THE CHOICE ; Times-Union Investigation: Juvenile Justice? Jacksonville youth in legal trouble have a decision to make: Agree to time in a juvenile…
| By Topher Sanders | |
| Proquest LLC |
THE CHOICE ; Times-Union Investigation: Juvenile Justice?
State Attorney
Monica, who had never been in legal trouble before, was arrested in
Though school officials, pastors and a coach spoke up for the girl with a college scholarship already in hand, though state officials assessed her as low risk to re-offend, Monica and her mom felt they had little choice.
"I felt pressured into it; I was out of options," said
If Monica had been arrested in a different
The 4th Judicial Circuit, which consists of
That's usually a plea deal reached between a juvenile's lawyer and the prosecutor. When juveniles agree to plea deals, they are often incarcerated without the chance to hear the evidence against them, examine police work or interview witnesses.
And hundreds of those deals in the
There were 1,475 direct commitments in the
During that same period, there were just 34 in
In
More juveniles who DJJ deems to be low risk to re-offend have been committed from the
The juveniles took deals that sentenced them to months or even years in costly facilities throughout
"It's not a good practice," said
Shirk said the laws on charging juveniles as adults need to be changed to allow for reviews of those decisions.
"You change the law, then you don't have those problems," he said. "You don't have those threats."
The Times-Union asked Corey and her office for an interview related to this story in November, then again in December. Two weeks ago, emails were sent and phone calls were made to Corey's office again requesting an interview.
At
"Juvenile cases and the negotiations that occur in juvenile cases are handled no differently than how an adult case moves through the judicial system," the statement said.
The statement said once her office determines a charge is provable, the defense is given the opportunity to present mitigation and negotiate. In violent crimes, cases are reviewed for adult charges.
"While that process is underway, prosecutors routinely ask defense counsel for offers in their cases," the statement said. "That is a standard part of criminal case resolution."
Critics of this practice by Corey's office said it doesn't improve community safety, shows a lack of respect for juveniles' constitutional rights and compels some juveniles into facilities who shouldn't be there.
Some juveniles have been threatened with adult court while being offered plea deals, only to have Corey's office later drop the case, attorneys said. In those instances the juvenile was one decision away from accepting a stain on their record, most times a felony, for something the state ultimately decided not to pursue.
He said that juveniles who are accused of breaking the law must face consequences for their crimes but that Corey's office's approach tramples their constitutional rights to determine whether they actually broke the law.
The merits of the case, Gowdy said, should determine whether a juvenile's case is filed in adult court - not the juvenile's decision on whether or not to exercise their right to a trial.
"They're using their power to charge juveniles for serious crimes in adult court to extract guilty pleas for less serious crimes that should be handled in juvenile court," he said.
He called the practice an improper use of a prosecutor's power, one tantamount to the state holding a hammer over the juvenile's head.
"Everybody in the system should respect our constitution and the rights that it gives us, and when the state puts such a huge hammer over an individual - in this case a child - for exercising that right, then it shows that the state is not fully respecting those rights," said Gowdy.
The practice is "bush league," said
"They're forcing the kid into a corner of going to a commitment or being sent to adult court," he said, "and most of the kids are scared of going to the county jail or adult court, so before they do anything they'll actually jump and enter a plea."
None of Simmons' clients could be reached or were willing to speak for this story. In fact, out of more than two dozen private attorneys contacted by the Times-Union for this story, only a few were willing to be quoted about the issue.
Two lawyers declined comment, citing concerns that Corey's office would retaliate against them or their clients.DJJ RECOMMENDATION
Typically when a juvenile is incarcerated and DJJ has a chance to make a recommendation, the department evaluates what is causing the juvenile to break the law and looks at the child's social history and treatment needs. It also provides a plan for treatment.
Negotiated pleas that skip or ignore DJJ's individualized assessment undermine the credibility of the juvenile justice system, said
"As a parent, as a member of a community and as a juvenile justice professional, I just think that's wrong," said Bilchik, who is a former
Incarcerating low-risk children alongside more hardened youth is detrimental for the low-risk juveniles and for the communities they return to, said Mason, the head of the
"The whole point is you keep those children away from the high- risk children because you don't want them rubbing elbows with other children that have committed many, many offenses and that start telling them how to hot-wire a car, they start telling them the best way to break into a house," Mason said. "It just makes them more likely to recidivate and commit crimes."
