Watch: Juvenile Court Process
This week we’re going to focus on the juvenile court process. The juvenile court in this jurisdiction. June record is an independent juvenile court and a specialized court for children. It preimage rehabilitation and ensures procedural due process acts both in the best interests of the child and in the best interests of public protection. Let’s give you a little bit of perspective. Court cashflow refers to approximately 1 to 36 million delinquent cases are referred to juvenile court each year. Gender and race differences exist. 70 percent involve males, 19 percent involve females, and 33 percent involved American African American youth. So what are some of the actors in the juvenile court room? One is the defense attorney. Juveniles have a right to counsel. At state trial, courts must provide counsel to indigent youth who face the possibility of incarceration. And their role is to help clarify the jurisdictional problems, decide if there’s sufficient evidence to file a formal petitions, outline their position, explore and formal adjustment opportunities, and they play a critical role in disposition and pursue appeals if needed, to other actors in the courtroom, and they’re not always going to be there, but you have the guardian ad litem, which is seen in abuse, neglect, and dependency cases, and they are pointed in delinquency cases if there is a need for treatment, and then the court appointed special advocate. These are volunteers who advise the court about child placement. Not all jurisdictions have these AND and not all trials have these actors. The another actor would be the public defender, which is very similar to the defense attorney. Defense attorney is usually one that you pay for the family. The juvenile or juveniles family pays for the public defender is the one that’s usually assigned the case. If they’re indigent. And public defender services, if children are three ways to ensure a public defense through the poet defender program appointed private counsel system, which would be your defense attorney or a combination of the two. Then you have the prosecutor who’s responsible for bringing the state’s case against the accused juvenile, and it has the power to initiate or discontinue a delinquency or status offense cases. And then the last actors, the juvenile court judge, they are the central character in the juvenile court. They exercise considerable leadership and developing juvenile justice system solutions. And they must ensure that the necessary community resources are available. So what is now that you’ve got the actors in the court? What is the steps from beginning to end? So starting off is going to be released or detain after a after Kirsty and formal petition, the decision must be made to either release or detain. Detention involves placing a juvenile and temporary care of the state in a physically restrictive setting. The tension is limited to juveniles who require secure Kirsty for protection of their cell for the others. And it’s just a dependent neglect and abuse use are often housed with status offenders and delinquents in detention. Current efforts to seek to remove status offenders from unsecured attention are being investigated. And here’s some perspective for a New Jersey study found that 1 fourth of detainees were in appropriately detained. So the intake process, so they’re going to screen of the case by the juvenile court system. They are going to determine whether to juvenile court services are needed. And some of the common actions are sending youth home with no further action, diverting the youth to a social agency or petitioning to use to juvenile court or detaining the youth allows for use of consent decrees without formal adjudication. There are problems with intake. They lack consistency regarding the formal criteria for processing. There’s some serious legal issues whether the child has a right to cancel, whether the child is protective against self incrimination, and then to what degree the child needs to consent to non-judicial dispositions. Intake dispositions are often determined by the prior record rather than the seriousness of the crime or social background of the Chow. And race has shown to have an influence and these intent and take decisions. So diversion, diversion is a process of placing use in treatment programs prior to the formal processing to avoid the stigma and labeling. Choosing use to divert. Diversion programs are usually status offenders, drug or alcohol dependent yeas, first-time non-violent offenders. Critics argue that it’s widening the net and they do truly ineffective. So this point, the juvenile has not been formally cited into court yet. They’re trying to make diversion is trying to get them from being. Sent to a formal court hearing. Now, the petition the petition is a formal complaint than initiate judicial action, I guess a juvenile charged with delinquency or status fans, if a child does not admit to any of the facts and the petition than a dataset for a hearing. And it predisposition report will be prepared by the probation department. So once they’ve determined whether or not it’s going to stay in juvenile court or go to adult court, say it’s going to stay in juvenile court, then you’re going to go to the juvenile court trial, which is called the adjudication hearing. And standard of proof is beyond a reasonable doubt. And beyond a reasonable doubt is like 95 percent. I mean, they gotta have a good solid evidence base. State Juvenile codes vary with regard to the basic requirements of due process. Three possible resolutions to one of these hearings as finding the juvenile is not delinquent and is not in need of supervision, finding that a juvenile is delinquent and in need of supervision, or there’s not enough case and the case is dismissed. So then you have disposition, which is the sentencing phase of the juvenile court. So once they’ve been found, guilty, decisions will be based on the best answer that Chao, a predisposition report is usually done in critical stage. I usually done by the probation department and helps the judge decide which disposition is best At age to juvenile probation officer and developing suitable treatment programs. And it helps the court develop a body of knowledge about the child that can aid others in treating this child. And the courts have very wide discretion at this stage, which is the sentencing stage. A graduate is sanction program, which would be enemy sanctions. Intermediate sanctions are secure care. So the juvenile sentencing structure, the disposition is based on the needs of the child, and it’s going to be the least detrimental alternative. Indeterminate sentencing is usually traditional. Then you have a determinant sentence, maybe, and then mandatory sentences. And that’s generally fuss serious juvenile offenders. So you can see that this is the structure. They’re going to go from least to worst. So in the worst-case scenario is the death penalty. The good news is that Roper versus Simmons in 2005 found it unconstitutional for juveniles under the age of 18 to be sentenced to death at found to be a violation of the Eighth Amendment. And there’s some past cases that address this issue. If you’d like to read about I’m Thomas versus Oklahoma, Wilkins versus Missouri and stand reverses Kentucky. So with that in mind, let’s turn our attention to a biblical perspective for this way. Romans 13 want let everyone be subject to the governing authorities for there is no authority except that which God has established. So we are taught how to conduct ourselves toward those that are in authority, iris. And we’re to set an example for others to follow whether we agree with them or not. So I want you to take that in consideration as you’re reading about the juvenile court process for this week.