To: Senate
Study Committee on Youth and Crime
From:
Peggy Walker, Judge, Juvenile Court of Douglas County
Date:
June 1, 2004
The
Juvenile Code
The Juvenile
Code is a patch work of legislation over the years and is in need of
total revision. The Younger Lawyers Division is taking this on as a
project. I ask that any action you take or that they take be based on
best practices and procedures so that Georgia can be a leader among
states in treatment of children. We are presently ranked 41st in latest
Kids Count. Making law on a case by case basis is not an effective way
of moving us forward as a state.
Prevention
Prevention
is the most critical piece we are missing when addressing youth and
crime. Please support DHR Commissioner B. J. Walker's promise to implement
prevention as one of her top four priorities. Public Health's visiting
nurse programs like First Steps and Healthy Families are critical in
reducing abuse and neglect of children by at least 40 per cent based
upon national research on visiting nurse programs. Abuse and neglect
in early childhood are precursors for violence. Poverty is a risk factor.
Single parent homes are a risk factor. A parent in jail is a risk factor.
Risk
Factors for Violence
Other risk
factors for violence are: availability of drugs and firearms, attitudes
that promote availability of drugs and firearms, absence of a sense
of community or neighborhood, inadequate supervision of children, family
violence, academic failure in school, chronic disruptive behavior at
school, peers with behavior problems, and early initiation of delinquent
behavior. The state of Minnesota thinks that young delinquents are so
at risk that those children are given services from the point of entry
until their 18 birthday in an effort to divert them from a violent future.
I urge
you before you do anything to look at the Carroll County case as a case
study to identify the risk factors that brought this tragic case to
your attention. We have many tragic cases but you do not know about
them because Juvenile Court is confidential. As a result, the legislators,
the Governor, the public do not know the extent of our children's, families'
and communities' problems and the paucity of our resources.
Children's
Mental Health is Lacking
Another
critical piece we are missing is a mental health system with an array
of services available to children and families without the intervention
of DFCS or DJJ.
We do not
have adequate funding for level of care of children in DFCS custody,
those sponsored by mental health or those in the custody of DJJ. Children
are being pulled out of placements because of budget shortfalls. This
will cost us more in the long run because of the harm caused by moving
children based upon money rather than their progress in treatment.
The
Reality of SB440 and Trying Kids as Adults
Juvenile
Court was created to provide treatment and rehabilitation of children,
not to punish or deter behavior. When the 440 legislation was passed,
there was a public policy move to punish children 13 years of age and
above if they commit one of the seven most serious offenses; i.e. murder,
voluntary manslaughter, rape, aggravated sodomy, aggravated child molestation,
aggravated sexual battery or armed robbery if committed with a firearm.
The reality of the treatment of these children with long delays of one
to two years before trial and mandatory sentences of at least ten years
for some offenses has caused parents, legislators, and judges to question
whether this public policy should continue. In reaching these decisions,
it is important to look at the research on children's brain development
and a child's ability to know, understand and assist with his or her
representation as the child's case progresses through the legal system.
Adolescent
Brain Development
Research
on the brain over the last twenty years gives us more knowledge about
how children develop and think. Until recently scientists believed the
brain was fully developed by age 12. With brain imaging research we
now know that this is not true. The May 10, 2004 issue of Time Magazine
discusses the development of the teen brain in great detail. Dr. Ruben
Gur, a professor and director of the Brain Behavior Laboratory at the
University of Pennsylvania states that impulse control is the last area
of the brain to develop and the first to fail as we age. There is a
final growth spurt in the frontal lobes of the brain between the ages
of 11 and 13. These regions guide the intellect and planning. The teen
years are the time that these new cells link with the rest of the brain
to allow teens to begin to think like adults. This process is called
myelinization where a layer of fat covers the fibers connecting the
regions of the brain. Teens do not think like adults due to the lack
of impulse control and raging hormones. Hormones fuel emotional responses
in teens. Drug use during these formative years damages brain development.
How teens spend their time may affect the development of the brain.
