Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 22, 1995 TAG: 9511220070
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Long
A report by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, presented to lawmakers Tuesday, could become an obstacle for Gov. George Allen and his Commission on Juvenile Justice Reform, which wants to toughen the state's approach to juvenile crime.
While the report uncovered some significant problems - including an apparent sentencing bias that puts a disproportionate number of black youths in juvenile jails - it also contradicted some of the recently cited criticisms made by advocates of reform.
The 17-week study indicates that "there does not appear to be a need for sweeping changes in the intent of the state's juvenile code," JLARC director Philip Leone said.
Allen's commission, which has been meeting since last spring, is expected to ask the General Assembly next month to make adult trials mandatory for juveniles 14 and older charged with violent offenses, and to stiffen penalties for other young offenders.
The commission, headed by Attorney General Jim Gilmore, has cited a 26 percent increase in juvenile crime since 1980, and warns that an increasing juvenile population will only make things worse by the turn of the century.
But many of the commission's recommendations deal with violent offenders, which account for only 3 percent of all juvenile arrests, according to the JLARC report.
Instead of concentrating on locking up the worst offenders, the 192-page JLARC report recommended expanded treatment programs throughout the state to catch minor offenders before their crimes become violent.
"It is not suggested that treatment will ever be a panacea for addressing the juvenile delinquency problem, but it is a component that needs more attention," Leone said.
The report found that juvenile court judges often are hampered by a lack of treatment options when they sentence youths.
Members of a Commission on Youth task force, which has been focusing on prevention and treatment efforts since it was appointed by the General Assembly to study juvenile crime, hailed the report as a validation of their work.
"I believe that it confirms the work that we have been doing this year," said Del. Jerrauld Jones, D-Norfolk, chairman of the commission. The commission sometimes has been at odds with the Gilmore panel, and earlier this year released a poll indicating that most Virginians favor rehabilitation over punishment in dealing with juvenile crime.
The JLARC study, which examined the files of nearly 3,000 cases from 1992 and followed them over a three-year period, made the following findings:
In 1992, counseling, residential and nonresidential treatment services were provided to fewer than two of every 10 juveniles charged with delinquency. The lack of treatment options means that judges often are forced to rely on such traditional sanctions as probation, even when they are dealing with a repeat offender who has not responded well to similar efforts.
About 52 percent of youths charged with crimes returned to the court system. Yet 87 percent of all juveniles who enter the system charged with a nonviolent offense do not later commit a violent felony.
Contrary to some beliefs, juvenile intake officers do not divert a large number of arrests away from the court system. About seven of every 10 young lawbreakers - and nearly half of all the status offenders - are required to appear in court to answer their charges. A "status offense" is one that wouldn't be illegal if committed by an adult - a curfew violation, for example, or drinking.
Nearly 30 percent of the juveniles confined in state correctional centers could be served in community treatment programs, but the costs of such efforts are "beyond the capacity of current state funding."
Despite criticism from some that juvenile judges are too lenient, only 10 percent of the juvenile court cases examined by the study were taken under advisement. Eighty-eight percent of the cases were formally adjudicated, but only 9 percent of those resulted in house arrest or secure confinement. For violent offenders, the confinement rate jumped to 29 percent.
Punishments by judges are not always increased for juveniles who return to the system on new charges. Forty-four percent of the youths who came to court charged with committing a more serious crime received the same sentence or a lighter one.
Del. Clinton Miller, R-Woodstock, said the report reinforced his belief that prevention is the best answer for juvenile crime.
"It's so easy to get up and keep talking about punishment, punishment, punishment," he said. "We need to be looking at preventing the disease rather than treating the disease."
But Patricia West, head of the Department of Youth and Family Services, said that one "glaring omission" in the report was that it did not address the shortage of detention space for youths awaiting trial or those convicted of serious offenses.
"Almost daily, I hear reports of cases where a judge wished to detain a juvenile [awaiting trial], but was unable to do so because of an already overcrowded detention home or lack of access altogether," said West, a member of the Gilmore commission.
"The system simply cannot function efficiently and effectively while missing such an important element."
by CNB