News Summary March 18 –––April–April 1, 2011

Models for Change Mentioned

U Mass Med Now (University of Massachusetts Medical School) ‘In search of . . . brain function, Gina M. Vincent, PhD’ – March 29, 2011 http://www.umassmed.edu/news/daily_voice/2011/gina_vincent.aspx

Each Tuesday, the Daily Voice features a first-person narrative from a researcher explaining the science behind a recent grant, and the inspiration or impetus behind becoming a scientist at UMass Medical School…For the last four years, I have been working with Tom Grisso and our team at UMMS on the National Youth Screening and Assessment Project (NYSAP), which is funded by the MacArthur Foundation. We conduct research on juvenile mental health issues and the risk for re-offending, as well as work with juvenile justice agencies to help them integrate this science—mostly through valid screening and assessment tools—into their practices to promote better outcomes for youth. My research on the adolescent brain and addiction is simply another way in which I hope to inform practice in the juvenile justice system.

Pennsylvania Summary

The Daily American (Somerset) ‘County anticipates juvenile system reform’ – March 18, 2011 http://www.dailyamerican.com/da-ot-county-anticipates-juvenile-system-reform- 20110318,0,7682733.story

A new probation department position was created earlier this week in anticipation of juvenile justice system reform. “We need someone in the supervisory position to monitor anticipated new rules and regulations,” President Judge John M. Cascio said…

The Philadelphia Inquirer ‘Accused of stabbing great-grandmother, 8-year-old Montco boy gets mental-health evaluation’ – March 22, 2011 http://articles.philly.com/2011-03-22/news/29174827_1_montco-boy-stab-wound-mental-health- evaluation

An 8-year-old boy accused of stabbing his great-grandmother three times in the back Sunday night was being held for a mental-health evaluation, Cheltenham Township police said Monday…

The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre) ‘Victims of juvie crime can seek payments’ – March 23, 2011 http://www.timesleader.com/news/Victims_of_juvie_crime_can_seek_payments_03-23-2011.html

The Luzerne County District Attorney’s Office has begun accepting applications for a special fund set up to compensate victims of juveniles whose criminal convictions were vacated in response to the juvenile justice scandal…

1 News Summary March 18 –––April–April 1, 2011

Reading Eagle ‘Holly Herman: Abraxas staff copes with kids whose goal is prison’ – March 24, 2011 http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=296765

At the end of the long, winding, uphill road sits Abraxas Academy, a facility housing juvenile offenders for the most serious crimes - attempted murder, rape and assaults. A recent tour of the New Morgan facility was enlightening, providing a new perspective on a problem most people don't think about…

The York Daily Record ‘Teen accused of shooting law student wants to appeal ruling to try him as an adult’ – March 24, 2011 http://www.ydr.com/crime/ci_17693198

The York teen accused in the July 28 shooting death of University of Pittsburgh law student James Wallmuth III is asking for permission to appeal a York County judge's order that he be tried as an adult…

The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre) ‘Move begins to keep Skrep, others in kids suit’ – March 26, 2011 http://www.timesleader.com/news/Move_begins_to_keep_Skrep__others_in_kids_suit_03-26- 2011.html

Attorneys representing juveniles and parents suing ex-Judge Mark Ciavarella and others filed federal court papers Friday arguing a judge should not dismiss Luzerne County and various county officials – including former Commissioner Greg Skrepenak – from the suit…

Reading Eagle ‘Appeals court says juveniles convicted in killings must serve life’ – March 27, 2011 http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=297476

The Pennsylvania Superior Court has rejected appeals from convicts in Berks and Lancaster county homicide cases who claimed a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling was a basis for overturning their life sentences for crimes they committed as juveniles…

The Patriot-News (Harrisburg) ‘Op-Ed: Luzerne County judges' young victims are scarred’ – March 27, 2011 http://www.pennlive.com/editorials/index.ssf/2011/03/judges_young_victims_are_scarr.html

After something bad happens, we tell people to move on with their lives. While that might happen in the movies, in real life it isn’t always easy. Linda Bly should know. Her son Shane, was 13 when he went into an abandoned building with friends to look around with flashlights. The state police showed up and he soon found himself in front of Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella, charged with criminal trespass. Linda, whose son didn’t have an attorney, said she braced herself for a sentence of community service. She was ill-prepared, however, to hear Ciavarella send her son away to a juvenile detention facility called Camp Adam…

2 News Summary March 18 –––April–April 1, 2011

The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre) ‘California looks at Ciavarella outcome’ – March 28, 2011 http://www.timesleader.com/news/California-looks-at-Ciavarella-outcome.html

The federal corruption trial of former Judge Mark Ciavarella was at the center of attention of Luzerne County. The story made local headlines first. Then, the national press and news shows such as ABC’s “Good Morning America” and “20/20” and NBC’s “Today” aired stories. Now, the case is being read by California lawyers, after the California Bar Journal published an article about the trial in its March edition. The article is headlined “Could it happen here?” and is written by Janice M. Brickley, a legal advisor to commissioners at the California Commission on Judicial Performance…

The York Daily Record ‘Judge dismisses contempt motion in case of law student's shooting’ – March 28, 2011 http://www.ydr.com/ci_17720028

A motion for contempt filed against accused killer Jordan Wallick's attorney, Dawn Cutaia, by the York County Attorney's Office was dismissed Monday. Chief Deputy Prosecutor Karen Comery alleged Cutaia failed to disclose "relevant psychological testing information" about Wallick before the teen's juvenile decertification hearing…

The Johnstown Tribune-Democrat ‘Lawyer fights adult trial for teen charged in crash’ – March 30, 2011 http://tribune-democrat.com/local/x930484612/Lawyer-fights-adult-trial-for-teen-charged-in-crash

The Blair County public defender has filed a petition asking the court to transfer to juvenile court the case of a Cambria County teen charged as an adult in a fatal accident six months ago. Patrick Paul Sullivan Turous’ preliminary hearing, scheduled for Thursday, has been put on hold until a hearing on the petition can be held before a judge in Blair County Common Pleas Court…Blair County District Attorney Richard Consiglio approved a list of charges against Turous in February and agreed they should be filed in adult court…“He’s almost 18 and I don’t think he’s going to be amenable to any type of rehabilitation in the juvenile system,” Consiglio said. “I don’t see any basis for him to be decertified (as an adult).” Assistant Public Defender Kristen Anastasi also has asked a judge to order a mental evaluation for Turous, an action Consiglio said he will oppose…

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Philadelphia Weekly News ‘2 Pa. Bills Aim to Make Teens Think Twice Before Cyberbullying’ – March 30, 2011 http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/news-and-opinion/2-Pa-Bills-Aim-to-Make-Teens-Think-Twice- Before-Cyberbullying.html

By now, Tina Meier’s story is well-known: In 2006, the Missouri native’s 13-year-old daughter Megan hanged herself after being bullied on MySpace by a neighbor—the mother of one of the teen’s schoolmates and former friends—who created a fake profile to torment Megan. At the time, there was no specific law dealing with that kind of situation, so the mother ultimately escaped prosecution…Two Pennsylvania lawmakers—Rep. Seth Grove (R-York) and Sen. Stewart Greenleaf (R-Bucks/Montgomery)—have each introduced legislation in the past two months that would provide clearer guidelines for prosecutors by establishing sexting (and in the case of Greenleaf’s bill, nonsexual cyberbullying as well) by minors as a second-degree misdemeanor…

The Philadelphia Inquirer ‘A FLAWED SYSTEM OF INTERVENTION’ – March 31, 2011 http://www.philly.com/philly/news/special_packages/inquirer/school- violence/20110330_Sv2011Day5.html?viewAll=y

Rashaan Carr should have been in class at Martin Luther King High School. Instead, he ended up wading into a crowd of fourth and fifth graders in a bustling elementary school playground, swinging a silver-and-white Louisville Slugger aluminum baseball bat, witnesses said. Eleven younger boys were hurt…The attack last spring was held up as a senseless example of runaway school violence - "Psycho Attack," read one headline. But behind the melee is a more complicated, subtle, and elusive story, a yearlong Inquirer investigation has found. It is the story of how a school district in one of the poorest and most violent American cities struggles to help troubled students, and how the district's intervention efforts too often fail…

National Summary

Associated Press (AP) – Chicago Bureau (IL) ‘Ill. praised for juvenile justice changes’ – March 19, 2011 Posted on: http://www.wandtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=14283284

An organization that advocates keeping juveniles out of the adult court system is applauding Illinois for recent legislative changes. The Campaign for Youth Justice tracked state trends in juvenile justice from 2005 to 2010…

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The Free Lance-Star (VA) ‘Juvenile injustice’ – March 21, 2011 http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2011/032011/03212011/614030

UNTIL THIS YEAR, Virginia was making significant legislative strides in reforming its treatment of juvenile offenders. A state where nearly 700 juveniles--some as young as 14--are convicted as legal adults each year, Virginia was a national leader in routing more youthful offenders toward programs designed to change their ways and brighten their futures…

McClatchy Newspapers ‘Supreme Court to decide when a juvenile is in custody’ – March 22, 2011 http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/03/22/110883/supreme-court-to-decide-when-a.html

In September 2005, a 13-year-old boy was pulled out of his class at a Chapel Hill, N.C., middle school, escorted to another room and interrogated behind a closed door by a police detective and three other adults. The boy confessed to a neighborhood larceny. He never was read his so-called Miranda rights, which include the right to an attorney…

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ‘Children have rights, too’ – March 22, 2011 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11081/1133674-109.stm

In urging the U.S. Supreme Court to allow law enforcement and child protective services workers to conduct traumatic interrogations of children based on little more than a whim, the Post-Gazette asks the justices to "rule in favor of society" (Editorial, "Delicate Balance," March 17). But in the society in which I want my child to live, no 9-year-old girl ever would be badgered and browbeaten for two hours by a male CPS worker until she told him what he wanted to hear -- while an armed male sheriff's deputy looked on…

Youth Today (DC) ‘Supreme Court Considers Rules for Police Questioning of Youths in Schools’ – March 23, 2011 (Subscription Required) http://www.youthtoday.org/view_article.cfm?article_id=4698

The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments today on whether police officers should consider age as a factor in determining whether a person being questioned is ”in custody.” Suspects in custody must be given a Miranda warning concerning their rights…

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USA Today ‘Justices debate rights of juveniles’ – March 24, 2011 http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/judicial/2011-03-24-court24_ST_N.htm

How easy is it for police or judges to put themselves in the mind of a 13-year-old student whom an officer pulled from class and took to a closed room for questioning about stolen goods? In an important test of the constitutional rights of juveniles at the Supreme Court on Wednesday, the question was whether law enforcement officials would know if the youth felt free to leave the room or not respond to questions…

The Texas Tribune ‘Report: Hundreds of Youths in Adult Prisons’ – March 24, 2011 http://www.texastribune.org/texas-state-agencies/texas-youth-commission/report-hundreds-of- youths-in-adult-prisons/

Texas judges, particularly in Harris County, are sending hundreds of adolescent, first-time violent offenders to state prison, a punishment lawmakers intended for youths considered the worst of the worst, according to a report set for release today…Texas law allows judges to certify as adults youths between the ages of 14 and 17 who have committed felony offenses. Once certified, they are housed in county jails while they await trial and, if convicted, they are sent the Texas Department of Criminal Justice…

The Buffalo News (NY) ‘Editorial: Juvenile injustice’ – March 24, 2011 http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial-page/article374935.ece

When it comes to dealing with juvenile delinquents, not a lot of money is available for alternatives to detention and incarceration. As a result, New York spends more money than it should on locking up young people, instead of trying to help them rehabilitate their lives. The Citizens Committee for Children is working on a juvenile justice reform campaign, an effort worth the attention of the governor and the Legislature…

The Oregonian ‘Proposed cuts to Oregon juvenile justice would eliminate hundreds of beds’ – March 25, 2011 http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/03/proposed_cuts_to_oregon_juveni.html

Oregon's youth offenders would get less help and less hope of escaping future trouble under reductions facing state and county operations. The system is intended to keep the 15,600 kids a year referred to juvenile departments from ever seeing the inside of an adult prison. But Gov. John Kitzhaber proposes to take millions of dollars from youth programs to keep the adult prisons running…

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Jacksonville Daily News (NC) ‘Bill aims to up the prosecution age for juveniles’ – March 27, 2011 http://www.enctoday.com/news/breath-72613-kfpress-strength-one.html

Surviving on the strength of a last-gasp adrenaline rush, Tyrone Collins took a breath for one final farewell to his family. A bullet had penetrated his heart. “I am not going to make it,” the 21-year-old said to his little sister and mother. With a painful gasp, he added, “I love ya’ll.” “I love you too,” Lisa Adams said to her first-born and only son. Those parting words at the back door of Adams’ Richard Green apartment six months ago have left her angered and confused. She wants the age-old law of retribution — a life for a life….Adams’ desired sentence will not happen…After six years of discussion, the state legislature is zeroing in on a proposal that would shift some teen offenders out of adult into juvenile court. While the sentiments of court officials suggest it is the right thing to do, financial obstacles remain to its easy implementation…

The New York Times ‘States Struggle With Minors’ Sexting’ – March 27, 2011 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/27/us/27sextinglaw.html

Some states have amended their statutes on child pornography, obscenity or Internet crimes. Many allow juvenile offenders to be charged with a misdemeanor or a lesser offense, so they can qualify for diversion programs and have their records expunged…

WRC-TV (Washington, DC) ‘New Legislation Marks S. Capitol St. Shootings Anniversary’ – March 31, 2011 http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/S-Capitol-St-Shootings-Anniversary-Marked-With-New- Legislation-118942284.html

Friends and family of the victims of last year's South Capitol Street multiple shooting gathered at the John A. Wilson Building on the anniversary of the shooting for the announcement of a youth mental health and juvenile justice initiative…The legislation would mandate behavioral health screening for students from Head Start through high school and provide mediators to help parents find mental health care for juveniles who need it. The legislation also would implement earlier truancy intervention and penalties for parents of truants…

7 News Summary March 18 –––April–April 1, 2011

Top Stories – Models for Change Mentioned

In search of . . . brain function, Gina M. Vincent, PhD U Mass Med Now (University of Massachusetts Medical School) March 29, 2011 http://www.umassmed.edu/news/daily_voice/2011/gina_vincent.aspx

Each Tuesday, the Daily Voice features a first-person narrative from a researcher explaining the science behind a recent grant, and the inspiration or impetus behind becoming a scientist at UMass Medical School. If you know of a researcher you’d like to see profiled, send an e-mail to [email protected].

