THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 25, 1996 TAG: 9610250527
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM HOLDEN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 65 lines
Six months after Virginia enacted sweeping new standards for handling young violent offenders, a forum this week tapped the public's questions and concerns about the reforms.
Before an audience of lawyers, parents and teen-agers Wednesday evening, a five-person panel outlined the laws that now treat youthful offenders as adults when they are accused of violent crimes.
The new legislation also expands the overall intent of juvenile laws by allowing the courts to consider the rights of victims and the safety of the community as elements in a defendant's court case.
Anyone 14 or older who is accused of murder or aggravated malicious wounding is now tried and sentenced as an adult.
Juveniles 14 and older accused of rape, armed robbery, carjacking and other violent crimes can be tried as adults at the local prosecutor's request.
The laws, which went into effect July 1, also give judges more sentencing options, including boot camps, and expand rehabilitation programs with $22 million in funding throughout the commonwealth.
The purpose of Wednesday's meeting, held at the Holiday Inn Executive Center on Greenwich Road, was to give people an opportunity to question the legislators who helped draft the legislation.
The panel consisted of:
Robert E. Shepherd Jr., professor of law at the University of Richmond's T.C. Williams School of Law.
Del. Jerrauld C. Jones of Norfolk.
Sen. Kenneth W. Stolle of Virginia Beach.
Patricia L. West, director of the Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice.
Judge Alotha C. Willis of the Portsmouth Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court.
Jones, a Democrat, and Stolle, a Republican, played key roles in drafting the legislation, each having served on separate committees that studied juvenile justice last year. Both generally steered clear Wednesday of confronting each other on differences they have about the law.
Jones said provisions in the law that allow the public and the media access to previously secret juvenile court information may require some changes because the law does not allow the public to adequately track a case through the juvenile courts.
One audience member asked about the possibility of setting up a kind of peer court for juveniles - a group of youths who would sit in judgment of other teenagers accused of misdemeanors.
Shepherd said the idea has surfaced in other states and would require new legislation in Virginia if the community wanted it. Willis said she was intrigued by the idea, but all on the panel agreed that no such peer court could sit in judgment of a serious case.
A young boy in the audience asked whether parents should be held accountable for their children's misdeeds. Willis said parents are supposed to guide and nurture their children and that may not be possible if one of them is held accountable for the actions of one child.
In addition, she expressed frustration at the tendency of many people to assume the courts can solve complex, social problems. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
ON THE AIR
The forum on juvenile justice reform was videotaped by Cox
Cable's community affairs channel and is expected to be broadcast at
9 p.m. Nov. 1. by CNB