The department uses the Positive Achievement Change Tool (PACT) to determine a juvenile's risk to re-offend, scoring juveniles as either low risk, moderate risk, moderate-high risk or high risk. The process is similar to that used by the insurance industry to determine risk, and the tool used by DJJ has been independently and scientifically validated three times, a DJJ official said.
DJJ's recommendations on what should happen with young people accused of crimes mean little to Corey's office, said Carr, who retired from her position in September.
"
Brady didn't return a call for comment.MONICA'S CASE
She started to "lose myself," she said.
"It's hard to better yourself there," Monica said. "I was starting to have a bad attitude ... didn't want to be around nobody. Because every time I would be around them they [were] talking about negative stuff."
But she had to spend time with the other girls or she wouldn't receive points toward going home.
She developed relationships with the girls, but it was clear to her that "they don't want the same things that I want in life," she said.
Before she was given the choice to accept a plea deal or be charged as an adult, many in the community spoke up to say that Monica wasn't a danger to the
One of her teachers said she was a leader and a focused student. Pastors praised her academics and called her kind and respectful. Her high school principal said she was a model for younger students. She excelled at running track and playing soccer, and she had a scholarship offer to a university in
Records show DJJ evaluation tools continually found Monica to be a low risk to re-offend.
But in the judicial system, the focus was on what happened the night of Monica's arrest.
On
Monica said she and another teen sat in the car. After the failed robbery, the other two teens returned to the car and they all drove off, she said. Monica was in a passenger seat. Police were led on a chase that ended with all four teens running from the vehicle, the report said. Monica said she ran because she feared for her safety; she was found under a car nearby.
Monica consistently said she knew nothing about the robbery and played no part in it, but police and Corey's office didn't believe her. Monica said police told her they thought she was a lookout. She was arrested and charged with armed robbery with a firearm and resisting an officer without violence.
She spent the next 73 days in detention as the state attempted to get information out of Monica about the robbery. Several times, prosecutors stated adult charges were being considered.
"Every court date, We're ready to direct file, we're ready to adjudicate,' " Belinda said, recounting the prosecutor's comments in court.
In the Friday statement, Corey's office excerpts five sentences from an email exchange between Carson and an unidentified prosecutor showing the two sides discussed a commitment.
"Carson told the prosecutor, 'I have all of the mitigation together and we are working on formulating an offer. Obviously she will be willing to cooperate fully. Now I understand that there may be some commitment involved if we are able to settle. She is on board, I am just curious as to what level of commitment we should offer. I hate to come in with a lowball on such a serious case.' " the statement said.
Carson was out of town Friday and didn't have access to his records.
"As I best recall, the commitment offer did not rise from the defense," Carson said. He said the email doesn't contradict his account.
The state put the nine-month deal on the table, and Monica and her family took it.
Her scholarship and dreams of attending college in the fall of 2013 vanished.
The
It would be "very rare" that the state would recommend commitment for a juvenile receiving a low or moderate risk to re-offend evaluation, said
"In general for a low- and moderate-risk kid, you're going to be looking at some level of community placement," he said.
Mason said Corey's office disagrees with DJJ's assessments and doesn't believe in the tool's ability to predict the likelihood of youth behavior.
During the past five years, 23 percent of the 4th Circuit's youth evaluated to be low or moderate risk to re-offend were committed to high- or maximum-risk facilities. That compares to 14 percent statewide.
Threatening juveniles with adult charges is a driving factor for the
Lawyers, advocates, probation professionals and parents said this is evidence the state's lawmakers should consider a checks-and- balances mechanism on a prosecutor's power to charge a juvenile as an adult. They propose either giving juvenile judges the power to make the call or, at minimum, creating a judicial process allowing review of the prosecutor's decision.
Simmons, the local lawyer who called the practice "bush league," said Corey's office will also keep juveniles in the detention facility for long periods of time or repeatedly ask for continuances, which ultimately intimidate or frighten them into taking commitments.
In some instances, the state speaks about pursuing adult charges against a juvenile only to later drop charges altogether. That's what happened to
In
One of the friends dropped a loaded handgun and crack cocaine into her car when he noticed police approaching, she said.
Police found the gun and crack, and Jasmine was arrested. She contends that the gun and drugs weren't hers and that she knew nothing about them.
"They were about to break me down because I got tired,"
Jasmine, like Monica, had never been in legal trouble before.