Gina M. Vincent, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry, explains her grant Neuroimaging Youth with Callous-Unemotional CD & Comorbid Substance Abuse, National Institute on Drug Abuse, one year, $175,733; recommended for four additional years, $719,198.

This project is a training grant that will teach me how to conduct neuroimaging research that examines brain function, particularly as it relates to substance abuse. For the research component of the grant, I am examining how the brains of youth with callous-unemotional conduct disorder (CU-CD), who have histories of cocaine abuse, may differ in their responses to drug cravings than those of youth without this disorder who also abuse cocaine. CU-CD might be seen as the early signs or roots of adult psychopathic personality disorder.

CU-CD youth, along with psychopathic adults, are some of the heaviest and most chronic drug abusers. The goal of our work is to determine whether more effective substance abuse treatments can be designed. During the next five years, I will be observing and talking with clinicians in order to understand current best practices in substance abuse treatment. Once my research is completed, we will develop a practical way to modify treatment to work for these harder-to-treat individuals.

I was always curious about why some people seem to be able to live their lives without experiencing guilt or compassion for others. These individuals often do bad things and cause considerable destruction. Also, there are many adolescents who do bad things and get in trouble with the law; however, this is often normative behavior and not an indicator that they will grow up to be antisocial or callous people. These observations are why I became interested in forensic psychology and studying human behavior.

UMass Medical School has one of the best law and psychiatry training programs in the country and some of the best researchers and clinicians in forensic psychology. I accepted a position as a junior faculty here immediately after graduating so that I could work with Dr. Thomas Grisso [professor of psychiatry] on research pertaining to adolescents who get in trouble with the law and juvenile justice.

I get most excited about opportunities to help translate science into practice. For the last four years, I have been working with Tom Grisso and our team at UMMS on the National Youth 8 News Summary March 18 –––April–April 1, 2011

Screening and Assessment Project (NYSAP), which is funded by the MacArthur Foundation. We conduct research on juvenile mental health issues and the risk for re-offending, as well as work with juvenile justice agencies to help them integrate this science—mostly through valid screening and assessment tools—into their practices to promote better outcomes for youth. My research on the adolescent brain and addiction is simply another way in which I hope to inform practice in the juvenile justice system.

Top Stories - Pennsylvania

County anticipates juvenile system reform The Daily American (Somerset) By Judy D.J. Ellich March 18, 2011 http://www.dailyamerican.com/da-ot-county-anticipates-juvenile-system-reform- 20110318,0,7682733.story

SOMERSET - A new probation department position was created earlier this week in anticipation of juvenile justice system reform.

“We need someone in the supervisory position to monitor anticipated new rules and regulations,” President Judge John M. Cascio said.

Kimberly A. McLaughlin was promoted from her position of deputy chief for adult probation to deputy chief for adult and juvenile probation. Six probation supervisors were given more responsibilities to take up the slack.

The deputy chief for juvenile probation position was vacated unexpectedly. The commissioners decided to roll that position into the one McLaughlin held. Somerset County officials chose to handle the vacancy this way to save money and to make sure someone was available to consider new rules and regulations stemming from the Luzerne County juvenile justice scandal.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court is slated to reveal the changes later this year.

“We don’t know what the final disposition will be as far as the specifics,” Cascio said.

The changes stem from recommendations of the Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice. The commission was created in August 2009 by the courts, in conjunction with the executive and legislative branches, in response to the Luzerne County case, according to Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille in a written statement.

Authorities said two Luzerne County Common Pleas Court judges ordered juveniles to be sent to facilities in which the judges had a financial interest even when juvenile probation officers did not recommend detention.

On Jan. 26, 2009, the judges were charged by the U.S. attorney general’s office with fraud and tax 9 News Summary March 18 –––April–April 1, 2011 charges connected with receiving $2.6 million in payoffs from the builder and owner of two juvenile detention centers.

President Judge Mark A. Ciavarella, 58, the long-time judge of juvenile court, and former President Judge Michael T. Conahan, 56, both pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiring to impede the Internal Revenue Service in the collection of federal income taxes and with having devised a scheme to conceal more than $2.6 million in receipts between January 2003 and April 2007. Both men were sentenced to serve 87 months in federal prison and agreed to resign their positions as judges and consent to automatic disbarment from the practice of law.

“Because of what happened in Luzerne County, we do not know how far reaching it will be in our office,” said Vicki Saylor, chief probation officer. “We are going to wait and see.”

Accused of stabbing great-grandmother, 8-year-old Montco boy gets mental- health evaluation The Philadelphia Inquirer By Bonnie L. Cook March 22, 2011 http://articles.philly.com/2011-03-22/news/29174827_1_montco-boy-stab-wound-mental-health- evaluation

An 8-year-old boy accused of stabbing his great-grandmother three times in the back Sunday night was being held for a mental-health evaluation, Cheltenham Township police said Monday.

Police said that the boy, who was not identified and may be suffering from a mental illness, attacked his older relative with a knife before 9:30 p.m. Sunday. The attack was not provoked, and no argument preceded it, police said.

Lt. John Frye, head of the Cheltenham Police Detective Division, said in a prepared statement that officers were called to meet Philadelphia police at Jeanes Hospital about a woman who had been stabbed in the back.

Frye said investigators determined the stabbing took place in a residence in the 7400 block of Fourth Avenue in Cheltenham, where the boy lives with his mother and great-grandmother.

The victim, who is 54, required two staples to close one stab wound; the other wounds were superficial, Frye said.

"The attack was unprovoked, and the male is being treated for some type of mental illness," Frye wrote in an e-mail. "It's very early in the investigation, so that is all we have right now."

The boy was referred to a facility in Montgomery County for a mental-health evaluation, Frye said. Juvenile unit officers and detectives are investigating.

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Victims of juvie crime can seek payments $500,000 in fund for victims of juveniles whose convictions were vacated due to scandal. The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre) By Terrie Morgan-Besecker March 23, 2011 http://www.timesleader.com/news/Victims_of_juvie_crime_can_seek_payments_03-23-2011.html

WILKES-BARRE – The Luzerne County District Attorney’s Office has begun accepting applications for a special fund set up to compensate victims of juveniles whose criminal convictions were vacated in response to the juvenile justice scandal.

Senior Berks County Judge Arthur Grim and Luzerne County District Attorney Jacqueline Musto Carroll provided details of the application process at a press conference Tuesday.

The $500,000 fund was established last year by the state Legislature to compensate juvenile crime victims who were denied full restitution in light of the October 2009 state Supreme Court decision that vacated the convictions of thousands of juveniles who appeared before former Judge Mark Ciavarella.

Grim, the special master appointed to review Ciavarella’s cases, determined the restitution orders in those cases could not be enforced because the convictions no longer existed.

He and Musto Carroll commended state legislators, including state Sen. Lisa Baker, R-Lehman Township, and former state Rep. John Yudichak, D-Plymouth Township, now a state senator, for their efforts to establish the fund.

“Throughout this process we were always thinking about the people we call the ‘original victims,’ ” Musto Carroll said. “We were worried about what we could do to make them whole. We are so pleased their needs are being addressed.”

The fund will reimburse victims for any expenses that have not already been paid by the juvenile offender, an insurance carrier or some other crime victim compensation fund.

The District Attorney’s Office, in conjunction with the Juvenile Probation Department, has identified 180 victims who have restitution orders totaling $462,080.

Musto Carroll noted it’s unlikely the entire amount will be paid out, however, as many victims were already paid for their losses.

Also, individual payments will be capped at $1,500, the maximum allowed under the juvenile act, unless there was more than one juvenile involved in the crime.

To qualify for restitution, victims must fill out a form and return it to the District Attorney’s Office by April 30. Payments will be made by June 30.

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Letters were sent out to the 180 known victims on March 9. Musto Carroll said she believes there may be additional people who may be entitled to restitution who have not yet been identified.

She encouraged anyone who believes they are entitled to restitution to fill out the form.

Applicants must provide information on their case and sign the document under oath, attesting that the information they are providing is accurate. Each case will then be reviewed by officials with juvenile probation and the district attorney’s office to ensure the claims are valid.

Holly Herman: Abraxas staff copes with kids whose goal is prison Reading Eagle By Holly Herman March 24, 2011 http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=296765

At the end of the long, winding, uphill road sits Abraxas Academy, a facility housing juvenile offenders for the most serious crimes - attempted murder, rape and assaults.

A recent tour of the New Morgan facility was enlightening, providing a new perspective on a problem most people don't think about.

What do you do with kids striving to be just like their parents who spend their lives in and out of prisons?

Abraxas Academy offers children the tools to lead productive lives.

The kids are on strict schedules that include school and sports.

But some apparently do not want this.

Lost kids.

They are heartbreaking for staffers who work hard to try to change the troubled youngsters' behavior.

One former staffer, Jason Eisenhower, thought he was getting through to a kid.

Then out of the blue the resident punched him in the face, Eisenhower said.

This kid is one of five arrested in a Nov. 16 riot. His case is pending in Berks County Court.

About a dozen staffers suffered broken noses or cuts in riots Nov. 16 and June 2. Nine kids were arrested.

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Staffers are not allowed to restrain a resident with handcuffs or mechanical devices.

They are not even allowed to physically take down a kid.

They follow a training program called Safe Crisis Management, using negotiating skills and defense techniques that do not harm the youths.

"It's an angry group," Jon Swatsburg, senior vice president, said of the residents. "It's a volatile population. The kids don't trust people easily."

It's also a very sad group in society that most people don't think about.

Well, I do.

Since the visit, I've been thinking a lot about how thankful I am that my teenage son is busy with school, sports, music and his friends.

I've also been thinking about those boys in the school on the hill whose goal it is to spend their lives in prison, where they feel like they fit in.

On a positive note, Abraxas officials report that in 2010 more than 90 percent, 65 of the 70 residents, completed the program without going to prison or another facility.

Cases of the four juveniles from the first riot were concluded in 2010, while five from the second riot are being handled this year.

Teen accused of shooting law student wants to appeal ruling to try him as an adult The York Daily Record By RICK LEE March 24, 2011 http://www.ydr.com/crime/ci_17693198

York, PA - The York teen accused in the July 28 shooting death of University of Pittsburgh law student James Wallmuth III is asking for permission to appeal a York County judge's order that he be tried as an adult.

In February, juvenile court Judge Joseph C. Adams held that Jordan Wallick's history of delinquency and his inability to benefit from repeated court-ordered intervention treatments "overwhelmingly demonstrates that transferring (his) case to juvenile court would be ineffectual and would present a disproportionate risk to society."

In Wallick's request to appeal that decision, defense attorney Dawn Cutaia argued that Adams improperly considered some factors in his denial.

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Cutaia contended that Adams' written opinion "indicates a heavy reliance on the presumption Jordan committed the offense despite the presumption of innocence guaranteed all defendants . . . and also strongly suggests that the court believed Jordan's failure to accept responsibility . . . was a factor."

At Wallick's decertification hearing, Cutaia informed the court she directed Wallick not to discuss the shooting with the prosecution's forensic psychiatrist.

Cutaia also is seeking a stay of adult proceedings pending acceptance of Wallick's appeal by the state Superior Court. The Superior Court will decide whether to hear any pretrial appeal.

Adams has requested counter-argument from the district attorney's office.

Also charged in Wallmuth's death are Kenneth Santiago-Curet, 19; Joshua Edmoundson, 19; and Victor Nelson Virola, 18, of York. Virola, who was 17 at the time of the killing, also is being prosecuted as an adult.

Move begins to keep Skrep, others in kids suit Attorneys for parents and children are seeking more time to file their complaint. The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre) By Mark Guydish March 26, 2011 http://www.timesleader.com/news/Move_begins_to_keep_Skrep__others_in_kids_suit_03-26- 2011.html

SCRANTON – Attorneys representing juveniles and parents suing ex-Judge Mark Ciavarella and others filed federal court papers Friday arguing a judge should not dismiss Luzerne County and various county officials – including former Commissioner Greg Skrepenak – from the suit.

The attorneys want to file an “amended complaint” that they insist will give good reason not to dismiss what they call “Luzerne County defendants” from the case, but they are seeking more time to file that complaint.

Friday’s paperwork was a lengthy argument justifying that delay.

