Juvenile Justice System of the Future

Juvenile Justice System
of the Future


























Juvenile Justice System
of the Future
Strayer University
Professor – Lori Baggot
Assignment #7
CRJ 180
Online Summer 2012
Felicia McCaw



Juvenile Justice System
of the Future
1


The first court established to handle the acts of criminality of juveniles was established in 1899 in Chicago. Prior to this court system all juveniles under the age of 17 were processed in the same system as adults for crimes committed. Based on the theory that juveniles were not mature enough to realize the severity of their violation they were allowed this leeway. Because the rehabilitated features allowed the goal that was established to help rather than incarcerate youth as an adult most juveniles of today follow a similar pattern of yesterday which includes acts of deviancy, violence and criminal activity.
Research has been done to clarify and separate categories of a deviant youth committing crimes who may be processed as a juvenile or as a “super predators” and it is not the same amount as compared to yesterday’s numbers which are steadily increasing and require more tougher laws that call for more stricter laws to correct behavior to circumvent crimes done by juveniles.
Because of the escalating acts of criminality the system is overloaded with juvenile delinquents and the need to effectively process them in a more expedient fashion. Streamlining to the bare bones is necessary to keep up with the continual acts of criminality that is spiraling out of control due to over leniency. The revamping of the Juvenile Justice System would entail relatively few changes since it is really quite streamlined as it is. During the processing of deletion this would entail the systematic removal of steps to further help the ensuring of legal processing fairly but eliminate the costly procedures that create a drain on resources.
The retaining of confidentiality of juvenile court records and proceedings would be retained and the intake process is a process that accounts for considerable paperwork and is a
section that relates to accumulating of processing of information. This would entail the offering

Juvenile Justice System
of the Future
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of the change of the “consent decree” that would signify the agreement to give victim restitution, school attendance, drug counseling or a curfew.
Informal disposition and informal probation that is offered would be in the phased out section and a proceeding to formal processing would be done immediately. Removal of the
option of being ward of the state by the court would not be considered if the act is of a felonious nature. The removal of a jury trial would be deemed unnecessary but with the retaining of the adjudicatory trial for non-felonious criminal acts. Acts of which are considered to be of a felonious nature are not eligible for waivers and will allow the offender to be removed to jail to be intaked and processed as an adult.
Otherwise those who committed acts of a non-felonious act would still be eligible for retention in a secure juvenile detention facility. No review will be done to determine if deviants should be held for processing and determining of sentence will be done immediately during a general work day or otherwise if received on a weekend then on the first work day of Monday and within a two week period.
The adjudicatory and dispositional hearing will be done the same week of reception of juvenile offenders has been incepted in care. After the adjudication, the probation staff will assign youth to a program which is a condensed rehabilitation work assignment and educational requirement and disregard psychological evaluations, diagnostic tests and phase out the commitment of confinement to a diagnostic facility. Probation is ordered after dismissal from the detention facility and any breaking of probation will require the commencing of reentry through the judicial system for juveniles if the juvenile has committed a non-felonious crime and if a felonious crime has been committed they will be placed in jail and processed through the

Juvenile Justice System
of the Future
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criminal system for adults. The judge will relay the type and length of sentence based on the nature of crime and close the case after fulfillment of sentence.
Measuring success of proposed changes will be reflected by statistical data compiled from processing cases through the Juvenile Justice System and the adult criminal system that processes juveniles that have committed acts of criminality of a felonious nature. If reflected a decrease this will allow a quick overview if the new revamped system is addressing the need for competency and quickness in processing backloads of cases because of excessive steps presently done.




















REFERENCE

Snyder, H.N. & Sickmund, M. (2006). Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 2006 National Report. National Center for Juvenile Justice. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP).
Retrieved from:
www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/nr2006/downloads/nr2006.pdf