures are on people, which are set in contracts, the only place you can go is to all those nonstaff things that directly relate to kids,” Gordon said. “Every school bus in the state grinds to a halt.”

Gordon said the administration has floated a less drastic option to make midyear spending reductions. Currently, he said, slower-than-anticipated revenue growth allows the state to reduce school funding by $1.4 billion without suspending the constitution.

The danger of that, however, is that school districts have established their budgets and are counting on that money.

“School districts would definitely be harmed trying to cut back right in the middle of the year,” said Scott Plotkin, executive director of the California School Boards Association.

If it’s so clearly understood that dropout rates are connected to violent crime, as this new reports suggests it is, then it naturally follows that investment in schools is also an investment in public safety. Conversely, it seems fair to predict that the proposed funding cuts for education would raise dropout rates, which would in turn would raise the rate of violent crime.

So, what’ll it be, California?

Bonus Stocking Stuffer

Be sure to catch today’s episode of the NPR show Justice Talking, in which host Margot Adler considers the fortieth anniversary of In Re Gault. Guests include NYU law professor Norman Dorsen, who argued and won the landmark Supreme Court case; Grace Bauer, the mother of an incarcerated teen; Amanda Powell, an assistant state public defender in the Juvenile Section of the Office of the Ohio Public Defender; Marsha Levick, co-founder and legal director of the Juvenile Law Center; and others.

Thanks to Arbitrary and Capricious for the tip.

Xmas Stocking Stuffers

Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the blog, not a creature was stirring… except these three stories, none of which have anything to do with Christmas:

First, from the AP: A judge decides not to transfer a violent juvenile offender to adult court.

Second, from the Indianapolis Star: A new task force convenes in Marion County to improve the way the juvenile court handles child welfare cases.

Third, from the Baltimore Sun: On the beat with Leo Zilk, a Juvenile Services officer in Baltimore, as he tracks down teens who have broken the rules of their pretrial release. An accompanying editorial advocates investing in a “family-focus approach” to address the problem of housing “kids who have nowhere to go.”

New Trial for Tankleff

Check out this smart post from Simple Justice about yesterday’s decision by a four-judge panel in the appellate division of the New York State Supreme Court to overturn Martin Tankleff’s conviction for the 1988 murder of his parents. (For background, see also this front-page story in the New York Times.)

New Orleans JJ Center Facing Class Action Suit

The Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana filed a class action lawsuit yesterday against the New Orleans Youth Study Center, alleging institutional indifference, poorly trained staff, “grossly unsanitary” conditions and frequent use of solitary confinement, among other charges. From the New Orleans Times-Picayune:

Friday’s lawsuit capped a week of bad news for the Youth Study Center, where most of the city’s serious juvenile offenders are held. On Dec. 14, six detainees, most with serious rap sheets, escaped; three are still at large. On Monday, juvenile judges met with city officials — including Chief Administrative Officer Brenda Hatfield and Department of Human Services director Richard Winder, who oversees the building and its staff — and told them that they had 30 days to improve the facility before judges transferred all youths there to another facility or find a third party to manage it.

On Thursday, five Youth Study Center staff members and supervisors defended themselves in a contempt-of-court hearing resulting from the escape. In the end, all of them were cleared of the contempt citation, but only because Chief Judge David Bell found that they, like the children at the center, were victims “of poor administration, poor city leadership, and poor government.”

Florida Shackling Case Rejected

US District Court Judge Donald Middlebrooks has tossed out a procedurally flawed lawsuit brought by Carey Haughwout, a public defender in Florida, who had hoped to force Palm Beach County juvenile court judges to abandon the practice of shackling young offenders when they face trial.

“Knowing those judges as I do, I suspect that the spectacle of children of differing ages and legal circumstance shackled together at their feet, hands and waist is disturbing,” Middlebrooks wrote in his ruling (cited by the Palm Beach Post). “I have little doubt but that these parties, with their excellent counsel, could reach substantial accommodation, particularly if called upon to do so by the Circuit Court of the 15th Judicial Circuit or the Palm Beach Criminal Justice Commission.”

Indiana Judge Raises Flag on Girls’ Prison

A county judge in Indiana has decided to stop sending girls to the Indianapolis Juvenile Correctional Facility, and has announced his decision in a letter to Governor Mitch Daniels. Citing understaffing, inadequate rehab and educational services and reports of inappropriate sexual activity, as documented in a recent court-ordered review of the prison, Judge Peter Nemeth wrote that it is “neither safe nor productive” to allow female inmates into such an environment.

“Gov. Mitch Daniels and Department of Correction administrators need to swiftly answer the alarm sounded this week by a St. Joseph County judge over conditions at the Indianapolis Juvenile Correctional Facility,” the Indianapolis Star writes in today’s editorial. Additionally, the paper notes,

Daniels should order DOC administrators to review the staff-to-inmate ratio, the effectiveness of the facility’s educational programs and whether staff members are consistently locking bedroom doors at night (when much of the sexual activity is allegedly occurring). The number of inmates prescribed psychotropic drugs also warrants special concern. It may be a sign that medication is being used as a substitute for more constructive engagement of inmates.

At the very least, the governor needs to call together the judge, the review panel and DOC officials to address the issues raised in Nemeth’s letter. There then needs to be a public explanation of how DOC will correct any problems that are documented.

State Sen. Obama on Juv Justice

In 1999 Barack Obama dodged a vote on a state bill that would let some juveniles be tried as adults, voting “present” (neither for nor against). Apparently he voted “present” about 130 times during his stint as Illinois State Senator. This telling tidbit was culled from the New York Times via Corrections Sentencing, which, by the way, gave Juvienation a couple of very generous plugs this week. (Thanks!)