Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 15, 1995 TAG: 9511150015
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JERRAULD C. JONES
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Indeed, the pain is real, the sense of powerlessness valid, and the frustration readily understandable. However, as juvenile-justice reform has slowly transformed from a public-safety policy issue into a centerpiece of political debate, I am constrained to correct many of the factual inaccuracies and exaggerations that have appeared on both your news and editorial pages, some of which are emanating from the Governor's Commission on Juvenile Justice Reform.
In my opinion, how we as a society respond to this serious problem is far too important to become swept up in campaign rhetoric and sound bites. Some of the recurring misperceptions follow:
Virginia is in the middle of a violent youth-crime wave. Actually, Virginia ranks below the national average of youth crime with less than 3 percent of all juvenile arrests being for violent crime. Less than two-tenths of 1 percent of Virginia's young people were involved in any form of criminal activity.
While we must respond firmly and decisively to the violent youth among us, we must keep our perspective and realize that our young people today as a whole are not out terrorizing their communities.
Virginia's juvenile-justice system does no more than slap young people on the wrist. The fact is that in 1994, more than 1,300 juveniles were securely detained in one of the 17 secure-detention homes awaiting trial.
Much like their adult jail counterparts, these detention homes - including those in Roanoke, Lynchburg, Christiansburg and Staunton - are chronically overcrowded. On any given day in Virginia, more than 900 juveniles are incarcerated in juvenile correctional centers.
On a per-capita basis, Virginia locks up more young people than almost any other state in the union. The need for more secure bed space prompted the Allen administration to expand the Bon Air facility by 180 beds.
In reality, most juveniles who appear in court do not return for second offenses.
Juveniles who commit violent crimes serve only one year in confinement. Since 1994, Virginia law allows the transfer and trial in circuit court of any juvenile 14 or older who commits any felony. For juveniles charged with violent felonies such as murder and rape, the judge need only find that probable cause exists to believe that the offense has been committed, and that the juvenile is competent to stand trial, to transfer the case to the adult court.
I challenge any Virginia prosecutor to name a case of a juvenile charged with a violent crime in which the state was unable to try the case in adult court under the present law.
In addition, as a result of our bipartisan legislative initiative on juvenile crime in 1994, the law now allows juvenile-court judges to sentence juveniles for up to seven years in juvenile facilities. Since the change in the law, more than 150 juveniles charged with a variety of crimes have been sentenced and are serving their time in secure confinement.
We all know that there are some violent juveniles who are truly beyond salvation. However, these violent offenders constitute a very small percentage of our youth, the majority of whom can be turned around with the provision of community-based services. The community holds them accountable for their actions and they thereby, in the words of the Governor's Commission, "are afforded genuine opportunity to reform."
As the chairman of the Virginia Commission on Youth and its juvenile-justice task force, I have worked on a variety of juvenile-justice issues during the last four years. I am saddened by the current tendency to characterize all juveniles as predators-in-waiting. Scripted public "debate" and the misrepresentation of statistics do not move us closer to thoughtful and well-reasoned responses to these issues.
As I have stated to groups across the state on numerous occasions, true reform is provided when young people are safe in their homes, schools become havens of learning, and communities are places where opportunities for work and productive citizenship are a reality.
It is time to put the inflammatory statements away. We must work together to hold parents accountable for their children's behavior; further, we must devote our best efforts toward first-time offenders. We must show them a different way of life and make good on our promise of genuine opportunity. To do less is to be a poor steward of our children's future.
Jerrauld C. Jones of Norfolk is a delegate in the Virginia House and chairman of the Commission on Youth.
by CNB