In it, the attorneys contend that county defendants seeking dismissal from the suit have ignored “the compelling facts put forward by the plaintiffs, especially those relating to Defendant Gregory Skrepenak’s conduct, and instead repeatedly attack the plaintiffs’ counsel, claiming that they are playing ‘fast and loose’ with the facts, have pushed the ‘ethical envelope’, and have engaged in ‘bad faith pleading’.”

The paperwork rejects those claims, insisting that, given more time, they can prove their argument is legitimate.

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The filing includes a letter from the county attorney, Timothy Myers, to the judge in which Myers argues the efforts to prevent dismissal of county defendants are “a desperate attempt to plead around” the motion to dismiss.

The filing also includes 64 pages of the final report from the Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice, a board set up to review what happened in Luzerne County’s juvenile courts and recommend changes to avoid a recurrence.

The commission called the failures systemic, saying in the introduction that “it is plain ... that corruption in the Luzerne County Courthouse has been deeply ingrained for many years.”

Skrepenak’s agreement to plead guilty to corruption charges is included in the filing, as is a transcript from the trial of former county judge Mark Ciavarella in February.

The transcript includes testimony by Robert Mericle, the developer who built PA Child Care and Western PA Child Care, the two private juvenile detention and treatment facilities owned by Attorney Robert Powell.

Those centers were at the hub of charges against Ciavarella’s charges. Prosecutors argued Ciavarella accepted money from Powell and Mericle in exchange for actions from the bench that helped the facilities.

A jury found Ciavarella guilty of charges related to some payments from Mericle but acquitted him on charges related to money from Powell. Powell and Mericle both pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing.

Appeals court says juveniles convicted in killings must serve life Appeals rejected for two who wanted sentences overturned Reading Eagle By Holly Herman March 27, 2011 http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=297476

The Pennsylvania Superior Court has rejected appeals from convicts in Berks and Lancaster county homicide cases who claimed a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling was a basis for overturning their life sentences for crimes they committed as juveniles.

The appeals were among the first wave seeking to expand the Supreme Court's 2010 ruling that juveniles convicted of crimes other than homicide cannot be sentenced to life in prison.

Defense advocates have said the ruling in a Florida case should apply to life sentences for homicides committed by juveniles. That encouraged many such convicts to file appeals.

On March 18 the state Superior Court denied the appeal of a Reading man who was sentenced to life in 1992 for killing a man in a road-rage incident. The defendant was 17 at the time. 15 News Summary March 18 –––April–April 1, 2011

The court also denied the appeal of a Lancaster County man who was sentenced in 1995 to life in prison for killing a man during a robbery. The defendant was 16 at the time.

The court's opinions in those cases were among the first written in response to several dozen appeals filed in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling May 17 that threw out the life sentences for juveniles.

In neither case did an attorney represent the defendant.

Berks District Attorney John T. Adams said Pennsylvania does not have a law that would allow a juvenile to be sentenced to life for crimes other than homicide.

"The purpose of the appeals is to equate a nonhomicide case to a homicide case," Adams said. "No appellate case has taken that position."

Adams said he would support a law that would allow for a case-by-case review of juveniles serving life sentences.

Berks has seven defendants serving life sentences for homicides committed as juveniles. Two additional appeals of Berks cases are pending in Superior Court.

Bradley Bridge of the Philadelphia Defenders Association, which is tracking juvenile lifers, said the Florida ruling opened the door to expand the law to include homicide cases.

"The law explained by the U.S. Supreme Court determined that a juvenile brain is different than an adult brain," Bridge said.

Bridge said he disagreed with the Superior Court ruling and anticipates the issues will be addressed again.

Bridge said another case is pending for the state Supreme Court on the issue.

In the Berks case heard by the Superior Court, Roberto Gonzalez Jr., 38, appealed Judge Linda K.M. Ludgate's October denial of an appeal based on the U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

In the Lancaster case, Manuel Ortiz, 32, filed a request to reverse a ruling denying his appeal on the same basis.

A panel of three Superior Court judges concluded that the federal ruling pertained to nonhomicide cases only.

Pennsylvania has 472 inmates serving life sentences for crimes committed as juveniles. That's the most of any state in the country.

According to court records in the Berks case:

16 News Summary March 18 –––April–April 1, 2011

On Oct. 7, 1989, Joby Cipolla, 26, of Reading was driving home from a club when several cars cut him off. Gonzalez was among four men who got out of the cars and beat Cipolla with a pickax handle.

Cipolla died of his injuries Oct. 26, 1989.

In the Lancaster County case: On Oct. 26, 1994, Ortiz left school to hang out with friends. He and his friends wanted to get some money to take a train to Chicago.

They robbed, and Ortiz fatally shot, taxi driver Brian Whetts. Ortiz was convicted and lost three appeals.

His fourth appeal, related to the issue considered by the recent Supreme Court ruling, was dismissed June 23 in county court.

Op-Ed: Luzerne County judges' young victims are scarred The Patriot-News (Harrisburg) By Jeanette Krebs March 27, 2011 http://www.pennlive.com/editorials/index.ssf/2011/03/judges_young_victims_are_scarr.html

After something bad happens, we tell people to move on with their lives.

While that might happen in the movies, in real life it isn’t always easy.

Linda Bly should know. Her son Shane, was 13 when he went into an abandoned building with friends to look around with flashlights. The state police showed up and he soon found himself in front of Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella, charged with criminal trespass.

Linda, whose son didn’t have an attorney, said she braced herself for a sentence of community service. She was ill-prepared, however, to hear Ciavarella send her son away to a juvenile detention facility called Camp Adam.

The change in him was instantaneous. Parents of Shane’s friends said they didn’t want their children hanging out with a kid in juvenile detention, so he made new friends with other teens at the detention center. Having done something so minor, he was shocked by his punishment and the consequences to his life.

“He has never been the same,” said his mother this week, adding he has been in and out of trouble and prison ever since, unlike her other two children, who grew up without any run-ins with the law.

As we know by now, Shane was not the only teen to experience that kind of slap to his youth.

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Ciavarella and fellow former judge Michael Conahan were charged for receiving more than $2.6 million from private detention centers. Prosecutors say the money was in exchange for sending young offenders to the facilities. The case of Ciavarella and Conahan is coming to a close but the repercussions are nowhere close to reaching an end.

Although the teens involved are having their criminal records expunged, many are still reeling — or worse — from the experience. We now have to ask ourselves what the state owes these victims.

“Are some of them ever going to get over this?” asked Pennsylvania Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald Castille this week during a meeting with the newspaper’s Editorial Board. “Some of it will affect them for the rest of their lives.”

Castille is involved in implementing changes to the judicial system in the wake of the terrible discovery in 2009 that hundreds of youngsters received harsh sentences for minor crimes that should never had led to them being ripped away from their families, schools and friends.

Ron Sharp, chairman of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Committee of the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, likens the kids involved in the minor cases to survivors of the Japanese earthquake. He said they got up one day thinking everything was the same, but instead all they knew as safe and secure was gone.

We all know there are consequences to our behavior, when we do something wrong, a DUI, selling drugs, stealing money. We realize a penalty will be paid.

But when something as small as throwing a cooked steak at a stepfather, shoplifting a tube of lipstick or going inside an old building with a flashlight means months in juvenile detention, your whole perspective on life changes. Sharp says some will deal with the trauma of their experience for years to come.

Sandy Fonzo, whose emotional tirade at Ciavarella after his trial last month was seen by thousands on YouTube, says her son committed suicide at age 23 because he never got over being sent away for a minor drug paraphernalia charge. At 17, with no prior record, he was an all- star wrestler eyeing a college scholarship. Instead, he spent months in a detention center, missing his senior year of high school.

The juvenile justice system is supposed to catch kids before they fall, help them learn to become productive adults. It’s not intended to knock them down permanently.

That is what happened here. Now we need to decide what obligations we have to the children and now-young-adults who got caught in what has been described as the nation’s worst juvenile justice scandal.

If these kids had been harmed physically, I am sure money would be set aside to help them with their injuries. But because their problems are emotional, are we less apt to do the same and simply urge them to “move on”? That would be a mistake, especially when we see the serious consequences, people in prison, others taking their lives.

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The easiest part of this tragedy might be prosecuting the former judges for what they did. The hardest will be coming up with a way to help their victims, some of whom will need assistance for a long, long time.

We owe them that help.

California looks at Ciavarella outcome State bar journal article about judge’s trial, asks “Could it happen here?” The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre) By SHEENA DELAZIO March 28, 2011 http://www.timesleader.com/news/California-looks-at-Ciavarella-outcome.html

WILKES-BARRE – The federal corruption trial of former Judge Mark Ciavarella was at the center of attention of Luzerne County.

The story made local headlines first. Then, the national press and news shows such as ABC’s “Good Morning America” and “20/20” and NBC’s “Today” aired stories.

Now, the case is being read by California lawyers, after the California Bar Journal published an article about the trial in its March edition.

The article is headlined “Could it happen here?” and is written by Janice M. Brickley, a legal advisor to commissioners at the California Commission on Judicial Performance.

“The case, an alarming story of judicial corruption and failures throughout the justice system that lasted two years, should raise a question in the minds of Californians: Could it happen here?” she wrote.

Brickley outlined the outcome of the trial, including Ciavarella’s conviction on 12 of 39 counts, including racketeering and mail fraud, as well as the indictment against Ciavarella.

The article mentions Ciavarella’s co-defendant, former Judge Michael Conahan, and implicated attorney Robert Powell.

“In addition to his Draconian sentencing practices, Ciavarella routinely deprived juveniles of their constitutional right to counsel,” Brickley wrote. “As a result, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court vacated the adjudications of all juveniles who appeared before Ciavarella over a five-year period.”

Brickley spoke of the Pennsylvania Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice and their response to the conduct.

But, according to Brickley, the California Commission on Judicial Performance put policies in place long before the “Pennsylvania scandal.” 19 News Summary March 18 –––April–April 1, 2011

The California commission enacted procedures to ensure all complaints are properly brought to its attention and that no complaint “falls through the cracks.”

“A complaint is not closed, deferred, investigated or referred to prosecuting authorities without the commission’s authorization,” Brickley wrote. “Its policy is to review all new complaints within 60 days of receipt.”

While the commission’s policy, Brickley wrote, required reporting on these matters every six months, in practice all deferred matters are reported on at each commission meeting, every six to seven weeks.

Brickley said the report made by the Interbranch Commission “serves as a reminder of the critical role a judicial disciplinary system plays in maintaining public confidence in the integrity of the judiciary and the importance of ensuring that it fulfills that mandate.”

The California commission, she wrote, works “diligently” to ensure its rules and procedures are not vulnerable to the “failures that occurred in Pennsylvania.”

Judge dismisses contempt motion in case of law student's shooting The York Daily Record By RICK LEE March 28, 2011 http://www.ydr.com/ci_17720028

York, PA - A motion for contempt filed against accused killer Jordan Wallick's attorney, Dawn Cutaia, by the York County Attorney's Office was dismissed Monday.

Chief Deputy Prosecutor Karen Comery alleged Cutaia failed to disclose "relevant psychological testing information" about Wallick before the teen's juvenile decertification hearing.

York County Judge Joseph Adams determined the alleged discovery violation -- an oversight according to Cutaia -- was not contempt of court.

Wallick is accused of the July 28 shooting death of law student James Wallmuth III.

Lawyer fights adult trial for teen charged in crash The Johnstown Tribune-Democrat By KATHY MELLOTT March 30, 2011 http://tribune-democrat.com/local/x930484612/Lawyer-fights-adult-trial-for-teen-charged-in-crash

The Blair County public defender has filed a petition asking the court to transfer to juvenile court the case of a Cambria County teen charged as an adult in a fatal accident six months ago. 20 News Summary March 18 –––April–April 1, 2011

Patrick Paul Sullivan Turous’ preliminary hearing, scheduled for Thursday, has been put on hold until a hearing on the petition can be held before a judge in Blair County Common Pleas Court.

Turous, 17, of the 200 block of Blacklick Road, Vintondale, was the driver of a car that led Duncansville police on a high-speed chase. The pursuit ended in an accident in Hollidaysburg that killed one of his passengers, Kelsey Lynn Miller, 16, of Nanty Glo.

Police said Turous had been drinking alcohol leading up to the crash, which injured two other passengers.

Blair County District Attorney Richard Consiglio approved a list of charges against Turous in February and agreed they should be filed in adult court.

It’s a decision Consiglio stood by on Tuesday, saying he will fight the public defender’s attempt to have Turous tried as a juvenile.

“He’s almost 18 and I don’t think he’s going to be amenable to any type of rehabilitation in the juvenile system,” Consiglio said. “I don’t see any basis for him to be decertified (as an adult).”

Assistant Public Defender Kristen Anastasi also has asked a judge to order a mental evaluation for Turous, an action Consiglio said he will oppose.

The defense maintains that Turous is not sophisticated enough in the criminal arena. But Consiglio disagrees, saying the defendant was aware enough of the ramifications of his actions to run away from the scene following the violent Sept. 25 crash.

Duncansville police were trying to stop Turous after he ran a red light. He fled into Hollidaysburg, nearly crashed his car into a police cruiser and then rolled the vehicle over on Blair Street.

Police said Turous fled, leaving his passengers inside the car. He was apprehended about a block away trying to hide from authorities.

Anastasi could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Consiglio does not have much hope that the prosecution of Turous will stay in adult court.

