Cali to Provide Lawyers for Juv Parolees

If you thought today’s top story out of California was Governor Schwarzenegger’s endorsement of John McCain… well, you’d be right. But this is important, too: On Tuesday, US District Judge Lawrence Karlton of Sacramento ruled that the state must provide lawyers to juvenile offenders facing hearings for parole violations. Here’s the full story from the San Francisco Chronicle.

Charges Dismissed in Isaiah Simmons Case

Almost exactly one year ago, on January 23, 2007, Isaiah Simmons, a 17-year-old convicted of armed robbery, died at the Baltimore-area Bowling Brook Preparatory School, a privately run residential program for juvenile offenders. Following an outburst that day, Simmons was set upon by a group of counselors, who, according to the Baltimore Sun, “pinned him face down to the ground, restraining him for about three hours.” After Simmons lost consciousness, the guards waited forty-one minutes before calling 911.

It seemed like Simmons’s death had prompted some serious soul-searching on the part of the state’s juvenile justice officials. The school was shut down in March, the death was ruled a homicide–and even Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley got on board with a plan to revamp the system. But that taste of reform has, in recent weeks, gone sour. On January 11 O’Malley, in a turn as Big Brother, announced a $1 million allocation in the state’s 2009 budget for the purchase of GPS-equipped ankle bracelets to monitor, track and supervise 200 of the state’s most at-risk juvenile offenders. And yesterday, Carroll Court Circuit Judge Michael Galloway dismissed the last of the charges of reckless endangerment that had been filed against the  counselors in the Simmons case. (Just typing these lines makes my blood boil. Forty-one minutes! What were they doing all that time, and by what twist of legal logic is that not reckless endangerment?)

According to the AP, Bowling Brook administrator Brian Hayden said in a prepared statement, “With this dismissal, Judge Galloway affirms that these gentlemen had nothing but the utmost concern for the safety and welfare of Isaiah, and they reacted as quickly and effectively as possible in an effort to avoid this tragedy.” Simmons’s mother, Felicia Wilson, said she was “devastated and outraged” that charges against the counselors were dismissed. “I have no faith in the Carroll County justice system,” she said. “I’m not going to stop fighting for justice for my son.” Wilson has called for federal charges, and prosecutors plan to file an appeal.

NYU to Host JJ Panel

For all you New York-area readers: Next Friday, February 8, from 8:30 to 10 in the morning (breakfast at 8:00), the Wagner School at New York University will host a panel called “Transforming Juvenile Justice in New York State.”

Here’s the info:

Location: Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, New York University, The Rudin Family Forum for Civic Dialogue, The Puck Building, 2nd Fl., 295 Lafayette Street

On January 11, 2008, the New York State Office of Children & Family Services announced an ambitious plan to close six underutilized residential facilities across New York State as part of an ongoing restructuring to improve services to troubled children. There are approximately 2,000 children in New York State’s juvenile justice system, most between 12 and 18 years old, and a few are as young as 10. All were under the age of 16 when they committed an act that would have been a crime if committed by an adult. The planned closings are designed to enable OCFS to focus more on the developmental needs of low- level offenders and provide these youngsters and their families with services close to their communities. Another objective is a reduction in the state’s high rates of recidivism.

With:
- Gladys Carrión, Commissioner, New York State Office of Children and Family Services
- Mishi Faruqee, Director, Juvenile Justice Project, the Correctional Association of New York
- Ellen Schall, Dean and Martin Cherkasky Professor of Health Policy and Management, NYU Wagner
- Meredith Wiley, State Director, Fight Crime Invest in Kids

Moderated by Erica Gonzalez, Opinion Editor, El Diario

To RSVP, go to http://wagner.nyu.edu/events/nysocfs.php

Corrections Sentencing Re: Prison Shutdowns

Michael Connelly of the essential blog Corrections Sentencing writes in with a thoughtful comment on the economic impact of upstate New York prison shutdowns. It’s in the comments section on yesterday’s post re: Simple Justice, but I wanted to highlight it here because a) he makes an excellent point, b) it gives me a chance to plug his excellent blog, and c) it gives me a chance to encourage other readers to make your own excellent points in the woefully underused comments section. (Lisa Kenney, please don’t think I haven’t noticed your thoughtful questions and comments; your plug is coming shortly!)

Here’s Connelly’s comment:

It’s important to keep in mind the studies that question the economic gain that these communities receive. The people who hold the “high dollar” jobs are associated with the prisons as a rule don’t tend to live in the town since it’s a, you know, prison town. They live in the closest bigger community with enough amenities on which to spend their “high dollar” incomes. And the benefits of the spending of the “low dollar” employees frequently are offset by the new drains on the community for services caused by offender families moving to the town. It’s not that the communities won’t suffer some hardship if the prisons close, but that hardship rarely has equaled what we would have expected from the economic benefits predicted when the prisons were sited there.

