Florida officials told student diversion programs often work

SUNRISE, FLA. » The commission investigating the Florida high school massacre received an overview Thursday of the state’s police diversion programs for juveniles accused of minor crimes as the members try to ascertain whether something could have been done to prevent the Valentine’s Day shooting that left 17 people dead.

The presenters told the 15 members of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission that the programs have been successful in reducing juvenile crime and repeat offenders and decreasing the number of school suspensions, expulsions and offenses. They could not specifically discuss Nikolas Cruz, the 19-year-old former Stoneman Douglas student charged with the killings. Critics have said he should have been arrested after more than 20 contacts with law enforcement officers over the years along with numerous incidents at school that included threats, vandalism and violent outbursts.

Mark Greenwald, the director of research for the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, told the commission that diversion programs for low-level offenders are widely successful. For example, only 4 percent of juveniles who are referred to community programs through a widely used civil citation program reoffend within a year.

Under that program, juveniles who commit minor offenses such as underage drinking, petty shoplifting and minor vandalism are required to perform community service, often within days of the offense, rather than have a criminal case that will drag for months through the court system and leave them with a record that could hurt their ability to attend college, get a job or join the military. He also said locking up such low-level offenders also has a tendency to lead them into more serious crimes as they are exposed to violent and felonious teens.

Greenwald pointed out that almost all law-abiding, responsible adults did something as a teenager that could have gotten them arrested if they had been caught or if a police officer had not decided to cut them a break. For him, an officer let him go for drinking beer under the school bleachers.

“For most youth, we start with a light touch,” Greenwald said, adding that usually works. “We know that two-thirds of the kids are arrested in Florida are arrested once and don’t come back.”

For those who do repeat, he said, they get put into the juvenile justice system and often wind up on probation or in detention.