He told family and friends of Miller earlier this month that if Turous is prosecuted in the juvenile system, they should not expect justice.

If determined a delinquent, Turous could be sentenced to a detention facility and his care would be reviewed every six months. He can be kept in the juvenile system only until he is 21, Consiglio said.

Turous is charged with 33 counts involving driving under the influence, homicide by vehicle while drunk, involuntary manslaughter and eluding police.

21 News Summary March 18 –––April–April 1, 2011

A hearing on the juvenile petition had not been scheduled as of Tuesday.

2 Pa. Bills Aim to Make Teens Think Twice Before Cyberbullying Philadelphia Weekly News By Michael Alan Goldberg March 30, 2011 http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/news-and-opinion/2-Pa-Bills-Aim-to-Make-Teens-Think-Twice- Before-Cyberbullying.html

By now, Tina Meier’s story is well-known: In 2006, the Missouri native’s 13-year-old daughter Megan hanged herself after being bullied on MySpace by a neighbor—the mother of one of the teen’s schoolmates and former friends—who created a fake profile to torment Megan. At the time, there was no specific law dealing with that kind of situation, so the mother ultimately escaped prosecution.

Gasps and tears from parents and educators filled the auditorium of Neshaminy High School in Bucks County last Wednesday as Meier recounted the events that led to her daughter’s suicide. The emotional, hour-long presentation marked the launch of CyberSafe Philly, a series of 20 Verizon-sponsored summits—of which Meier is the keynote speaker—happening at area schools over the next two months.

“Do I think kids need to understand there are consequences, that there are devastating things that happen out of the things they do and say through technology? Absolutely,” says Meier, who played a key role in getting a Missouri cyberbullying law passed in 2007.

Since losing her daughter, Meier has become one of the nation’s most potent crusaders against cyberbullying and sexting—the transmission of nude or semi-nude photos to someone else via cell phone, computer or other electronic device. Sexting has become a chief component of cyberbullying because such photos often turn into instruments of blackmail or harassment. Her extended visit to Philadelphia comes at a time when Pennsylvania is poised to join about 20 states that have already criminalized the act of minors engaging in sexting and/or cyberbullying.

Because there are currently no sexting or cyberbullying laws on the books in Pennsylvania, district attorneys have wide latitude when it comes to prosecuting minors. Everything from simple harassment to possession or distribution of child pornography has been in play.

Two Pennsylvania lawmakers—Rep. Seth Grove (R-York) and Sen. Stewart Greenleaf (R- Bucks/Montgomery)—have each introduced legislation in the past two months that would provide clearer guidelines for prosecutors by establishing sexting (and in the case of Greenleaf’s bill, nonsexual cyberbullying as well) by minors as a second-degree misdemeanor.

There are similarities between Grove’s House Bill 815 and Greenleaf’s Senate Bill 850. Both lawmakers anticipate that minors convicted on a second-degree misdemeanor would likely not face jail time, but instead be placed in a diversion program and hit with community service, fines 22 News Summary March 18 –––April–April 1, 2011 and forfeiture of the electronic device used to do the sexting. Both bills also provide for swift expungment of criminal sexting records following completion of the sentence. But one profound difference jumps out. Take, for example, this common scenario: A girl takes a nude photo of herself with her camera phone and sexts it to her boyfriend. The relationship falls apart, and the boy retaliates by forwarding the photo all over school, humiliating the girl. Under Greenleaf’s bill, the boy could be charged with the misdemeanor, but not the girl. Under Grove’s bill, however, both the boy and the girl could be charged.

“It’s an issue I have been struggling with,” says Grove, who introduced a similar bill last year that passed in the House but failed to get through the Senate. “My heart does go out to the victim, [but] by her sending that [photo] to him, she now broke the law and she’s also the victim. It’s a unique, hard situation, but if she sent it to him, she’s responsible for her own actions.”

Grove believes his bill gets to the root of the problem: The creation of the photo in the first place. “I don’t accept [sexting] as normal child behavior. At some point you have to draw a line … and say, ‘We’re not going to accept this.’ This is about child pornography. It’s about us as a society deciding what is child pornography.” Grove argues that sexts frequently end up in the hands of adult sexual predators. “We’re inadvertently creating child pornography to fuel an illegal industry.”

That approach doesn’t sit well with Riya Shah, staff attorney at the Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center, who believes Grove’s bill doubly victimizes the minor who creates the sext. “We hear the horrific stories about the kids who hurt themselves because they’ve sent a photograph to somebody and it’s gone public and they’re humiliated or being bullied by it, so by prosecuting that person who sent the photograph, you’re not accomplishing anything,” she says, adding that she supports criminalizing the boy’s actions in the aforementioned scenario.

Dr. Rollyn Ornstein, a Hershey-based pediatrician who has advised the JLC on the sexting issue, disputes Grove’s assertion that consensual sexting is aberrant behavior. “I’m not advocating [sexting], but it falls under the rubric of normal, healthy teenage sexual development. Now we just have all this technology to do it with. Kids need to be educated about how far it can go and how it can be harmful.”

The JLC is throwing its weight behind Greenleaf’s proposed legislation, which Shah says is “a much more thoughtful and understanding response to the issue.”

“It clearly provides an offense that is measured in nature and addresses not all sexting, but sexting that’s not consensual, sexting that’s intended to harm or hurt another person,” Greenleaf says of his bill, which is scheduled for Senate consideration on April 12. “I’m very reluctant to create new crimes, particularly for juveniles, but in this case we’re trying to protect them [with] an appropriate way to deal with this matter.”

Grove and Greenleaf believe that some form of sexting/cyberbullying legislation will end up on Gov. Corbett’s desk by the end of the year. Which is what Tina Meier’s hoping for. “Parents need to take the lead in educating and warning kids about these things, but states need to do something, too,” she says. “Otherwise it’s like ‘If no one’s really gonna do anything to us, then what’s to stop us?’ We have to have laws in place.”

23 News Summary March 18 –––April–April 1, 2011

A FLAWED SYSTEM OF INTERVENTION An effort to help students and limit violence is seen as little more than paper- shuffling. ASSAULT ON LEARNING: PART 5 The Philadelphia Inquirer By John Sullivan, Susan Snyder, Kristen A. Graham, and Dylan Purcell March 31, 2011 http://www.philly.com/philly/news/special_packages/inquirer/school- violence/20110330_Sv2011Day5.html?viewAll=y

Rashaan Carr should have been in class at Martin Luther King High School.

Instead, he ended up wading into a crowd of fourth and fifth graders in a bustling elementary school playground, swinging a silver-and-white Louisville Slugger aluminum baseball bat, witnesses said.

Eleven younger boys were hurt.

"This was no nightmare. This was real," one victim said later that day.

The attack last spring was held up as a senseless example of runaway school violence - "Psycho Attack," read one headline.

But behind the melee is a more complicated, subtle, and elusive story, a yearlong Inquirer investigation has found.

It is the story of how a school district in one of the poorest and most violent American cities struggles to help troubled students, and how the district's intervention efforts too often fail.

Since Arlene C. Ackerman took over as Philadelphia school superintendent in 2008, she has made a program called CSAP - Comprehensive Student Assistance Process - the centerpiece of her effort to stave off students' deteriorating grades and behavior. The program is designed to apply a host of resources such as intensive tutoring and counseling, as well as identifying learning disabilities or behavioral disorders.

Use of the program skyrocketed from 16,534 referrals in 2008 to 51,166, including Carr, by the end of the 2009-10 school year. That means that nearly a third of the School District's 155,000 students are enrolled - and the district plans to expand the program even more.

"If used correctly, it's a major intervention that can work," Ackerman said. "I know that because I've seen it work in my own experiences."

24 News Summary March 18 –––April–April 1, 2011

But many teachers and administrators say the program is a bust - an exercise in paper-shuffling that is more about documenting students' failures. Judge Kevin Dougherty, the administrative judge of Family Court, said that from what he's seen, CSAP is a "fiction."

On Monday, Dougherty found Carr and two King classmates charged in the attack, Ralph Moore and Diquan Allen, delinquent in a juvenile hearing. He will sentence them next week.

They told Dougherty they were breaking up a fight on the playground, not starting one. As for the bat, they say they had cut school and armed themselves after tussling with a gang at King earlier in the day. Police said the real story was that they were settling scores as part of an obscure neighborhood feud. The judge rejected the boys' story.

The playground assault on April 30, 2010, marked the first time they'd ever been arrested.

But all three had long been in trouble in school. Carr had been suspended 17 times, starting when he was 7, for offenses ranging from fighting to indecent exposure.

All three were enrolled in CSAP at King. The School District declined to discuss their cases, citing privacy concerns, but their court files are open because they were originally charged as adults.

At a hearing this month, Common Pleas Court Judge Benjamin Lerner pointed out that until the boys landed in court, only teachers and administrators were privy to their misbehavior. He wondered aloud, as he reviewed Carr's "stunningly bad" school record, how the district had let Carr's misconduct escalate from the time he was a young elementary school student.

"It's difficult for me to understand," he said, why Carr's violent misbehavior was "not addressed earlier with something other than just multiple, repeated suspensions."

Later, Lerner said, "It's clear to me that these kids and the community would benefit if the schools took a more proactive role in addressing these kids' needs before they become defendants in serious criminal cases."

Almost a third enrolled

Enrollment in CSAP is no great distinction at King, where 900 of the school's 1,100 students are enrolled in the program.

Kristina Diviny - King's principal until January - said her experience with the program had shown it to be a failure, because so many students are enrolled that it can't possibly help everyone.

"Did 900 kids get the resources?" said Diviny, who left in January to become principal of the high school in Christiana, Del. "There's not 900 kids' worth of resources."

She said the documentation sometimes is "CYA."

CSAP

25 News Summary March 18 –––April–April 1, 2011

When CSAP doesn't offer enough help for a learning disabled boy.

"It's almost impossible to really do it the way it needs to be done," she said. "I would say 10 percent . . . is real effective CSAP, because the rest is just a blanket."

She is hardly alone in her assessment. Teachers, students, parents, judges, and other experts agreed.

The Inquirer investigation found that the program is deeply flawed in significant ways:

It sweeps in far too many students for its resources. Students suffering from severe behavioral problems are lumped in with classmates encountering minor academic setbacks - even a grade dropping from an "A" to a "B" can be enough to qualify, said the district's head of counseling, Deborah James Vance. Fifteen years ago, there were only 4,600 students in the program.

It rewards schools for enrolling and providing services to as many students as possible who are eligible for CSAP. For example, in the 2009-10 school year - the last full year Diviny was principal - King exceeded its performance goals for CSAP by serving 93.8 percent of its eligible students. That put it in the top quarter of all high schools.

It does not deliver all the services it recommends for individual students, according to state reports and interviews with teachers and administrators.

It permits youngsters to languish without progress for months on end, as the case of the King students illustrates. The result: CSAP data analyzed by The Inquirer show that one-third of all students are in the program for multiple years.

Ackerman acknowledged in an interview that program guidelines are not always followed when placing students.

"What I have found happens is that educators want to jump to put them in CSAP, or go around CSAP and get them some social and emotional services right away," she said. "Some of these issues are directly related to the lack of academic skills or the lack of the appropriate academic strategies and . . . classroom management strategies."

She said the district has the resources to provide services to children.

"You're speaking to somebody who knows this with my eyes closed," Ackerman said. "Now, can I guarantee that everybody is going to do it exactly the way I did it as a principal? All I can do is continue to try to give the support to principals and teachers so that it's implemented with fidelity."

Her chief accountability officer, David Weiner, said he is satisfied that in most cases, children are getting at least some of the recommended services.

26 News Summary March 18 –––April–April 1, 2011

"In some environments [CSAP] works extremely well," he said. "It works well at identifying the kids, providing supports for the kids, helping the children improve in academic, behavioral, social, and emotional issues."

Few dispute that under the right circumstances, CSAP can be effective.

District spokeswoman Shana Kemp pointed to the Anne Frank School, a K-5 elementary school in Bustleton near Northeast Philadelphia Airport, as an example of a school where CSAP works and students receive an ample array of services.

Frank's enrollment numbers are similar to King's - about 1,000 students to King's 1,100. But otherwise the two schools have little in common.

For starters, Frank has fewer than 100 children in CSAP, and they are fifth graders or below.

About half of the Frank students are classified as economically disadvantaged, while 75 percent of King students are. And just 6 percent of Frank students are in special education, vs. 27 percent at King.

In statewide tests, King scores well below the city average for reading and math, while Anne Frank scores well above.

A broken program

Experts who see CSAP's failures - the Rashaans, the Ralphs, and the Diquans - have complained for years that the program is broken.

These students regularly turn up before judges in the courts, or find their way to mental-health advocacy groups or legal-aid clinics and disciplinary schools. This has left critics increasingly dismayed.

At Monday's hearing, Dougherty decried that the district had done so little for the three King boys.

A total of 1,917 students were arrested during the 2009-10 school year, according to the district's figures.

In cases of in-school arrests, Dougherty routinely asks the district what help it has given a student headed for disaster. He said his inquiries are almost always met with a shrug.

The former director of the district's network of disciplinary schools described CSAP as "imaginary."

"People have become very skilled at documenting interventions for kids but the students don't get the help," said Gwen Morris, now an education consultant. "The kids who really need it, there are not resources there to give them."

27 News Summary March 18 –––April–April 1, 2011

Jerry Jordan, president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, said teachers complain that CSAP is a largely pointless paper chase.