Other research at the National Institute of Mental Health suggests that
full maturity does not come until age 25. Decisions are based on emotions
up to the age of 25 and on reason and intellect after the age of 25.
Children's
Capacity as Trial Defendant's
The leading
researcher on children's understanding of the legal process is Dr. Thomas
Grisso, Director of Law and Psychiatry Program at the University of
Massachusetts. His research shows that children under the age of fifteen
lack the capacity to understand their rights to be able to waive them.
If they do not understand even such basic rights as the right to counsel,
how can they understand even more complicated matters such as negotiation
of a plea or presentation of evidence against them?
Research
shows that children are different from adults and supports using juvenile
courts to serve the special needs of children. The National Council
of Family and Juvenile Court Judges will take the position that all
children's cases should originate in courts with juvenile jurisdiction
with waiver rights to send a child to adult court under appropriate
circumstances. Legal scholars and child advocates are now taking the
position that research supports their position that children should
never be tried as adults. The American Bar Association has taken the
position that state legislatures should ban the death penalty for Juveniles
stating, "For social and biological reasons, teens have increased difficulty
making mature decisions and understanding the consequences of their
actions."
What
to do? Recommendations to the Committee
Give
Juvenile Court Judges Discretion
- Give
Juvenile judges discretion to deal with cases based upon the individual
needs of the child and the facts of the case.
Require
SB440 Cases occur in timely manner
- Require
that 440 cases be heard in a timely manner so that if the evidence
is insufficient or the child is innocent, the child will not waste
years in confinement awaiting trial. It is extremely frustrating for
the child, the family and the court to have a child held for two years
then transferred to Juvenile Court for treatment and rehabilitation.
What they have learned in detention for two years will never be forgotten
regardless of any treatment or rehabilitation services received through
Juvenile Court intervention.
Fund
the Department of Juvenile Justice so they may provide an array of services
- Fund
the Department of Juvenile Justice so that probation and commitment
are meaningful. While we continue to need more funding for detention
alternatives so that only dangerous children are detained, we must
also reduce caseloads, pay caseworkers adequately to reduce turnover
and the cost of training new workers, develop case plans that include
all agencies serving the child and give children real probation services
and adequate supervision when placed on probation or committed to
the Department of Juvenile Justice. The present system in outlying
areas like Carroll County provides virtually no services and token
supervision of children. It comes as no surprise that the public is
outraged as a result.
List
Serious Offenses as Designated Felonies within Juvenile Court Jurisdiction
and require evaluation of competence prior to adjudication
- List
all of the most serious offenses as designated felonies. Drop the
age provision for designated felonies to twelve if you think that
is the appropriate public policy for Georgia, but require that any
child twelve or under be evaluated for competency prior to any delinquent
adjudication proceeding in court and that each child twelve and under
have competent legal counsel. Give us more discretion in the disposition
phase of designated felonies.
Open
Juvenile Court Proceedings
- Judge
Robin Nash, who presides in the DeKalb Juvenile Court and is President
of the Council of Juvenile Court Judges, will ask you and Senator
Ginger Collins' Study Committee on Children and Youth to support the
passage of legislation to allow us to open the Juvenile Courts of
DeKalb and Douglas Counties and other jurisdictions who wish to pilot
open courts to see if we can use the open process to drive accountability
and to bring much needed resources to children. There are other benefactors
like Truett Cathy who have the ability to provide resources for children.
There are other faith organizations like the Presbyterian Churches
who are partnering with us for visitation centers across the state.
Openness will allow those who can provide resources to know the needs.
We understand the need for discretion and safeguards to close cases
as necessary to protect children in particularly sensitive situations.
Seventeen states have fully opened the process.
Dr. Jay
Giedd, chief of the brain imaging in the child psychiatry branch of
the National Institute of Mental Health, states that in light of what
we know about the teen age brain development we can help them "by providing
structure, organizing their time, guiding them through tough decisions
(even when they resist) and applying those time-tested parental virtues:
patience and love." We can do a better job of serving the children and
families of Georgia. We are committed to advocating for best practices,
best procedures and adequate resources for our children and families.
Thank you
for this opportunity to speak to you about the needs of our families
and children.
