Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 17, 1995 TAG: 9505170078
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JUNE ARNEY LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
Virginia should retool its laws regarding youthful criminals, automatically charging serious juvenile offenders as adults and making their records available to public scrutiny, the state's chief law enforcement officer has advised members of a commission studying juvenile justice reform.
``For too long, serious and violent juvenile offenders have been sheltered in a court system where too few of the major decisions are made by officials who are directly responsible to the public,'' Attorney General Jim Gilmore told the second meeting of the Commission on Juvenile Justice Reform, of which he is chairman.
``Further, the public is excluded from the court proceedings, and the records are shrouded in secrecy,'' Gilmore said.
Gilmore also recommended that the commission consider mandatory sentences for assaults on teachers and school personnel and for crimes involving drugs, guns and violence in schools.
``For too long, we have allowed many of our public schools to become dangerous and unwholesome places where we fear to send our children and they fear to go,'' he said. ``People are losing their faith in the safety of the school system.''
In coming months, commission members will wrestle with a variety of issues related to protecting the community from violent juveniles, holding those youths accountable for their actions and teaching them responsibility.
Although juvenile crime is a national problem, Virginia's surge in juvenile crime is particularly severe, Gilmore told the group. Between 1980 and 1993, Virginia's rate of juvenile arrests for murder and non-negligent manslaughter increased more than twice the national rate, he said.
The number of Virginia juveniles arrested for violent crimes increased 66 percent, and the murder arrest rate climbed 277 percent. Nationally, those increases were 47 percent for all violent crimes and 100 percent for murder, according to statistics from the state Department of Criminal Justice Services.
Among the proposals Gilmore outlined for toughening the state's approach to juvenile crime were:
Allowing prosecutors to treat teen-age felons as adults by seeking indictments. Now, they first must take these cases to juvenile court.
Requiring that juveniles tried and sentenced in juvenile court receive sentences lengthy enough to accomplish reform and deterrence.
Providing judges with a wider range of sanctions, including the option of sentencing youths to regional programs of alternative education with highly structured schools emphasizing discipline.
Making military-style discipline standard in juvenile correctional facilities.
Holding hard-core criminals younger than 18 in prisons run by the Department of Corrections.
Improving the juvenile justice information system to better analyze juvenile court activity across the state.
The system of confidentiality surrounding juvenile cases is problematic, Gilmore said, because ``the public cannot be protected if violent young people'' are being tried behind closed doors, which often is the case in juvenile court. The system also restricts the kind of help that the juveniles can receive when people who could help them do not know who they are.
The governor's commission is charged with making recommendations by December, in time for the 1996 General Assembly session.
Two other panels also will make recommendations at that time on juvenile justice. They are a legislative commission headed by Del. Jerrauld Jones, D-Norfolk, and the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, the General Assembly's investigative arm.
by CNB