Too many teen offenders taken from home

SALT LAKE CITY - Too many juveniles getting in trouble with the law are being placed in detention or sent to group homes, despite being low-risk, first-time offenders, according to a new report from the state.

Not only is it costing the state more money, but many juveniles turn out worse for the wear after being released.

"Yes, it's true that youth who go to out-of-home placement have worse outcomes than those who stay in the home," said Ron Gordon, the executive director of the Utah Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice.

"While very few of the youth who are put on probation or in (the Utah Division of Juvenile Justice Services) custody enter the court system as high risk, most of them leave the system high risk," the report says.

Based on the findings, the Utah Juvenile Justice Working Group is planning to introduce a bill during the 2017 legislative session that will bring more consistency to the Juvenile Justice Services regarding sentencing, fines and other penalties, and getting juveniles the resources they need.

Additionally, the top administrators at Juvenile Justice System want lawmakers to invest more money into early intervention services, not just along the Wasatch Front, but statewide.

"We can either spend $90,000 a year locking a child up in a long-term secure facility, or we can spend approximately $3,000 per child delivering early intervention services," Susan Burke, director of Juvenile Justice Services, told the Executive Offices and Criminal Justice Appropriations Subcommittee during budget proposal hearings at the state Capitol Friday.

Inconsistency

In June, Gov. Gary Herbert assigned the Utah Juvenile Justice Working Group to review the state's Juvenile Justice Services. The group consisted of state lawmakers, law enforcers, attorneys, judges, and youth and family service groups. The data-based report included an extensive review of court records as well as recidivism rates.

What the report found was that because there are no statewide standards, the responses and outcomes of cases are inconsistent. In other words, the same crime is not being handled the same way in every court.

In addition, juveniles who had never committed a felony make up a "large portion of out-of-home placements," according to the report's executive summary. An out-of-home placement typically means a nonsecure group home. Yet more than 80 percent of juveniles entering the court system for the first time are at low risk to reoffend, the study found.

"A high proportion of youth removed from the home for the first time have limited prior histories of only misdemeanor or status offense - offenses such as habitual truancy, which would not be a crime if committed by an adult. Research shows that out-of-home placement does not reduce recidivism for most youth and may increase it for youth who enter at low risk to reoffend," the report states.

The inconsistent sentences, according to Gordon, are mainly due to judges who are actually trying to help.

"It's not that they're rogue judges. It's not that they're ignoring the law. They're all trying to do what they think is best for the juvenile and for public safety," he said.

Some judges may send a juvenile to detention or a youth home because they believe the services that a juvenile needs aren't available in their home, he said.

"High proportions of lower- level youth are placed out of home solely as a means to ensure the youth can access services. One probation officer said, 'One of the things that really frustrates us is the lack of services and the lack of quality services for our kids because we do end up moving them along farther into the system to meet their needs (when they) could have their needs addressed in the community,' " the report says.

"In roundtables, a wide range of stakeholders, including probation staff, defense attorneys, and prosecutors said the scarcity of services in the community often leads to decisions that send lower-level youth deeper into the justice system. In surveys, judges cited a lack of access to services in the community as a factor in their decisions to place youth in state custody."

Although the report found that at-home placements benefit the juvenile most in the long run, those services aren't available statewide, "and are particularly lacking in rural areas. In surveys, probation officers and JJS case managers reported that the options and availability of effective services for youth living at home vary regionally, and that youth often encounter barriers to service, such as limited transportation, long wait lists and high costs to families," the report states.

Racial disparities

In 2015, more than 400 youths spent time in juvenile detention on their first charge before their cases were adjudicated - staying an average of nine days, the study found. "The most common charges for those detained youth included retail theft, misdemeanor assault and marijuana offenses."

The report also found that "racial disparities persist for all types of probation and custody dispositions, and the disparities grow larger as youth progress deeper into the system, especially once they are removed from the home."