Another reason to highlight this comment: d) This is an important conversation, one I think we should be having as the long-sought shutdowns actually come to pass. As more and more people (mainstream media types, ‘tough on crime’ politicians, everyday folks) wake up to the reality that the prison-industrial complex is downsizing, or should downsize, it will be important to understand the impact (or lack thereof) in order to refute the myths and assumptions that will color the public discussion: namely, fears that shrinking the prison economy will come with dire consequences, threatening public safety and sucking jobs from otherwise depressed towns.

My response to the article in Sunday’s New York Times, the article that got this conversation going, wasn’t to accept the meme that the consequences will be severe. Rather, I think it’s important for reform advocates to acknowledge that there is a human cost rather than to dismiss it outright; granting credence to the other side of the debate before staking a strong claim for reform makes for a more persuasive argument, I think. Rhetorically, my response goes something like this: “Yes, there is a cost, but…” Connelly’s comment eloquently finishes that thought.

New OJJDP Fact Sheets

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention has published three new fact sheets:

• Delinquency Cases in Juvenile Courts, 2004

Summary: The number of delinquency cases handled by juvenile courts decreased 7 percent between 1995 and 2004. During this period, public order offense cases increased 41 percent, drug law violation cases increased 19 percent, person offenses increased 2 percent, and property offense cases decreased 33 percent.

• Petitioned Status Offense Cases in Juvenile Courts, 2004

Summary: Between 1995 and 2004, the number of petitioned status offense cases handled by U.S. courts with juvenile jurisdiction increased 39 percent. Truancy cases increased 69 percent, curfew violation cases increased 38 percent, liquor law violation cases increased 17 percent, while the number of petitioned runaway cases remained relatively stable between 1995 and 2004.

• Drug Offense Cases in Juvenile Courts, 1985–2004

Summary: In 2004, U.S. juvenile courts handled an estimated 193,700 delinquency cases in which a drug offense was the most serious charge. Between 1991 and 2004, the number of cases involving drug offenses that juvenile courts handled more than doubled [emphasis mine]. Drug offense cases accounted for 12 percent of all delinquency cases in 2004, compared with 7 percent in 1985.

JLC Files Amicus Brief on LWOP Case

The Juvenile Law Center has filed an amicus brief in Massachusetts in support of Patrick Powell, a 16-year-old charged with murder, who is facing a mandatory, unreviewable sentence of life without parole.

Powell and two other boys allegedly stabbed 21-year-old victim Daniel Columbo to death on January 6, 2006. As JLC notes in a brief prefatory note, “In Massachusetts, the juvenile court statutorily lacks jurisdiction over indictments charging murder when the accused is fourteen years of age or older. This jurisdictional requirement places Powell in the adult criminal system, thereby subjecting him to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, the harshest penalty available in Massachusetts, if convicted.”

On January 16, Powell’s lawyer argued that the LWOP sentence would constitute cruel and unusual punishment, claiming that Powell’s “cognitive immaturity” makes him less responsible than adult offenders committing the same crime. According to the local Milford Daily News, attorney John G. Swomley “called his pretrial motion a ‘brand new’ kind of legal argument based on new neuroscientific research, asking Judge Kathe Tuttman to hear expert testimony during an upcoming hearing on evidence.”

The Juvenile Law Center has added its voice, too, filing this friend-of-the-court brief. The summary of argument reads:

In forbidding the execution of offenders under the age of eighteen, the United States Supreme Court in Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S. 551 (2005) held that it was a violation of the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment to sentence a juvenile as one would an adult. The Court struck the juvenile death penalty because juveniles do not have the same judgment, understanding, maturation and abilities as adults. These developmental characteristics of young offenders likewise support Patrick Powell’s challenge here to a mandatory, unreviewable sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. As the Kentucky Court of Appeals explained in finding a juvenile sentence of life without parole unconstitutional, “We believe that incorrigibility is inconsistent with youth; that it is impossible to make a judgment that a fourteen-year-old youth, no matter how bad, will remain incorrigible for the rest of his life.” Workman v. Commonwealth, 429 S.W.2d 374, 378 (Ky. Ct. App. 1968).

In addition, a juvenile sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole (“LWOP”) violates the Massachusetts Constitution’s prohibition against cruel punishment. Massachusetts has a long and proud tradition of according juveniles greater protections than adults. The current sentencing scheme, however, prohibits the court from considering any mitigating factors for youth, including age, as it does for adults. This bar on considering any mitigating or individualizing factors contravenes Simmons as well as the due process clause of the United States and Massachusetts Constitutions. Finally, binding international law, and the law and practice of other nations provide overwhelming evidence of worldwide consensus against LWOP sentences for youth.