"It was scary because they kept trying to make me plead," Jasmine said. "It was my word against the state attorney and what they thought."
Jasmine's father was adamant that his daughter wouldn't take a deal "for something she didn't do." The family hired a private attorney, and after 90 days, the state unceremoniously dropped the case.
"They never had a case,"
Attorney
"They wanted me to enter into a plea negotiations without a juvenile petition being filed," he said. "From an ethical standpoint, I couldn't do that. That's lazy prosecuting. Why would a prosecutor do that?"
Jasmine and her parents said Corey's office wasn't seeking justice, just someone to punish.
The Times-Union provided Corey's office with Jasmine's case number for comment, but the Friday statement does not address the case.THE DIFFERENCESIN
In line with the decline of nearly all local and state crime statistics, arrests and the number of juveniles charged as adults are significantly down over the past decade. The numbers of incarcerated youth in the state and the
Still,
The difference between
In
It's a substantial difference from what local attorneys describe happens in
"It's not done like that at all, as far as any coerciveness or anything," he said.
Zerlin and his boss, State Attorney
"They are a necessary stakeholder in the system, and their input is valuable in making the right decision in each case," he said.
In the
Direct commitments also happened under Corey's predecessor,
But during Corey's tenure, the number of direct commitments has more than doubled compared to the last five years of Shorstein's tenure. There were 662 direct commitments under Shorstein, compared to 1,475 under Corey.
Shorstein and his office didn't use the threat of adult court to compel a plea, said Carr, the former probation chief who retired in September.
"It never happened before," she said. "It just happened since Ms. Corey came in. That never happened under another administration."
Mason, the head of the juvenile division for the
Attorneys in Shorstein's office understood the significance of prosecuting a child as an adult, welcomed dialogue and were flexible, Mason said.
"This administration isn't as likely to change its mind," Mason said. "This administration isn't as likely to engage in as much dialogue as before."
Carr said she had a working relationship with Shorstein's office that she was not able to develop with Corey's office. She said the use of the adult charges threat is an example of Corey's "punishment- first philosophy."
Carr said she suspects more than half of the estimated 800 juveniles who accepted plea deals after being threatened with adult charges are children who would have been better suited for non- commitment services.
After hearing some of the details of Monica's case, Carr said that because Monica had no prior arrest, a supportive home environment, good behavior in school and positive academic goals, "there's no way that I would have recommended commitment for her."
"Particularly knowing that a felony commitment would hurt her future aspirations significantly," she said. "There are other mechanisms that would have allowed her to stay in the community and be held accountable."WHAT'S NEXT FOR MONICA?
It was so apparent to state officials that
Juvenile records are not available to the public, but Monica and her attorney gave the Times-Union access to her juvenile file.
The transfer request was denied.
Monica also refused to give up on her dream to go to college. But to get into one of the colleges of her choice, she needed to retake her college admissions tests. Officials at the commitment facility were even willing to personally escort Monica to the testing location.
The request was denied.
DJJ officials said they were prohibited from speaking directly about Monica's case but said both requests needed a judge's approval.
When reached by the Times-Union, Mahon said he couldn't speak about specific cases.
"I'm supposed to be bettering myself," Monica said. "I'm preparing for college, and y'all don't want me to go take the ACT or SAT?"
Not able to verify or take the word of officials at Raines that she had passed the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, the facility made her take the FCAT again, Monica said. She passed.
"They didn't believe that I was that smart," she said.
Officials found Monica's original FCAT records after she was made to retake the exam, she said.
Monica is in cosmetology school now until she can enter college as a freshman this fall. She wants to study music and psychology. She would like to help young people.
Corey's statement noted that neither Monica's family nor her attorney complained about her case.
"This case was handled appropriately considering the violent nature of the crime Ms. Jones committed," the statement from Corey's office said.
Belinda, Monica's mom, said officials in Corey's office never saw Monica for who she is.
"All they saw was a girl that they believed was a lookout for a robbery, a part of a robbery," Belinda said. "They never looked at her character."
Secretary
"The only thing that is in the power of this department to do is to work harder with that community in order to develop the confidence so that the judges and the state attorney trust this department to provide the right services and work with that family and keep that child from re-offending," said Walters, who was appointed by Gov.
It costs more than 12 times as much per day to incarcerate a youth than it does to put a youth on probation. Taxpayers pay
It cost taxpayers between
State Attorney
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