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 A NEWSLETTER OF RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN JUVENILE LAW AND RESEARCH PROVIDED BY THE NATIONAL JUVENILE JUSTICE PROSECUTION CENTER
Volume II, Issue 5, May 2004
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RECENT CASES
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| CONFESSIONS |
In re Q.N., __ N.J. __ (N.J. 2004)—The New Jersey Supreme Court reversed two lower court rulings excluding a juvenile’s confession. The 12-year-old’s confession to sexual assault came immediately after his mother left the interrogation room but remained in an adjoining room where she could hear the interview and interrupt it at any time. The Court held that the circumstances of the case constituted an exception to its “bright-line rule” in State v. Presha, 163 N.J. 304 (2000) requiring parents to be present for interviews with suspects under age 14. As a result, the confession is admissible in the juvenile delinquency case.
http://lawlibrary.rutgers.edu/courts/supreme/a-106-02.opn.html
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GANG PROSECUTION
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In re Jorge G., __Cal.App.4th ___ (5th Dist. 2004)—The California Court of Appeals upheld the constitutionality, with limiting definitions, of California’s Proposition 21 gang member registration law. The Court held that some of the terms used in the statute could be construed as unconstitutionally vague or overbroad, but with appropriately limited definitions, which the Court supplied in its opinion, the statute was constitutional. The Court remanded to allow the prosecution to submit evidence to comply with the statute’s new definitions.
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data2/californiastatecases/f043272.pdf
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SEX OFFENDERS
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In re Luis C., __Cal.App.4th ___ (5th Dist. 2004), In re Howard N., 115 Cal.App.4th 1134 (5th Dist. 2004)—In these two cases, the California Court of Appeals struck down as an unconstitutional violation of due process the California statutes which permit the extension of detention of juvenile offenders who would be physically dangerous to the public because of a mental disorder. Both cases involved violent sex offenders who had been found by juries to be a continuing danger to the public because of their “mental deficiency, disorder or abnormality.” In holding the statute and jury verdicts unconstitutional, the appellate court found that the statute did not sufficiently “link future dangerousness to a mental abnormality that impairs behavior control.”
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data2/californiastatecases/f043304.pdf
http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/documents/F043006.PDF
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LEGAL ETHICS/MISREPRESENTATION
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D.C. Bar Association Opinion 323,—“Lawyers employed by government agencies who act in a non-representational official capacity in a manner they reasonably believe to be authorized by law do not violate Rule 8.4 if, in the course of their employment, they make misrepresentations that are reasonably intended to further the conduct of their official duties.”
http://www.dcbar.org/for_lawyers/ethics/legal_ethics/opinions/opinion323.cfm
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Readin', writin', 'rithmetic, probation, PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE—“After a decade of state funding, probation officers now work the hallways of schools in 40 Pennsylvania counties. More than security guards, they're also social workers, employing a combination of coercion and cajoling to help delinquents succeed. It began as an experiment 14 years ago in eastern Pennsylvania at two middle schools in Allentown. At year's end, the results were promising, with decreases in dropouts (29 percent), absenteeism (15 percent), lateness (9.5 percent), detentions and suspensions (4 percent) and a 4.1 percent increase in grades. Those statistics prompted rapid expansion. Today, the state sponsors the largest school-based probation officer program in the country.”
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04102/298757.stm
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Follow-Up Planned for Juvenile Delinquency Forum, NATIVE AMERICAN TIMES—“A recent forum on juvenile delinquency has sparked a follow-up meeting on the Navajo reservation.… One focus of the meeting will be to discuss the development of parenting education, addressing the ‘babies having babies’ problem.… Crime is another – arguably more pressing – problem for the Navajo Nation to deal with. Reservations, [delegate George] Arthur said, experience the highest violent crime rates among young people. It is estimated that half of the Navajo population is under the age of 18. ‘We tend to blame the law – law enforcement being limited,’ he told the Native American Times. ‘By the time it gets to the law, the kids are already going astray.’”
http://nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=4307
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Teen Drunken Driving Is Rising, MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL—“Even as the number of adults arrested for drunken driving in Wisconsin leveled off over the past decade, juvenile arrests for the crime nearly doubled, according to a new state report.… ‘We try to do everything we can here,’ Waukesha County District Attorney Paul Bucher said of law enforcement officials in a county with a sharp increase in teenage drunken driving. ‘We try to make sure that people know we're out there everywhere and we're going to catch them. But beyond that we have to do more in the way of education, and I just don't see us doing it.’”
http://www.jsonline.com/news/state/mar04/218075.asp?format=print
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GPS Tracks State's Youth Offenders, THE [DELAWARE] NEWS JOURNAL—“The state Division of Youth and Rehabilitative Services is using satellite tracking technology to monitor juvenile offenders under house arrest. The agency is the first in the state to use a global positioning system to track offenders. Texas-based Big Brother Monitoring provides surveillance. … ‘Because we feel children are better served in the community, this program serves as an alternative to residential placement, doesn't compromise community safety and affords the division the capability to modify the child's behavior if necessary,’ [Division spokeswoman Deborah] Kelly said.”
http://www.delawareonline.com/newsjournal/local/2004/03/26gpstracksstates.html
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Playing Hooky: Cops Nab 41 Truants, TUCSON CITIZEN—“Skipping school, ditching, playing hooky. Whatever the label, many see truancy as nothing more than kids taking a break from classes. But local educators, prosecutors and law officers say it too often sets the stage for more serious crimes. ‘Truancy is America's gateway crime,’ said Tom Mulligan, a Tucson Unified School District safety office supervisor who helped round up wayward students yesterday in a truancy sweep that netted 41 children. … County Attorney Barbara LaWall, who started the truancy program in 1994, said 80 percent of Arizona prison inmates lack a high school diploma, and 99 percent were chronic truants before dropping out of school.”
