Strides in cutting youth detentions

Shelby County Juvenile Court has taken a lot of heat lately over how juvenile offenders are handled.

While the problems are real, it should be acknowledged, also, that reforms the court has instituted regarding the detention of juveniles has helped Tennessee lead the nation in reducing the rate of juvenile detentions to its lowest level in 35 years.

A story by Scripps Howard News Service writer Bart Sullivan in Sunday’s Viewpoint section documented programs in place to reduce the number youngsters detained in juvenile detention facilities, many for minor crimes.

Tennessee showed the biggest change, with a 66 percent decline in confinement of juveniles, between 1997 and 2010. Programs in place by the local Juvenile Court, the state’s largest juvenile justice system, helped spur Tennessee’s success.

Last April, the U.S. Department of Justice, after a three-year investigation, released a scathing report, citing the court for a number of shortcomings involving juveniles. Problems listed included juveniles charged with crimes not having adequate defense attorney presentation, a disproportionate number of African-Americans taken to the court and detention safety issues.

Officials from Shelby County, Juvenile Court and the Justice Department signed an agreement outlining how those problems would be corrected.

Long before the report was issued, however, Juvenile Court Judge Curtis Person and his staff were working with school officials, and organizations like the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth and the Annie E. Casey Foundation, to reduce the number of juveniles brought to the court for minor offenses.

The court also developed a detention assessment tool to help determine whether youths charged with more serious offenses should be detained.

The court here and juvenile court officials nationally have realized that juvenile courts are not supposed to serve as youth jails and that juveniles charged with crimes should not be locked up unless they are a risk to the community or themselves.

There is nothing to gain by starting a youngster down a path toward an adult prison by incarcerating them for a minor offense.