"Teachers complete all the CSAP paperwork, and it's quite voluminous, but after they do it, there is no follow-up," Jordan said. "So the following year, they begin again with the same students and the same process."

Luz Hernandez, an advocate in North Philadelphia for parents with disabled children, said she has worked on hundreds of cases where CSAP fails to help. "Nothing changes," she said. "They just go from one bureaucracy to another."

Caroline Watts, a psychology professor who teaches at the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education and consults with district schools about safety and the CSAP process, said the district was failing to make good use of the program.

"Kids are getting stuck in CSAP and getting disciplinary actions rather than help," she said.

Absences, suspensions

Rashaan Carr's immersion in CSAP did little to change his behavior. He was repeating ninth grade at the time of the playground attack.

During his first time around as a ninth grader, he had about 50 absences and was suspended almost once a month. Two of those suspensions were for five days, once for fighting and the second time for a morals offense.

Carr was almost certainly referred to CSAP then - every ninth grader is, as a matter of course, according to school counselor Crystal Little. But Carr's file - provided to The Inquirer by his mother, who got it from the school - has no record of his being enrolled in CSAP that year.

“I was trying to find an outlet to allow my voice to be heard and to find help outside my household.” Jamire Burley an Overbrook High grad.

Little said all ninth graders must take a class that teaches them to make good decisions, as well as bolstering self-esteem and building "career awareness."

Counselors and teachers say freshmen can meet with upperclassmen who serve as "peer mentors," with whom they can discuss personal issues.

"We have several programs that accommodate every issue for students," she said. "It has been my experience that oftentimes students do not take advantage of those programs."

The district declined to make Little available for an interview, allowing her only to answer written questions provided by The Inquirer. The responses were then sent to the paper through Kemp.

28 News Summary March 18 –––April–April 1, 2011

When students in CSAP such as Carr need more than just academic support, they are asked to keep a behavior log, which records how they behave each day in class. They must bring the log to class, have the teacher complete it, and then give it to their parents to sign.

Jennifer Freeman, the union representative at King, said the log was a weak intervention at best. In many cases, she said, students and parents don't participate.

"We tell parents that the behavioral report works best if there are consequences at home," she said.

The following year, 2009-10, Carr's school records show that he was repeating the ninth grade. But Carr and his mother had a different impression. They thought he was a sophomore.

After all, he said, "I was with my friends in class."

In fact, Carr was in King's "UpGrade Academy," where he was to "make up failed courses in school year 2009," according to his school file.

Enrollment in UpGrade Academy was part of his progression into CSAP's next level, known as Tier II. He was referred for not performing to his ability, poor behavior, and failing to comply with the school's dress code.

Carr, his referral said, exhibited poor study skills and did not complete assignments, and his grades were declining.

But as far as the district was concerned, his enrollment in UpGrade Academy meant he had met a CSAP goal.

Carr would also receive some additional classroom support. His teacher would repeat directions to him, give him immediate feedback and verbal prompts, and, according to the file, "utilize a variety of instructional modalities."

As for his disruptive behavior, the team recommended that Carr be mentored and that he attend an in-school group session with a guidance counselor.

Carr recalled two such sessions, in which he sat with other boys and wrote out his career goals.

The file shows that Carr's mother, Jamie, was sent a letter notifying her when her son was placed in Tier II. The record shows she was not contacted again until her son was suspended for the attack, about six months later.

During those months, Carr's behavior did not improve. In November, Carr was suspended for a day for disrupting class and reckless endangerment.

He would be suspended three more times for cutting class and disruption. He was absent, late, or suspended 38 times. He failed almost all his classes.

29 News Summary March 18 –––April–April 1, 2011

Ordinarily, if a student does not respond to the intervention within 60 days, CSAP counselors are supposed to meet with parents to discuss other options, including Tier III, which might determine if the child needs to be placed in special-education courses. As for Carr, he never made it that far. A court psychologist later diagnosed him with Axis I Oppositional Defiant Disorder, a diagnosis that might have made him eligible for special educational services.

Prosecutors would later marvel at how school officials suspended Carr 17 times without calling police for offenses ranging from assault to indecent exposure.

"If you look at his school records," prosecutor Debra Naish said, "it's one of the worst ones I have ever seen, full of multiple suspensions for conduct that could have - and I don't know why it didn't - result in criminal charges. Inappropriate touching, indecent exposure, mutual confrontation, threats, fighting, assaultive behavior; so this is more than a lack-of-self-esteem issue."

'An angry young man'

Carr, a husky youth, has a knack for fixing things around the house, said his mother, a single parent who has worked as an editor at a data firm in Horsham for 10 years. She owns a house in the Olney section and makes sure her three children are in by 6:30 each night.

Carr hardly knows his father.

Quiet and guarded in conversation, he rubs his hand down from the crown of his head and over his eyes when he talks.

A psychologist who interviewed him after he was arrested said Carr has an intense need for people to understand his difficulties - the sort of problem CSAP ought to address - yet is reluctant to talk about them.

"Rashaan is an angry young man who understands that he needs psychological counseling in order to avoid situations that make him vulnerable to rearrest," the report concluded. It also said he is strongly motivated toward achievement despite his behavioral difficulties.

Carr is so desperate for guidance that he asked the psychologist to be his mentor.

"Rashaan believes his father does not like or love him. He asked this examiner if he could have this type of relationship" with him, the report said.

His mother said she would have "welcomed" a mentor for her son - an intervention recommended for him in CSAP, but one Carr and his mother said he never received.

King has four counselors, but they don't have time to see all the children who need them. Counselors across the district complain they are constantly overworked - they all regularly fill in for classroom teachers.

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Diviny said she had four counselors - that's 900 hours in a school year for all 900 CSAP cases if each student gets an hour.

"There's probably 200 students on the waiting list who need a behavior specialist, but she can't handle that kind of caseload," Diviny said.

King has one such specialist - whom Little described as "awesome" - but the school is only allowed to refer 40 students at a time.

And even when a student is helped, it may go for naught. Diviny recalled the case of a student the school spent countless hours helping, only to see him wind up in jail.

Data dispute

Each year, the School District files an accounting of its CSAP program with the state Department of Education, which compiles an annual report card. It paints a disturbing portrait of the program.

For example, in the 2009-10 school year - the most recent year studied in the state report - the report showed that of 671 youngsters identified as in need of "crisis intervention," fully 40 percent never received it.

“I had a little situation with a kid in my class”.

Rodger Churchville a senior at West Philadelphia High School

The data were similarly dismal for a host of other CSAP services, reporting that the provision of services fell short in areas ranging from guidance advice to mentoring. Among other findings, the state report said that of youngsters in need of in-school group therapy, fully 44 percent failed to receive it.

School District officials say the state report was unfairly bleak.

In fact, the officials said, most students listed as receiving no help had received at least some services. The district said that when the state produced the report, it gave the district no credit for assisting a student unless the youngster had received every recommended service. Students who got only some services were listed as having received none, they said.

Weiner, the district's accountability officer, also said he had recently called state education officials, who had acknowledged that the reporting problem rested with them and that they were planning to fix it. Weiner said he could not remember the name of the person with whom he spoke.

But Myrna Delgado, the state official whose staff issues the reports, disputed all that.

Delgado said no one on her staff or her data consultants could recall receiving a call from Weiner. She also disagreed that the report was flawed.

31 News Summary March 18 –––April–April 1, 2011

Further, she said, the state had merely reported the results as provided by the Philadelphia district.

"We don't change data," she said.

Weiner said that after The Inquirer raised questions about the program, he looked at a sampling of more than 100 cases and concluded that virtually all those students had received at least some help. However, beyond the sample, Weiner said, the district did not have a hard count of how many CSAP students had received all, some, or no services. To get the answer, he said, he would have to physically look through each case.

Susan Tarasevich, a Pittsburgh-based education expert who has trained providers for similar programs and studied the results for 20 years, said Philadelphia was the only district that appeared to have such a reporting problem.

She called the district an outlier.

Weiner conceded that some schools were better than others at implementing the program.

"It's a work in progress," he said. "People have to fully understand what CSAP is and what it's going to look like. Because of some of the challenges we've encountered, we are changing CSAP moving forward."

Rewards program

Even now, the district gives principals an incentive to drive students into the program.

Under Ackerman's annual school accountability system, principals are graded by the district and rewarded by receiving a higher mark for placing more children in the program.

CSAP is one of the grading categories in these reports - crucial to principals' careers - along with student test scores, truancy, and tardiness.

The bulk of the CSAP grade is based simply on how many students a school has placed in the various tiers of the program. Every school - even high performing schools like Masterman or Central - is given a target number of how many students to enroll.

The grading does take into account whether any services are actually delivered, but principals themselves are responsible for tracking the results.

“The violence created fear for me.”

Bach Tong former South Philadelphia High student.

For example, at Tier II, the district gives a school credit for providing an intervention when the CSAP team holds a meeting about what to do for a student and enters the case into the district's database, according to a document provided by the district.

32 News Summary March 18 –––April–April 1, 2011

"You have numbers you have to hit, so the emphasis has been on getting kids in the program, not getting them help," said Freeman, the King union representative.

"It's just a way schools can inflate their grade on the annual accountability reports," she said.

Watts, the Penn psychologist, said the accountability system incentivizes the wrong things. If the district delivered more services to children in need, it would see a reduction in violence, she said.

Now, she lamented, "compliance is more about paperwork accuracy rather than what the paperwork is intended to deliver."

Tough struggles for two

Ralph Moore's mother, Angela Young, said that when she returned her son to school after his suspensions, nobody ever mentioned that there was a program to help him. She said she was unaware that her son had been placed in CSAP, both in ninth and 10th grades.

She views her son, now 17, as a shy and easily manipulated boy. She said she wished that the schools, rather than the streets, had set his course in life.

When Moore was born, he was immediately placed into foster care. The state had already removed his six siblings from his mother, who struggled with addiction.

For six years, Ralph Moore had no contact with his mother. But Young, who now works as a hair stylist and also baby-sits, fought to get her life together and regained custody of her children.

His test scores show Moore is smarter than most of his classmates, but had trouble adjusting to school and repeated kindergarten.

He was small for his age and desperate for friends, said Young. When she bought Moore toys, he usually gave them away.

Eventually, Moore began to perform well at his elementary school. The summer before he entered King, he worked for the Indochinese-American Council as part of the summer youth-work program in Philadelphia.

The director wrote in a letter to the court that Moore was trustworthy, hard-working, self-motivated, and responsible.

Still, Moore's father - Ralph Sr. - said his son was a follower "more than anything" and can be intimidated by larger classmates.

King, which has been on and off the "persistently dangerous" list for years, was a jarring experience for Moore. "I could never concentrate," he said. "There was always fighting, people acting up."

33 News Summary March 18 –––April–April 1, 2011

He said he wanted to learn but feared being labeled a bookworm, which would open him to abuse.

To keep his friends, Moore said, he felt he had to make mischief without getting into too much trouble. He also worried about the One-Fours, a street gang.

Moore's ninth-grade teachers during the 2008-09 school year noticed he was missing class and failing his course work. He had 28 unexcused absences and was late 16 times. In March, he was suspended for two days for being disruptive.

He was placed in CSAP, although he said he doesn't know when.

In just the ninth grade, 200 of 300 students at King are in CSAP Tier II. More than 100 were repeating the ninth grade.

Like Carr and Moore, Diquan Allen was frequently in trouble and in CSAP - on paper, at least. It's unclear what help he received.

Allen was raised by parents until they separated when he was 6. He moved with his mother back and forth between Philadelphia and Baltimore. "I did not know where I was going to stay," he said.

A psychologist who interviewed him for his court case said he was suffering from chronic depression as well as post-traumatic stress syndrome. He had been beaten and abused when he was younger, he told the psychologist.

Once, he said, he put a knife to his own throat because he was about to be defeated by "invisible people."

He said he often felt lonely and unwanted: "My nerves are bad. I feel empty. I need guidance. What pains me is looking back at my life."

A fight, then the attack

On the morning of the playground attack, Diquan Allen got into a fight in the hallway at King with the One-Fours gang.

Moore and Carr watched as the boys scuffled. The One-Fours promised they would get the three later that day. The boys said they went to security officers and told them they were scared and wanted to skip an assembly in the school auditorium, where the One-Fours would likely gather.

They were told to return to the auditorium, but left school instead.

They walked to Carr's house near the Olney Transportation Center and grabbed a bat. They went to buy Chinese food and ran into two girls they knew from King, who weren't in class either. The girls invited the boys to a barbecue.

34 News Summary March 18 –––April–April 1, 2011

On their way to the party, the boys passed Howe Elementary, in the Fern Rock section, and stopped to watch the children play. Moore said it appeared as if the children were fighting.

Allen said he thought it was a play fight and funny. "We were all laughing at them," he said.

The boys walked into the schoolyard, and a school aide told them to leave because they were scaring the students.

"The kids were hitting each other, we didn't hit them," Carr said.

The young students who testified at a preliminary hearing said the three boys attacked them without provocation, striking some in the face. One identified Carr. Another pointed out Moore and Allen and said they laughed as the attack happened.

Though no one was seriously injured, police saw victims with bumps, swollen eyes, and lacerations. The younger boys said the impact of the attack lingered. One boy testified that he was afraid to go upstairs alone in his own home.

Another boy told how he watched his friends buckle after getting hit in the back.