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/index.php?page=local&story_id=032604_truancy
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Federal Judge Reopens Sentencing for Juvenile, NEW YORK TIMES—“At the order of a federal appeals court, a Federal District Court judge in Portland, Me., has reopened the sentencing hearing for a boy who as a 14-year-old in 2002 set fire to a boatyard containing an engine that belonged to former President George Bush and was sentenced to 30 months in a maximum security juvenile prison. The reopening will give the family of the teenager, Patrick Vorce, a chance to argue that he was treated illegally when Judge George Singal, of Federal District Court in Portland, had him sent to a juvenile prison in Pennsylvania that is under contract to the federal Bureau of Prisons, said his lawyer and stepfather, Robert Mongue. The prison is a 13-hour drive from Patrick's home in Kennebunk, Me., and provides little education or counseling services, his family and lawyers say. The case is considered highly unusual because, under federal law, juveniles are supposed to be tried in local juvenile courts and incarcerated in local facilities. Patrick is the only juvenile from New England or from New York, Ohio or Pennsylvania in the custody of the federal Bureau of Prisons, a bureau spokesman, Dan Dunne, said.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/28/national/28JUVE.html
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| But from the victim’s point of view… |
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For Victims, Arson's Ruin Still Smolders, PORTLAND PRESS HERALD—“That sympathetic portrait of the teenager irks the men whose boatyard sustained more than $1 million in damage that July night in 2002. They doubt their business will ever fully recover. Just after 7 a.m. the day of the fire, Paul Larivlere got a call from the Biddeford police. An officer said the boat-repair business he and his brother had built was in flames.… ‘I will never forget it,’ Larivlere recalled in an interview. ‘I beat most of the fire trucks here.’…The business did not have enough insurance to cover the damage, and its out-of-pocket property losses came to more than $200,000, said co-owner Mark Larivlere. He said they could not afford enough insurance to cover such extensive damages. More than 20 customers also lost property. Since the fire, Paul Larivlere has often felt like throwing in the towel. ‘When that place burned, it took a part of me,’ he said. ‘You spend more time cleaning things than you do fixing them now.’”
http://www.pressherald.com/news/york/040312fire.shtml
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Gun Violence Among Serious Young Offenders, OFFICE OF COMMUNITY ORIENTED POLICING SERVICES (USDOJ)—This publication, from the COPS “Problem-Specific Guides” Series, analyzes gun violence among young offenders, with an emphasis on helping readers analyze the problem in a local area, and craft an appropriate response.
http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/mime/open.pdf?Item=1078
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Juveniles and Drugs, OFFICE OF NATIONAL DRUG CONTROL POLICY—This Fact Sheet presents a summary of statistics relating to drug use by middle- and high-school-aged youth, and compiled in the 2002 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. It shows that the rates of drug use are declining, but are still very high, with more than half of high school seniors indicating they have used illegal drugs at least once.
http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/drugfact/juveniles/index.html
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Youth Gangs in Indian Country, OFFICE OF JUVENILE JUSTICE AND DELINQUENCY PREVENTION—Recent statistics indicate violent crime is occurring in significantly higher rates in Indian Country than in other parts of the country. In this Bulletin, researchers surveyed Indian communities to determine the prevalence and practices of youth gangs in Indian Country, and the extent to which those gangs might contribute to the high rates of violent crime.
http://www.ncjrs.org/pdffiles1/ojjdp/202714.pdf
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WEB RESOURCES
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SAMHSA Model Programs—For ten years the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has been collecting information about what it considers to be effective substance abuse prevention and behavioral health promotion programs. That body of information is now available on this Web site, including descriptions of programs, information about implementation, and contact information for the individuals and organizations that developed the programs.
http://www.modelprograms.samhsa.gov/
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EMERGING ISSUES
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Scott Campbell, Stephanie Roper, Wendy Preston, Louarna Gillis, and Nila Lynn Crime Victims' Rights Act, SENATE BILL 2329—After failing to gain enough votes to pass a Victims Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the Senate passed SB 2329 by a vote of 96-1 to provide an extensive list of rights to victims involved in cases filed in the federal courts. Included in those rights are the right to notice of various hearings, the right to protection from the accused, the right to be heard at critical stages of the case, the right to fairness and privacy, and the right to be “free from unreasonable delay.” The bill does not at this time apply to state court proceedings, but it does authorize (though does not fund) grants to the States for victim assistance conditioned on passage of similar state laws. The Bill has been sent to the House of Representatives and referred to the Judiciary Committee for review.
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=108_cong_bills&docid=f:s2329es.txt.pdf
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 This information is offered for educational purposes only and is not legal advice. This project was supported by Award No. 2002-MU-MU-0003 from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice. Points of view or opinions expressed in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the United States Department of Justice, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the National District Attorneys Association, or the American Prosecutors Research Institute. |
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