Simple Justice on Prison Shutdowns

Scott Greenfield at Simple Justice, responding to a post by Jamie Spencer at Austin Criminal Defense Lawyer, takes another look at the New York Times article regarding the proposed shutdown of prisons in upstate New York. (Jeez, the blogosphere gets tangled quickly, doesn’t it?) Greenfield’s take is snarkier than mine, and more charged up.

Prisons are a gold mine for depressed rural areas, he explains, and “for anyone who doesn’t live in a depressed, rural area with a brand-spanking new prison, they are a dirty little secret of the redistribution of wealth from your pocket to the pockets of the people who live in those depressed, rural areas. This might best be called ‘Republican Welfare,’ though the Democrats are not above it either.”

More:

It’s a huge economic misfortune for these prison-dependent towns that people just aren’t committing enough crimes to keep the prisons full and the towns afloat. Darn criminals. You can’t even count on them for economic prosperity….

It’s not that people have stopped supporting the ever-increasing length of incarceration as the magic bullet that will safeguard our children and stop crime forever. Indeed, even as crime continues to drop dramatically, the media and politicians continue to play on our fears to keep us interested and believing that the threat is real and omnipresent.

Now I wouldn’t go so far as to say that the demands for ever-higher prison sentences and creating crimes that never before existed is entirely a scam on the public.  At the very least, so many people support this approach that our tough and tougher on crime politicians feed off this tact for years.  But just so you aren’t mislead into thinking that the funding spent on prisons is primarily intended for the good of society, don’t forget that there are depressed, rural areas across America who appreciate your support.

It will be interesting to see how they argue for the need to keep these empty prisons open and well-guarded until they are needed again.  After all, who knows how long it will be before driving with tinted windows will command a state prison sentence.  And once it is, we’re going to need prisons to house those dastardly criminals.

Study Links Depression and Risk Behaviors in Detained Youth

The Bradley Hasbro Children’s Research Center has released a new study, published in the January issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, which found that, according to Science Daily’s summary news report, “kids who have been arrested and are depressed are more likely to use drugs and alcohol and engage in unsafe sexual activity that puts them at greater risk for HIV.” The authors recommend including depression screenings as part of the juvenile intake process to determine mental health and gauge the risk of substance abuse and contracting HIV.

“We know that symptoms of depression may be a factor that is linked to both drug and alcohol use and sexual risk-taking behaviors,” said lead author Marina Tolou-Shams. “However, juvenile offenders aren’t routinely screened for emotional difficulties, such as depression or anxiety–rather, everyone tends to focus more on their conduct or behavioral problems.” Understanding more about the links between depression and risky behaviors can help create protocols for appropriate screening, Tolou-Shams said.

Deposing King

As some Juvienation readers may know, those in DC in particular, Washington Post columnist Colbert King has been on a bizarrely impassioned tear in recent months, attacking the DC Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services and its head, Vincent Schiraldi, a nationally renowned expert on juvenile justice reform who founded the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice and was until recently the head of the Justice Policy Institute. (You can read King’s backlog here, and read up on Schiraldi’s impressive bio here.)

On Saturday, Liz Ryan, head of the DC-based Campaign for Youth Justice, fired back. Here is her supercharged salvo, which ran as a letter to the editor:

Colbert I. King’s zeal on behalf of the District’s children is admirable, but his myopic focus on a few tragic happenings at the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services (DYRS) is not the most effective way to assist reform efforts.

The agency’s staff has spent the past three years trying to rebuild a department plagued for years by scandals even more piercing than those highlighted in King’s recent columns. The DYRS has sought to work with other justice system stakeholders in implementing the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative and has been successful in reducing the number of juveniles detained for serious crimes by one-third. Juvenile arrest rates have also declined by 15 percent, and of the more than 2,000 youths diverted in the first two years of the initiative, 92 percent have complied with program guidelines and have not been rearrested.

What is needed now is patience. Reforming a large, troubled agency takes more than good intentions; it takes time. Colbert King can continue to criticize the DYRS for its efforts and ignore the positive changes that have taken place, or he can use his investigative skills and passion constructively by providing meaningful suggestions to help the agency move forward.

– Liz Ryan

Washington

The writer is president and chief executive of the Campaign for Youth Justice.

Northern Irish Prison Guards Threaten Strike

It’s always a good idea to track how other juvenile prison systems roughly similar to ours handle adversity; we can learn something, I think, from the similarities and differences, and the distance affords a fresh perspective on the way our own system runs. To wit: immediately after three correctional officers were injured yesterday at a juvenile prison in Northern Ireland–one was stabbed in the eye with a pen and may have suffered a broken arm–the head of the prison officers’ association blamed “inadequate staffing levels.” A day later, he’s demanding an urgent meeting with the Justice Minister and threatening a strike unless guards are given representation rights.