Intervention cuts county's youth crime

The head of the Stanislaus County Juvenile Hall says overall youth crime is down and the number of kids charged with violent offenses, such as murder and attempted murder, has dropped by almost half in two years.

He said the decrease in serious offenders is the result of early intervention, diversion programs and counseling, not the threat of life behind bars in an adult prison.

Stanislaus County Chief Probation Officer Jerry Powers said sentencing these serious youth offenders to hard time in adult prisons provides no hope of turning their lives around.

"It's too overcrowded," Powers said. "They're going to come out just as bad as when they went in."

Teenagers convicted of murder in Juvenile Court may be confined to the state's Department of Juvenile Justice, formerly the California Youth Authority, only until they are 25. Teenagers convicted of first- degree murder in adult court face prison terms of 25 years to life.

Minors can be sent to adult court if they are older than 14 and charged with violent crimes such as murder, attempted murder, setting fire to an inhabited building, robbery with a weapon, rape, kidnapping or carjacking.

There are two ways a minor can be tried as an adult. One is through a fitness hearing where a judge determines whether a minor is fit to stand trial in adult court. Judges look at the degree of sophistication that a teen showed in an alleged crime, the gravity of the offense and the likelihood that the minor can be rehabilitated.

The second way was created with the passage of Proposition 21 in 2000, which granted prosecutors authority to decide whether minors are tried as adults for certain violent or sexual crimes. The law allows the district attorney's office to file charges in adult court and bypass a fitness hearing.

From 1997 to 1999, 72 minors in Stanislaus County were deemed fit to stand trial as adults in fitness hearings, Powers said. That number dropped to 40 from 2000 to 2007.

The number of cases the Stanislaus County district attorney's office has filed in adult court from 2000 to 2007 was not available Friday.

The hope of a turnaround is lost if a youth is sentenced to an adult prison term, Powers said.

If convicted in adult court, minors may initially go to one of the state's Department of Juvenile Justice facilities instead of juvenile hall. But they are all sent to adult prison when they turn 18.

Many of these youthful offenders shut down as they wait to be sent off to an adult prison, Powers said. "They're lost," he said. "They'll come back to our facility and just melt. They withdraw and they won't come out of their rooms."

The way the juvenile justice system operates, counties send those convicted of the most serious offenses to the Department of Juvenile Justice facilities.

Large counties with secure juvenile camps send only the worst offenders. Small and mid-sized counties such as Stanislaus send a handful of less serious felony offenders, too, because they have no long-term lockups.

Tuolumne County sends all of its youthful offenders to the Yolo County Juvenile Detention Facility. Tuolumne does not have a juvenile hall, so it has a contract for five beds with the Yolo facility, said Shirlee Juhl, chief probation officer of Tuolumne County.

Tuolumne has four minors in custody at the Yolo facility; none are serious or habitual offenders, Juhl said. The county has had three minors tried as adults in 10 years, she said.

Juhl said the majority of Tuolumne County youth offenders commit thefts, property damage or are involved in domestic disturbances. Nonetheless, officials have to be vigilant with these offenders, she said, because their criminal behavior can quickly escalate.

Juvenile detention officials must balance the public's safety with a youthful offender's rehabilitation, she said, so each case has to be looked at individually.

She agreed with Powers that a teenager does not have the mental capacity to make life-changing decisions one would expect from an adult.

Juhl said the juvenile justice system must figure out how to protect the public and rehabilitate a youthful offender "without sending them off to prison for life."

Bee staff writer Rosalio Ahumada can be reached at rahumada@modbee.com or 578-2394.

This story was originally published December 3, 2007 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Intervention cuts county's youth crime."