THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 17, 1995 TAG: 9505170051
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JUNE ARNEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines
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 says.
Attorney General James S. Gilmore III made his recommendation Tuesday to 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,'' he told the second meeting of the Commission on Juvenile Justice Reform, of which he is chairman.
``Further,'' he said, ``the public is excluded from the court proceedings, and the records are shrouded in secrecy.''
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 the coming months, commission members will wrestle with 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 at more than twice the national rate, he said.
The number of Virginia juveniles arrested for violent crimes increased 66 percent; the murder arrest rate, 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 teenage felons as adults by seeking indictments. Now, they must first take these cases to Juvenile Court.
Requiring that juveniles tried and sentenced in Juvenile Court receive determinate sentences long enough to accomplish reform and deterrence.
Giving judges 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 under the age of 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 current 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 is often the case in juvenile court. The system also restricts the kind of help that the juveniles can receive when people who could provide them with services 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 on the subject of juvenile justice at that time. They are a legislative commission headed by Del. Jerrauld C. Jones, D-Norfolk, and the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, the General Assembly's investigative arm. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
YOUTHFUL CRIME SURGES IN VIRGINIA
[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]
KEYWORDS: CRIME YOUTH STATISTICS VIRGINIA
by CNB