After the King students were charged as adults, their lawyers had to convince a Common Pleas Court judge that they should instead be tried as juveniles.

Their argument was that Carr, Moore, and Allen had never been in trouble with police before, and all came from hard-working families with parents who care.

All the boys needed, psychologists concluded, was help - the sort of help that could have come through CSAP.

"I see a school record that makes me ask if anyone is paying attention," said Carr's attorney, Nikia Way Khan, whose mother was a teacher at King in the 1970s. She lasted only one day.

The judge agreed and sent all the cases to Family Court.

Judge Dougherty saw it much the same way when he found the boys delinquent. He lamented the lack of action on the part of the School District.

"Now you're going to get the help you need," he told them.

For now, all three boys are done with the Philadelphia public schools.

They will be removed from their families and their neighborhoods, the judge said, and sent away to facilities where they can get counseling - and an education.

35 News Summary March 18 –––April–April 1, 2011

Top Stories - National

Ill. praised for juvenile justice changes Associated Press (AP) – Chicago Bureau (IL) March 19, 2011 Posted on: http://www.wandtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=14283284

CHICAGO (AP) - An organization that advocates keeping juveniles out of the adult court system is applauding Illinois for recent legislative changes.

The Campaign for Youth Justice tracked state trends in juvenile justice from 2005 to 2010.

The campaign says Illinois is 1 of 3 states that no longer automatically filters 17-year-olds charged with misdemeanors into the adult system. The change became effective Jan. 1, 2010.

The campaign says the policy allows teens accused of minor crimes to have access to mental health and drug treatment in the juvenile system that isn't available to adults.

Illinois has also ended its policy of automatically transferring youth charged with drug offenses to adult court.

The Campaign for Youth Justice says separate systems for youth can prevent crime and save money.

Juvenile injustice Virginia took a detour this year on efforts to lead the way on juvenile justice reform The Free Lance-Star (VA) March 21, 2011 http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2011/032011/03212011/614030

UNTIL THIS YEAR, Virginia was making significant legislative strides in reforming its treatment of juvenile offenders. A state where nearly 700 juveniles--some as young as 14--are convicted as legal adults each year, Virginia was a national leader in routing more youthful offenders toward programs designed to change their ways and brighten their futures.

In 2007, the General Assembly unanimously passed legislation amending Virginia's "once an adult, always an adult" law to prevent a child who had previously been prosecuted as an adult from necessarily being treated by the law as an adult in the future.

In 2010, the legislature--also unanimously--passed a measure, sponsored by Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, and encouraged by Republican Gov. McDonnell, that helps ensure that youthful offenders certified to adult court will be incarcerated in juvenile facilities. That's particularly important when these youths are being held pre-trial and are presumed innocent.

36 News Summary March 18 –––April–April 1, 2011

Then came 2011. The Senate passed two bills, one by Sen. Janet Howell, D-Fairfax, to allow circuit court judges to provide youths the chance to earn a juvenile-delinquency adjudication upon successful completion of conditions set by the judge; the other by Sen. John Edwards, D-Roanoke, to allow juveniles to appeal, and circuit court judges to review, a commonwealth's attorney's decision to certify a case to adult court.

Both measures then went to the House of Delegates and its Courts of Justice Committee, headed by Del. David Albo, R-Fairfax, who passed them to his Criminal Law subcommittee, headed by Del. Robert Bell, R-Albemarle. There they were both summarily killed.

Despite the legislation's otherwise wide support, Mr. Albo and Mr. Bell were moved only by the lone opposition of the Virginia Commonwealth's Attorneys Association, which didn't want its members second-guessed even if that meant a juvenile might be less likely to come before them again in the future.

The idea here--which advocacy groups such as the JustChildren project of the Legal Aid Justice Center in Charlottesville are happy to explain--is to prevent youthful offenders from becoming lifelong hardened criminals as a result of being prosecuted as adults for often nonviolent crimes, then locked up with adult felons where they are ripe for abuse.

Bleeding-heart liberals don't have a monopoly on this view. The conservative group Right on Crime finds that states where juvenile justice reform is a priority are experiencing reduced juvenile recidivism and a decline in costs linked to repeated prosecutions.

Virginia needs to restore its reputation as a pacesetter in juvenile justice reform. Bills like those killed in 2011 are expected to reappear in 2012. If so, the House Courts of Justice Committee should get with the program.

Supreme Court to decide when a juvenile is in custody McClatchy Newspapers By Barbara Barrett March 22, 2011 http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/03/22/110883/supreme-court-to-decide-when-a.html

WASHINGTON — In September 2005, a 13-year-old boy was pulled out of his class at a Chapel Hill, N.C., middle school, escorted to another room and interrogated behind a closed door by a police detective and three other adults.

The boy confessed to a neighborhood larceny. He never was read his so-called Miranda rights, which include the right to an attorney.

Should he have been?

37 News Summary March 18 –––April–April 1, 2011

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will take up a case, J.D.B. vs. North Carolina, that could have sweeping implications for young suspects who are questioned by law enforcement. The question before the court is whether an interrogator should consider a suspect's age before deciding whether to read the Miranda warning.

Right now, police must decide whether a "reasonable person" would consider themselves in custody. If the answer is yes, then law enforcement must tell the suspect they have the right to remain silent, to call an attorney and, if under 18, to have his or her parents notified.

The court's decision is important, observers say, because it affects not only how law enforcement officers do their jobs, but also how juvenile suspects are treated.

"It comes down to the type of society we want to live in," said Tamar Birckhead, an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law who has written about the case.

She and other juvenile justice advocates argue that children should be given extra consideration by police officers in the early stages of an investigation, including in interrogations.

But those who advocate for law enforcement agencies say youths already have extra protections in court, and that police officers should not bear an additional burden of trying to figure out a suspect's age.

"It's really just a matter of, how does adding age into the mix muddy the waters for police who are trying to make on-the-spot decisions," said Megan Miller, who wrote an amicus brief for the National District Attorney's Association on behalf of the state of North Carolina.

The case, J.D.B. vs. North Carolina, arises out of a larceny charge in Chapel Hill. A juvenile police detective went to the youth's school after a neighborhood break-in, had him pulled out of class and then asked him about the situation.

Twice, the detective asked J.D.B. whether he'd be willing to answer questions. Twice, the boy nodded yes. The youth confessed after an assistant principal encouraged him to "do the right thing."

The child was allowed to catch his bus that afternoon, but police later came to his home, executed a search warrant, found items taken in the break-in and arrested him.

The issue in Wednesday's Supreme Court case revolves around the word "custody."

Under federal law, a suspect taken into custody must be read his or her Miranda rights by law enforcement. Certain uses of restraint — handcuffs, a prolonged interrogation, certain surroundings — add up to custody.

If the suspect feels free to leave, the rights need not be read.

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In J.D.B. vs. North Carolina, the boy was in a conference room with the door closed, but not locked. He was asked twice whether he was OK answering questions.

J.D.B.'s attorneys tried to have the confession suppressed, but the local court refused. That refusal was upheld by state's appeals and supreme courts.

But J.D.B.'s defense attorneys will argue Wednesday that while an adult might have felt free to walk out, a 13-year-old wouldn't.

"Go through your own head," said Marsha Levick, deputy director and chief counsel at the Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia, which filed an amicus brief on behalf of J.D.B.

"Think about your own kids, in an environment surrounded by four adults. Could you imagine your child saying, 'Can I leave now?'" she asked. "It's almost laughable, honestly."

The respondent argues that's not the case.

In its brief, the North Carolina Attorney General's Office argues that opening the consideration to age isn't fair to law enforcement officers and would require them to consider a range of other possible considerations, such as cultural background, education, mental infirmities or other potential vulnerabilities.

"Miranda works because it sets a clear, bright-line path for police to follow," wrote North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper and his staff.

Miller, who wrote the amicus brief, said juvenile suspects already have protections during court proceedings. Adding age, she said, could lead to situations in which Miranda warnings are offered more than would be required.

And that, she added, would result in fewer voluntary confessions.

As for how the high court will decide, Birckhead said the key vote may rest with Justice Anthony Kennedy, who wrote the opinions in recent decisions that ended the juvenile death penalty and life in prison for juveniles convicted of non-homicide crimes.

"He is the wild card here," Birckhead said.

The Supreme Court will issue its decision later this year.

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Children have rights, too They should be safeguarded against traumatic interrogations Pittsburgh Post-Gazette March 22, 2011 By Richard Wexler http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11081/1133674-109.stm

In urging the U.S. Supreme Court to allow law enforcement and child protective services workers to conduct traumatic interrogations of children based on little more than a whim, the Post-Gazette asks the justices to "rule in favor of society" (Editorial, "Delicate Balance," March 17).

But in the society in which I want my child to live, no 9-year-old girl ever would be badgered and browbeaten for two hours by a male CPS worker until she told him what he wanted to hear -- while an armed male sheriff's deputy looked on.

No 9-year old would be so traumatized by questioning in the name of "child protection" that she becomes physically ill. No 9-year-old would be forced to endure a strip search and medical exam by total strangers, denied the comfort of anyone she knew and loved. No 9-year-old would be consigned to the chaos of America's foster care system for weeks, based on a false allegation of maltreatment.

All of these things happened to the child in the case now before the Supreme Court, and it all stemmed from that caseworker and deputy sheriff deciding, unilaterally, that they could march into school and ask the child anything they wanted in any way they wanted for as long as they wanted because they suspected the child's father had sexaully abused her and her sister. In ruling that this violated the child's constitutional rights, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals said that, except in emergencies, before questioning a child, caseworkers and police should seek permission from a parent or judge.

Contrary to the false stereotype that parents rush to cover up abuse, 90 percent of the time, when they're asked, parents say yes. In this very case, when authorities got around to asking permission to have trained professionals re-interview the child, the mother readily agreed.

In the rare cases when a parent says no, workers still can ask a judge. And if a child truly is in danger and there is no time to ask a judge, caseworkers and police remain free to question children entirely on their own authority.

In contrast, the state of Oregon wants to be free to keep doing what it did to the child in this case based on no more than -- and these are the state's own words -- "speculation and hearsay."

One need only recall the epidemic of false allegations involving mass molestation at day care centers in the 1980s, like the McMartin Preschool in California or the Wee Care nursery case in New Jersey, which ensnared Pittsburgh native Margaret Kelly Michaels, to understand how much harm can be done by botched interrogations of children. Such interrogations traumatize children and harm the innocent, and where there really has been abuse, they may divert attention from the real culprit. 40 News Summary March 18 –––April–April 1, 2011

So it's no wonder that the 70 organizations and individuals who signed onto 18 "friend of the court" briefs supporting the family in this case include groups like the prestigious Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia -- the group that exposed the "cash for kids" scandal in Luzerne County -- as well as the National Center for Youth Law and the Penn State Children's Advocacy Clinic.

All of these groups represent children in child welfare cases. They know better than anyone that the best way to "err on the side of protecting children" as the editorial put it, is to protect them against traumatizing, flawed interrogations.

The Ninth Circuit wisely ruled that an innocent child should have as much right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure as someone suspected of committing a crime. They understood that "children's rights" should include the one guaranteed by the Constitution's Fourth Amendment.

Richard Wexler is executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform ([email protected]). The coalition's vice president represented the family, pro bono, in this case.

Supreme Court Considers Rules for Police Questioning of Youths in Schools Youth Today (DC) By John Kelly March 23, 2011 (Subscription Required) http://www.youthtoday.org/view_article.cfm?article_id=4698

The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments today on whether police officers should consider age as a factor in determining whether a person being questioned is ”in custody.” Suspects in custody must be given a Miranda warning concerning their rights.

The case, J.D.B. v North Carolina, involves a 13-year-old boy who was questioned by police at his school in connection with two home burglaries. The teen was questioned in a closed (but not locked) room, in the presence of a police investigator, a police officer stationed at the school and an assistant principal...

Justices debate rights of juveniles USA Today By Joan Biskupic March 24, 2011 http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/judicial/2011-03-24-court24_ST_N.htm

WASHINGTON — How easy is it for police or judges to put themselves in the mind of a 13-year- old student whom an officer pulled from class and took to a closed room for questioning about stolen goods?

41 News Summary March 18 –––April–April 1, 2011

In an important test of the constitutional rights of juveniles at the Supreme Court on Wednesday, the question was whether law enforcement officials would know if the youth felt free to leave the room or not respond to questions.

The answer is crucial because if the suspect believes he is in custody, police are required to read him his Miranda rights, informing him he has a right to remain silent and that anything he says can be used against him.

"Let's take a hypothetical trial judge who is 60 years old and has an IQ that's at least average," Justice Samuel Alito posed. "You're asking this trial judge to decide whether ... say, a 14-year-old with an IQ of 85 would (believe) that he or she was free to leave?"

Alito said such exercise would take "greater imaginative powers" than he had.

During an hour of arguments that revealed the court's ideological split, Alito suggested that neither police, nor judges reviewing their actions, need consider a suspect's age.

Justice Elena Kagan differed sharply, asking, "Do we need either imaginative powers or empirical data to know that when a 13-year-old is brought into a room in his school, taken out of class, four people are there ... that that person is not going to feel free to take off and leave?"

"Well," Alito said a few beats later, "sympathetic cases make bad law."

The case testing constitutional protection against self-incrimination could affect myriad situations in which police question youths outside a station house or elsewhere before an arrest.

The dispute began in Chapel Hill, N.C., in 2005 when seventh-grader J.D.B., as he is identified in court filings, was taken from class by a police investigator to a conference room for questioning. An assistant principal and two other school employees were also there.