Hispanic youths "charged with misdemeanors make up 43 percent of JJS nonsecure out-of-home placement, but only 23 percent of new cases coming into the system," and "African-American youth make up 5 percent of new misdemeanor cases coming into the system, but nearly three times that proportion (14 percent) of misdemeanor youth placed in (state) custody solely for delinquency."

Many juveniles who are put in the system become stuck there for long periods of time due to court-ordered conditions, such as community service hours, or fees and fines imposed by the court.

"And the question becomes, 'Are we helping them? Are we holding them accountable or are we just punishing them?' And that's a delicate balance," Gordon said. "If they can be successful with 24 hours of community service, then that's great. Then maybe we don't need to order a couple of hundred hours of community service that keeps them in the system longer."

According to the report, "One probation chief summarized the challenges this way: 'The standard probation orders are too much for a (probation officer) to hold any kid to, so they end up picking and choosing what to enforce. It's too much for the (probation officer) to hold the youth accountable.' "

The report also found it saved the state money to keep juveniles at home.

"Community supervision costs up to $7,500 per youth per year compared to as much as $127,750 per year for some JJS nonsecure out-of-home placements. But roughly half of youth released from both state custody and probation are convicted of another crime within two years."

At the Capitol on Friday, Burke told lawmakers that Juvenile Justice Services wants to establish a stronger presence and give early intervention services in places such as Tooele County, Moab and Davis County. She said this year's budget focused on four core areas: early intervention, strengthening services, investing in staff and infrastructure.

Burke told lawmakers that reforms take time, but they cannot wait any longer to change the future. The recommendations being made are data-driven, which Burke said her department would continue to do.

There is still a place for secure juvenile detention facilities, but they should be used for the most serious offenders, according to the report.

Burke told lawmakers Friday about the challenging work environment at some of the secure facilities and why a strong workforce is a necessity. She recounted at one detention center, teenagers had been taking the ACT test for 10 minutes when one teen started attacking another. That commotion prompted a second student to attack another with a pencil.

"These are the kinds of students our staff have to deal with on a regular basis," she said.

Staff members have suffered black eyes and have lost teeth in the past - all for a starting pay of $14.81 an hour, she added.

However, they are committed to the work, she said. There are also success stories, such as juveniles at the Slate Canyon Detention Center in Provo who recently beat out teams from hundreds of regular high schools in a stock market competition.

Budget proposals

As part of the Juvenile Justice Services budget proposals, Burke said Friday the department is asking for $30 million to renovate and expand the Wasatch Youth Center, 3534 S. 700 West, currently housed in a 50-year-old building. Part of that money will used to establish more early intervention services and training based out of the building.

To help offset the cost, Burke is also proposing that Decker Lake Youth Center in West Valley City be closed and the property sold. Decker Lake could be consolidated with Wasatch, she said. Even though Decker Lake is a newer building, the system is restricted from expanding the way it wants to because of the property lines.

The recommendations from the final report suggest that the state reinvest in early intervention efforts "as well as for additional allocations for family strengthening programs and proven community-based truancy interventions"; let schools handle all class C misdemeanor offenses and lower internally; allow a prosecuting attorney to screen cases first to decide whether to charge or dismiss; reinvest in a continuum of community-based alternatives to detention; and create an oversight entity tasked with ensuring the effective implementation of the juvenile justice reforms recommended by the working group.

Gordon stressed that Utah's Juvenile Justice Services is not entirely broken. But in order to find that balance between protecting the public and getting better outcomes for children who are arrested, there needs to be better use of the resources available.

In an attempt to bring more consistency to the juvenile system, Rep. Lowry Snow, R-Santa Clara, and another member of the working group, is preparing legislation to set some statewide standards, Gordon said. The goal is to set parameters but not strict sentencing guidelines. Yet Gordon said he does not want dispositions and court orders to become "robotic or come from some kind of a chart."

"It doesn't take all of the decision-making authority away from judges. Judges still have the discretion that is necessary to weigh facts in each individual case," he said.

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