Montgomery County approach is a model for juvenile justice
For the past CLEVELAND — five years, Cuyahoga County taxpayers have paid to try to make Montez Cobb a better person after his first
— arrest at age 12 for stealing a snowblower, after subsequent arrests for fighting and violating probation, and ultimately for his prosecution as an adult for a string of armed robberies.
The 17-year-old boy’s odyssey — and those of other juveniles mired in the system — has caused officials to rethink how they deal with these young offenders. Recently, prosecutors and juvenile court officials have turned their attention to Montgomery County, which for two decades has taken a different approach to juvenile justice than here.
The results are dramatically better.
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley has pointed to Cobb’s case while calling for a different approach to juvenile crime in this county. Offering services such as individual and family counseling, mediation, mental health treatment and substance abuse treatment to offenders in the days and weeks after an arrest — rather than when the case is resolved months later — could address issues at home and at school and keep juveniles from re-offending and escalating to more serious crimes, O’Malley said.
“We see what’s going on in the streets. Nobody can possibly feel good,” O’Malley said during a recent meeting with cleveland.com editors and reporters. “We have to do something different.”
A Jan. 8 riot at the Juvenile Detention Center — coupled with a rise in violent crimes involving juveniles — has reignited calls for reform from O’Malley and city council members. The Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court’s administrative judge said she would be open to a process to allow dangerous inmates to be held in a separate wing at the adult Cuyahoga County Jail. But that would require a change in state law, and advocates argue it would run counter to the juvenile court’s core mission of rehabilitating young offenders.
O’Malley pointed to the Montgomery County Juvenile Court’s Intervention Center as a possible inspiration for criminal justice reform in Cuyahoga County. The Intervention Center assesses young offenders in the hours after an arrest to determine if there are any underlying issues — such mental health or behavioral issues, or problems at home or at school — that could be addressed through specialized services.
The Intervention Center has significantly impacted Dayton and its suburbs since it opened two decades ago. The juvenile court is seeing fewer cases and admissions to its detention center, and young offenders are benefiting from services instead of being locked up, assistant court administrator Eric Shafer said.
“I think our attitude, from our judges on down, is that we need to try to assist these families. These are kids, and we have a much better chance at helping them when they’re young,” Shafer said. “Let’s do everything we can to help them have access to justice.”
In Cuyahoga County, there are few specialized services available to juveniles immediately after an arrest. Select cases - such as domestic violence arrests — are eligible for programs like emergency foster care, said Bridget Gibbons, the director of programming, training and quality assurance for the Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court’s probation department.
But it could be months before a case is adjudicated and a pre-sentencing report determines if the juvenile has any underlying issues those specialized services could address. O’Malley likened it to parenting — if a child is not punished immediately after doing something wrong, the rehabilitative aspect of that punishment is lessened.