J.D.B. had been seen near two homes that had been broken into; a camera, cellphone and jewelry were among items missing. Under questioning, he said he had taken some of the items.

Lawyers for J.D.B., who was charged with one count of breaking and entering and one count of larceny, sought to keep his statements from being used against him because he had not been read his rights.

A trial judge denied the defense lawyers' motion, saying J.D.B. was not in custody when he was interrogated at the school.

On appeal Wednesday, J.D.B's lawyer, Barbara Blackman, said judges must weigh a juvenile's age to decide whether he was effectively "in custody" for the interrogation, to ensure that a young person was not coerced into a confession.

42 News Summary March 18 –––April–April 1, 2011

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper countered that judges traditionally look at how a "reasonable person" would view the situation, and considering age would fundamentally change the law and provide "no logical stopping point for adding other characteristics."

Justice Antonin Scalia, who appeared to be in the conservative camp with Alito, agreed, asking, "If age should be one of the factors, deciding whether the individual regarded himself as in custody or not, why shouldn't mental deficiency be so as well?"

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg joined Kagan in emphasizing the relevance of a young age: "Just as a matter of common sense, how can you say that we're going to have the same test for this 8-year- old as we would for the 30-year-old?"

Justice Stephen Breyer asked why an officer wouldn't simply err on the side of telling the suspect he was free to leave or giving the Miranda warning.

"Well, he might not want him to go," Cooper answered, adding that officers have an interest in getting suspects to talk.

The federal Justice Department has sided with North Carolina, as have 30 states. "Police are ill- equipped to make snap assessments as to how age ... will impact a person's belief that he is free to leave," the states say in a brief.

Among those siding with J.D.B. is the Juvenile Law Center, which argues that ignoring a suspect's age "would subject scores of youth to interrogations they neither wish to participate in nor fully understand ... but cannot, because of their age, terminate or leave." The group said youths are more likely than adults to make false confessions.

A ruling in J.D.B. v. North Carolina is likely by late June.

Report: Hundreds of Youths in Adult Prisons The Texas Tribune By Brandi Grissom March 24, 2011 http://www.texastribune.org/texas-state-agencies/texas-youth-commission/report-hundreds-of- youths-in-adult-prisons/

Texas judges, particularly in Harris County, are sending hundreds of adolescent, first-time violent offenders to state prison, a punishment lawmakers intended for youths considered the worst of the worst, according to a report set for release today.

“Adult jails and adult prisons are simply the wrong place to hold these kids,” says Michele Deitch, a professor at the University of Texas LBJ School of Public Affairs and author of the report "Juveniles in the Adult Criminal Justice System in Texas."

43 News Summary March 18 –––April–April 1, 2011

Texas law allows judges to certify as adults youths between the ages of 14 and 17 who have committed felony offenses. Once certified, they are housed in county jails while they await trial and, if convicted, they are sent the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

But young, violent offenders can also be given so-called determinate sentences of up to 40 years that begin in the Texas Youth Commission — and only continue on to adult prisons if the judge determines that is necessary.

From fiscal year 2005 to fiscal year 2010, Texas courts certified nearly 1,300 youths as adults. During that same time, about 860 youths received determinate sentences. According to the report, though, there was little difference in the criminality among youths sentenced to the adult system and those who were sent to youth facilities. In both cases, the majority committed a violent crime like aggravated robbery or sexual assault, and had one or no previous juvenile court cases. In most cases, the obvious difference was where the offender was tried. Harris County courts certified twice as many juvenile offenders as adults as any other county over the four-year time period studied. Judges in Harris County certified 301 youths as adults. Dallas County, by comparison, certified 141 offenders as adults during the same time period.

The problem with sending so many youths to adult facilities, particularly those who are not repeat violent offenders, is that they are not designed to rehabilitate and educate adolescents, Deitch said. Youths who are sent to adult prisons, she said, have a 100 percent greater risk of committing future violent offenses, according to the Centers for Disease Control. They are also more likely to develop mental health problems in prison, to be physically and sexually assaulted and to commit suicide.

As lawmakers consider expanding juvenile justice reforms they started in 2007, and work to keep more youths in community-based facilities and treatment programs, Deitch said they ought to also change the laws that allow youths to spend time in adult jails and prisons. Juveniles should only be eligible for sentencing to adult prison if they have first been through the juvenile system, she said. And while youths are awaiting trial, she said, they should be confined in local juvenile facilities, not county jails that are not equipped to deal with adolescents.

But Bill Connolly, a juvenile defense lawyer in Houston, said it was lawmakers' overzealous reform efforts that likely boosted the number of young offenders being sent to adult facilities. Lawmakers dropped the eligible age for Texas Youth Commission sentences from 21 to 19. When that happened, Connolly said, prosecutors were less likely to recommend that young people get sentenced to youth facilities because they wouldn't have enough time to benefit from the rehabilitation programs that TYC offers. For example, if a young person was charged with a violent offense at age 17, he could be ordered to participate in TYC's Capital and Serious Violent Offenders Program. But the wait to get into the program is at least one year, and it takes another year to complete the program."You don't have enough time to do that," Connolly said. So prosecutors and judges are more likely to send the young offender straight to the adult system if the crime is serious.

Lawmakers have already filed some bills that would address concerns about youths in adult prisons. State Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, said judges usually only send the worst of the worst

44 News Summary March 18 –––April–April 1, 2011 young offenders to the adult system and that each case should be examined individually. But he submitted a measure that would allow youths who have been certified as adults to stay in juvenile facilities while they await trial. And state Reps. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, and Pete Gallego, D- Alpine, have filed measures that would limit the types of offenses that would make an offender eligible for certification as an adult.

Ana Yañez-Correa, executive director of the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, said keeping youths in the juvenile system, where programs are designed to deal with their developing brains and characters, will produce better results and make Texans safer in the long run. “The bottom line is youths do not belong in adult settings,” she said.

Texas Tribune reporter Christopher Smith Gonzalez contributed reporting for this story.

Editorial: Juvenile injustice Proposals to reform broken system may leave localities with big costs The Buffalo News (NY) March 24, 2011 http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial-page/article374935.ece

When it comes to dealing with juvenile delinquents, not a lot of money is available for alternatives to detention and incarceration. As a result, New York spends more money than it should on locking up young people, instead of trying to help them rehabilitate their lives.

The Citizens Committee for Children is working on a juvenile justice reform campaign, an effort worth the attention of the governor and the Legislature.

In his State of the State speech, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo emphasized that juvenile justice cannot be a jobs program. To that end, he proposed closing some underutilized facilities and ending the 12-month rule that requires facilities slated for closure to be kept fully staffed for a full year even if they house no youth. That was a good start.

As the United Way of Buffalo & Erie County's Michael Weiner recently stated in The News' Another Voice column, young people should be kept closer to their homes and families, and provided with services that can direct them toward productive lives.

Cuomo is attempting to change a broken system but his proposal may require fine tuning. His idea is to create two community block grant funds for counties to tap into. One, for juveniles placed in local detention, would cost dramatically less than today's system. The second would help counties to create alternatives to detention and incarceration programs that they can tap into on a 62-38 cost split, with the state putting up the larger amount.

But in order to tap into state funding, cash-strapped counties without alternative youth programs would have to create them -- at taxpayer cost.

45 News Summary March 18 –––April–April 1, 2011

Cuomo also takes what is now an open-ended reimbursement stream for local detention, caps it and turns it into block grants, so localities are not paid for placing low- and medium-risk youth in detention. Instead, localities would be reimbursed only for high-risk youths in detention. In theory, that creates a great motivation for alternative programs, but there is a catch. In the absence of an actual infrastructure to divert youth from detention, costs for localities will rise, further hamstringing counties' ability to get to this new money on alternatives.

It's commonly believed, and for good reason, that low- to medium-risk youth can be successfully placed in cost-effective alternatives that tend to produce lower recidivism and higher graduation rates. But there are counties all over the state without alternatives to detention and incarceration or insufficient capacities.

The governor has signaled a willingness to find better alternatives to detention and incarceration for low- to moderate-risk youths -- profoundly less expensive than detention and incarceration. That's important and we encourage his attention. But localities have to be considered in the process.

Proposed cuts to Oregon juvenile justice would eliminate hundreds of beds The Oregonian By Les Zaitz March 25, 2011 http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/03/proposed_cuts_to_oregon_juveni.html

Oregon's youth offenders would get less help and less hope of escaping future trouble under reductions facing state and county operations.

The system is intended to keep the 15,600 kids a year referred to juvenile departments from ever seeing the inside of an adult prison. But Gov. John Kitzhaber proposes to take millions of dollars from youth programs to keep the adult prisons running.

That, executives at state and county juvenile agencies say, would hurt kids in the short term and be self-defeating in the long run.

Under the cuts, the state juvenile justice system would lose hundreds of beds housing the most at- risk kids. Some youths would be shifted to less secure community programs. Kids in those programs, in turn, would be bumped out the door just when they are most open to the changes that can set them straight for life, juvenile authorities say.

"These cuts will cause a major shift in how we handle juvenile justice in Oregon," said Scott Taylor, director of the Multnomah County Community Justice Department. Those who tend Oregon's young offenders appreciate the terrible budget chore facing the governor. But they say they have worked years to make their systems smarter and more focused, catching kids earlier and turning around even the seemingly most incorrigible. The number of criminal referrals to juvenile authorities has dropped by one-third in the past 10 years.

46 News Summary March 18 –––April–April 1, 2011

The governor, though, proposes to cut state operations to balance the 2011-13 budget. Because he's determined not to free violent adults for lack of money, he wants to leave the Department of Corrections' $1 billion prison system intact. With new costs and the expiration of federal stimulus funding, he needs to find an extra $200 million to do that.

That means he's carving money out of one agency after another.

"The Oregon Youth Authority was not singled out," said Tim Raphael, Kitzhaber's communications director. "It's not a pretty picture."

But stripping the Youth Authority of $34.5 million -- one-fifth of its general fund budget -- could force the agency to close some of its 11 institutions, which range from the 295-bed MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility in Woodburn to 50-bed compounds in La Grande, Warrenton and Burns.

The cuts also would reach down to county juvenile departments, many already weakened by local cuts, and to private programs that contract with the state and counties to provide youth services.

In an obscure but potent cut, Kitzhaber wants the state Education Department to cut back schooling for youths in state custody, saving an estimated $1.6 million. The combination of state, county and education cuts is significant, juvenile authorities say.

"It's a huge change," said Deb Patterson, Crook County juvenile department director and president of the state association of directors.

Colette Peters, who took over as Oregon Youth Authority director nearly two years ago after working as a Corrections Department executive, has pushed for efficiencies and a sharper focus. Youth programs, for example, must use only interventions proven to work.

Now, she and others predict, slamming on the brakes would hurtle kids through the system and back into trouble.

"Triage horror" The starkest change would be losing 412 "close-custody" beds -- the prison beds of the juvenile world. Here, young offenders get security, schooling and long-term attention to drug and alcohol addiction and, increasingly, mental health problems.

The state's close-custody program crested in 2001, with 1,131 beds for the worst youths. The state now operates 887 and forecasts it could use 962 beds. Under Kitzhaber's budget, the state would have fewer than half that.

Juvenile workers would face what one authority called "triage horror" in deciding where to send the most dangerous kids. And with fewer youths getting a chance at full state services, more will end up in community treatment programs.

That's a problem, said Torri Lynn, Linn County Juvenile Department director. "If those services

47 News Summary March 18 –––April–April 1, 2011 worked for those kids, they would not be going to close custody," Lynn said. "The kids failed at the lower level."

Advocates say state intervention also prepares the most challenging kids for intense treatment once they leave state custody and return to county juvenile departments or private operations such as Looking Glass Youth and Family Services in Eugene.

Looking Glass offers up to 18 months of treatment for a range of young offenders, including boys committed for sex offenses. Craig Opperman, chief executive officer, said the center also treats 15 girls at a time with "pretty severe behavior." Most have mental health issues compounded by drug or alcohol abuse.

A typical client has been in trouble since middle school, Opperman said, with ever-worsening drug habits. He said the girl may be promiscuous and involved in sex trafficking. Breaking that cycle requires the months of round-the-clock attention that Looking Glass provides.

"We make it with a great many of them," he said. But that success is rooted in time the girls first spend in state custody, where counselors and others help them overcome years of abuse. Without that, Opperman said, girls face a higher risk of winding up back on the street, racking up costs associated with pregnancy, disease or beatings by pimps.

"The last stop"

Counties and private agencies also work to keep youths out of state custody in the first place.

To that end, Kitzhaber proposes adding money for an additional 100 slots in residential programs. Every month, though, the juvenile system takes in an average of 400 kids considered at high risk of reoffending.

Kitzhaber also would boost payments to counties for diversion programs aimed at catching kids early. But overall, he would cut county payments by $6 million.

As a result, Taylor said Multnomah County might have to pare an intense alcohol and drug program that treats 15 youths at a time.

"This is the last stop," Taylor said. "If we can't get a change in their behavior, their next step will be the Youth Authority."

Opperman said the "pretty draconian" cuts most likely would mean youth offenders spend less time in the system even if they get in. They would move out faster, with less service, to make room for others.

The Legislature's Ways and Means Committee will start considering the Youth Authority's budget soon, though final decisions won't be made until later this spring.

In the meantime, state and county officials are meeting to figure out the path ahead if the

48 News Summary March 18 –––April–April 1, 2011 governor's budget is adopted. They are kicking around plans to cut back the number of parole violators in state beds, and examining how to speed up treatment programs but keep the same result.

But Peters said the number of youths sentenced to state custody is forecast to remain steady at 2,000 a year. She'll have to release one every time a judge sends another.

"That means youth in OYA's facilities will be released before completing treatment, which increases their likelihood to commit new crimes," Peters said.

Crook County's juvenile director said Oregonians should brace for higher recidivism rates.

"We'll be seeing more kids committing more crimes and victims being revictimized," Patterson said.

Juvenile justice authorities see failure when a kid gets into trouble again despite their efforts.

"We're in a business to reduce the failure rate and make the community safer. It's going to be harder and harder to achieve that end," Taylor said. "A higher failure rate just feeds the adult system."

Bill aims to up the prosecution age for juveniles Jacksonville Daily News (NC) By Wesley Brown March 27, 2011 http://www.enctoday.com/news/breath-72613-kfpress-strength-one.html

Surviving on the strength of a last-gasp adrenaline rush, Tyrone Collins took a breath for one final farewell to his family.

A bullet had penetrated his heart.

“I am not going to make it,” the 21-year-old said to his little sister and mother.

With a painful gasp, he added, “I love ya’ll.”

“I love you too,” Lisa Adams said to her first-born and only son.

Those parting words at the back door of Adams’ Richard Green apartment six months ago have left her angered and confused.

She wants the age-old law of retribution — a life for a life.

“I hope justice is served; I hope he gets the death penalty,” Adams said of Jerrell Pridgen, the lead suspect in her son’s homicide. “In order for you to go to heaven, you have to forgive. I will never forgive him because he had no reason to kill my son.” 49 News Summary March 18 –––April–April 1, 2011

Adams’ desired sentence will not happen. The most Pridgen — 17 at the time the crime occurred — could get if convicted is life in prison without parole, said Branny Vickory, district attorney for Lenoir County. Vickory said in cases of homicide, teens as young as 13 can be tried as an adult and sentenced to a life behind bars.

After six years of discussion, the state legislature is zeroing in on a proposal that would shift some teen offenders out of adult into juvenile court. While the sentiments of court officials suggest it is the right thing to do, financial obstacles remain to its easy implementation.

Protecting youth

A 2005 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in Roger v. Simmons outlawed the death penalty for defendants who were younger than 18 when their crimes were committed, because of the “general differences” distinguishing them from adults — a lack of maturity, greater weakness to peer pressure and an undeveloped character.

That ruling has influenced a national consensus among many state legislatures to up the cutoff age its adult court systems prosecute teenagers, an act that aims to make the court system less punitive and more forgiving of today’s youth.

The movement includes North Carolina — the only state besides New York where adulthood, in criminal matters, begins on the 16th birthday. In response to the order, the state’s sentencing and policy advisory commission began talks in 2005 to raise the age at which the adult court system prosecutes juveniles. After two failed attempts in consecutive legislative sessions, the idea has finally progressed.

A 2011 report by the state’s Youth Accountability Task Force — a body of 70 legislators and experts appointed by the General Assembly in 2009 to design a plan to implement the law change — found that for nearly all of young offenders the juvenile justice system is better able to redirect their behavior due to the greater availability of rehabilitative services, said Sen. Ellie Kinnaird, D- Orange, co-chair of the task force.

Gov. Bev Perdue issued an executive order Jan. 14 to extend the task force’s 18 months of research through 2012. Three days later, the group submitted its final report to the General Assembly for another round of debate, Kinnaird said.

“We have excellent sponsors in the House and Senate we feel like can shepherd through the bill we are introducing,” Kinnaird told The Free Press in a telephone interview this week. “This is something we can wholeheartedly recommend for the people of North Carolina, as far as public safety is concerned, as well as restoring youth on the right path without penalizing them as adult criminals.”

Money, money, money

50 News Summary March 18 –––April–April 1, 2011

The newest recommendation would send 16- and 17-year-olds to the juvenile system if they are charged with a misdemeanor or a low-level, nonviolent felony — a class the State Bureau of Investigation reported includes 97 percent of the teens arrested in those age ranges.

The remaining 16- and 17-year-olds cited for traffic violations, previously convicted in Superior Court or charged with a serious, violent felony — such as armed robbery, arson, child abuse, embezzlement, kidnapping, manslaughter, murder, attempted murder and rape — will be treated as adults.

“It is up for consideration and most people think it will happen,” said Lenoir County District Court Judge Beth Heath, who, up until this year, primarily handled juveniles. “The question is just how will it be implemented and where will we get the funding to do it because it will change things.”

Scientific evidence that shows youth continue to undergo significant brain development into their 20s and lack the decision-making of adults may not be enough to trump the legislation’s money obstacles for a state grappling with a budget deficit.

More teens will fall under the jurisdiction of the court and correctional system North Carolina maintains for juveniles — the Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention — than the adult system — the Department of Correction. In some instances, the juvenile systems currently retains jurisdiction until the offender turns 19.

The juvenile system has a higher staff-to-offender ratio and more intensive programming that focuses on treatment and rehabilitation, said Heath and Vickory, also a skeptic of funding.

“It is a lot more expensive to prosecute a juvenile,” Vickory said. “The system has an incredible amount of resources it puts into its sentencing. It would be absurd to all of a sudden dump the system’s current requirements on the manpower it has now.”

The two said the state will have to hire more courtroom officials and counselors as the influx of teens entering the juvenile system will force the state to have delinquency court in Lenoir County more than once every two weeks. They said more money will need to be allocated locally to hold teens in youth detention and youth development centers.

If they cannot afford that, Vickory said it could come down to doing away with some of the mandated services the Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention offers in and out-of-the home, a list Heath said includes mentoring, psychological evaluations and therapy.

Right now, the department has 11 youth development centers across the state designed to rehabilitate youth. Two of the hubs are in Kinston on Dobbs Farm Road, including the Lenoir Youth Development Center, which houses 32 youth. Dobbs Youth Development Center neighbors Lenoir.

Expense reports from the court system estimate it costs between $100,000 and $120,000 each year to house one child at a youth development center. For short-term confinement, Lenoir County teens are taken to a youth detention center in Pitt County, at a cost of $178 a day, an expense the state splits with the county.

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A win-win

The cost may seem exorbitant, but advocates emphasized a statistic from the Department of Correction that states youth who serve time in an adult prison in North Carolina are more likely to be reconvicted than those punished and rehabilitated in the juvenile system.

“Remember to look at it on the front end,” Heath cautioned opponents. “If we spend the money on this kid now, most likely he or she is not going to be coming back as an adult.”

An analysis by the Vera Institute of Justice, a criminal justice research group that has advocated alternatives to prison, found that transferring about 31,000 16- and 17-year-olds to North Carolina’s juvenile system would cost approximately $71 million annually, but generate $123 million in benefits each year, on the assumption it frees up the DOC.

The change would also increase federal funding to the state by as much as 20 percent as it would satisfy the requirements of the Federal Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevent Act. North Carolina fails to meet the parts of the law that call for removing low-level offenders from jails and lockups and keeping the minors that qualify for retention in adult jails separated.

Plus, juvenile court records are sealed, making it easier for young people who do not commit crimes as adults to find jobs, apply for food stamps and public housing and receive financial aid for college. In turn, as productive citizens, they may pump money back into the local economy.

Kinston attorney Mark Herring has represented many 16- and 17-year-olds in Lenoir County Superior Court. Like Heath, he feels trying to reform teenagers in the juvenile setting is much more effective and efficient than punishing them in adult court. “In a lot of these crimes, the teenagers just have not grown up yet,” said Herring, of the White and Allen law firm. “They are still liable to do the foolish things that kids do and to hold them to the standard of an adult is somewhat unrealistic.”

Herring, the lawyer first appointed to represent Pridgen, agreed the law should be limited to misdemeanors and low-level, nonviolent felonies. Herring withdrew from representing Pridgen due to a conflict of interest. Richard McNeil, of Jacksonville, now serves as Pridgen's attorney.

“This would be society’s one break for them making a mistake, one last chance for them to get on the right track before it is too far to come back,” he said.

The two argued a fine in adult court does not compare to the stringent level of accountability to which the juvenile systems holds offenders and their parents.

It requires the family to meet regularly with a counselor, and for the child to attend school, get good grades, abide by a curfew and do community service.

With those requirements in place, paired with help from area schools, the number of petitions — or charges — filed against juveniles in Greene, Lenoir and Wayne counties has dropped by 300 in

52 News Summary March 18 –––April–April 1, 2011 the last two years, said Joe Testino, chief court counselor for the Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s three-county district.

“With everything, you are going to have a group that just does not make it,” Testino said. “But we see a lot of successes locally. A lot of kids in a lot of families turn around.”

Wesley Brown can be reached at 252-559-1075 or [email protected].

Breakout:

By the numbers (with numbers bolded, enlarged)

1909 — The year North Carolina set its age of juvenile jurisdiction at 16 18 – The age 37 states, the District of Columbia and the federal government have set for adult criminal responsibility 17 – The age 11 states, including Connecticut, which is “phasing-in” a change, have set 300 – The rough number of cases weekly on the Lenoir County District Court docket 32 – The number of juveniles held at Lenoir County Youth Development Center 100,000 – The cost to annually house youth at the center on Dobbs Farm Road 123 – The benefits, in millions, upping the age to 18 would generate

States Struggle With Minors’ Sexting The New York Times By JAN HOFFMAN March 27, 2011 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/27/us/27sextinglaw.html

Some states have amended their statutes on child pornography, obscenity or Internet crimes. Many allow juvenile offenders to be charged with a misdemeanor or a lesser offense, so they can qualify for diversion programs and have their records expunged.

A few states have tried to define a sexting offense.

The laws have had a mixed response. While many experts, educators and parents applaud the lessening of sanctions for what is often seen as thoughtless adolescent risk-taking, others deplore the establishment of a new crime that could not only intrude on First Amendment rights but could also sweep more children into the court system.

As Susan Hanley Duncan notes in a recent article in the Oregon Law Review about such legislation, the states disagree philosophically about the nature of the offense, which participants should be punished and which factors may aggravate or mitigate the criminal charge.

Provisions in a new Nebraska law punish those who forward an image but not its creator. A proposed law in Ohio would charge minors who produced the image as well.

53 News Summary March 18 –––April–April 1, 2011

A proposal in North Dakota would increase sanctions for someone who circulated a photo with the intention to humiliate the minor. Conversely, a few states, like Texas, propose to grant immunity to minors who destroy the image or report it to the authorities within 48 hours.

Not only do states disagree about who should be prosecuted, they also differ over how to define the content to be criminalized.

Some states propose new misdemeanor crimes for minors who exchange photos that are “lewd and lascivious.” Others would create a misdemeanor for minors who send a minor’s “nude” images — a category that might not survive First Amendment challenges.

Pennsylvania is proposing relatively mild sanctions for minors who transmit images of “sexually explicit conduct,” but the depiction of activities like penetration, sadism and masturbation could bring more severe penalties.

New Jersey is considering a bill that would send first-time juvenile offenders to educational diversion programs. Other proposed bills would require schools to provide students and parents with information on sexting and require stores that sell cellphones to give customers pamphlets on it.

Some district attorneys have made such cases a priority but, using prosecutorial discretion, have designed specialized diversion programs.

Mathias H. Heck Jr., prosecuting attorney for Montgomery County, Ohio, requires teenagers charged with sexting to turn in their cellphones, perform community service and receive education about age-appropriate sexual behavior and the legal and social consequences of sexting. Since the six-month program was started about two years ago, about 60 teenagers have attended.

New Legislation Marks S. Capitol St. Shootings Anniversary WRC-TV (Washington, DC) March 31, 2011 http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/S-Capitol-St-Shootings-Anniversary-Marked-With-New- Legislation-118942284.html

Friends and family of the victims of last year's South Capitol Street multiple shooting gathered at the John A. Wilson Building on the anniversary of the shooting for the announcement of a youth mental health and juvenile justice initiative.

D.C. Councilman David Catania introduced the South Capital Street Tragedy Memorial Act, which would try to identify mental health problems in young people and tighten truancy laws, NBC Washington's Pat Collins reported.

The legislation would mandate behavioral health screening for students from Head Start through high school and provide mediators to help parents find mental health care for juveniles who need

54 News Summary March 18 –––April–April 1, 2011 it. The legislation also would implement earlier truancy intervention and penalties for parents of truants.

Catania said the legislation is about collecting data and using it correctly.

"We have to make a decision whether or not we do nothing or we do something, and we know the consequences of doing nothing," Catania said.

On March 30, 2010, a group of mourners was gathered in the 4000 block of South Capitol Street SE after a friend's funeral when there was a barrage of gunfire from another group of young people driving by. Nine people were struck, and four teenagers were killed. A shooting earlier that evening was linked to the mass shooting.

"It was nothing like I've ever seen in my life," said Ra'Shanna Brown, who was hit twice and whose sister was killed. "It was just a massacre. It happened so fast I didn't know what was going on or what to think."

It was the culmination of a series of violence acts that began over a stolen bracelet, authorities said.

One of the men charged in the shooting, Nathaniel Simms, has pleaded guilty to his role in the shooting. Several other people charged in the shooting and a previous incident are scheduled to appear in court for a hearing in the case April 22.

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