ID: "Idaho can make up any law they want when it comes to the alleged attack on a 5 year-old"

From the Idaho Press-Tribune:

Jury trial set for boy accused of assaulting 5-year-old girl in Nampa

Judge Thomas Ryan... set an August jury trial date for a 15-year-old Nampa boy accused of sexually assaulting and beating a 5-year-old girl... (Trevor) Reizenstein will be tried as an adult... The Idaho Supreme Court ruled in a 4-1 decision last month that the boy be tried as an adult...

Reizenstein was 12 years old at the time the girl was attacked.

Update: Scott at Simple Justice hasn't lost his sense of outrage. I'm relieved that I'm not raising my son in my home state.

ID: "he's a child, and I know that I am not the only one out here that's heart is breaking for him"

Chuck Peterson at Idaho Criminal Defense Blog is following the case of Zachary Neagle, a Canyon County 14-year-old accused of killing his father:

Community Support Grows For 14 Year-Old Kid Charged With Murder - Now He Needs A Good Experienced Lawyer

Support Grows For 14 Year Old Kid Charged With Murder

Channel 7 Interview With Zachary Neagle's Mom - Says She Had No Idea of Sexual Abuse

Bujak Blinked - Said The "M" Word - "Manslaughter"

WA: Grant County gets it in gear

From the Wenatchee World:

Public defense pilot project posts dramatic results in Grant County

Two years ago, 93 juveniles arrested for crimes in Grant County pleaded guilty at their first court appearance before an attorney was even assigned to them. Last year, only one child did.

Grant County was one of three places in the state chosen for a pilot project last year aimed at providing better defense for indigent and juvenile people who are charged in Washington. The state provided $100,000 to hire an attorney to be present at every juvenile's first court appearance in Grant County.

As a result, not only did those children not plead guilty without knowing all their options, but many of them were able to participate in treatment and counseling programs and received deferred sentences rather than detention for their crimes...

Reclaiming futures, one blog at a time

By request ( and by professional and personal interest ):

Reclaiming Futures Launches Blog Dedicated to Substance Abuse and Teens in the Juvenile Justice System

Reclaiming Futures Every Day is a professionally-staffed blog that aims to keep people informed of the latest happenings in juvenile justice and substance abuse treatment. Launched by Reclaiming Futures, an initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, it can be found at http://blog.reclaimingfutures.org, and is designed to help readers:

* Discuss the national challenge of helping teens break the cycle of drugs, alcohol and crime.
* Comment on new developments in teen alcohol and drug treatment and juvenile justice reform.
* Stay in touch with what's going on in the 23 communities using the proven Reclaiming Futures approach.
* Receive expert opinions and commentary from regular contributors who are leaders in the field...

Added to the blog roll.

Facebook face

This post from the blog "My day is better than yours" put me in mind of that great p.d. investigator and social network authority, Sancho Villa:

... and do you have a Facebook?

When our office takes a new case, we send our investigator out to the client to... collect the basic info to open up the case - name, address, auto insurance info, and oh yeah, if the client has a Facebook.

(It is worthwhile to point out that when I worked at the Public Defender's office at Juvenile Hall, knowing whether or not our clients there had a Myspace or a Facebook was valuable information to us. Just by looking at their pictures we would find out if our own clients were lying to us...)

Or to their p.o., or to their treatment provider, or to their drug court judge...

"'Bummer, dude' doesn't really cover it, does it?"

One of my colleagues made quite an impression on Fallout Kid:

The cat that runs the show for Juvenile Law is a nice enough guy... He talked about how he is a Washington State Juvenile Public Defender. He handles a huge f*cking caseload: 100 cases, sometimes 80... (F)or the private practice I work, I sometimes feel like I'm running my ass into the ground with about 60-70 active files. 100? F*ck, that's crazy...

I'll need to check my caseload stats in the morning.

PA: evil judge, juvy do-over

From the New York Times:

Clean Slates for Youths Sentenced Fraudulently

The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania on Thursday ordered the slate cleaned for hundreds of youths who had been sentenced by a corrupt judge.

The young people had been sent to privately run detention centers from 2003 to 2008 as part of a judicial kickback scheme that shocked Pennsylvania and the nation. The judge in the cases, Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. of Luzerne County, is one of two who pleaded guilty last month to wire fraud and conspiracy for taking more than $2.6 million in kickbacks.

The exact number of records to be expunged was not stated in the court’s order (pdf file); a special master is investigating the cases...

CA: kind-hearted principal in a black robe

From Monterey County Weekly:

Tough Love in Juvenile Court - Judge Jonathan Price works to rehabilitate Monterey County’s youth

An ashamed-looking teenager shuffles into Judge Jonathan Price’s courtroom wearing bright orange sandals. The 16-year-old boy settles into a wooden chair next to his cheerless mom, as well as his attorney... The teen just finished a stint in Juvenile Hall for stealing a car and allegedly has gang ties – but Price sees promise...

“You should be able to assist [juveniles] in being better when they are done with you,” Price says, adding one caveat: “If they don’t want to change, you have to be able to deal with that, too.”

PA: judge - "I just don’t believe I have to spoon-feed people"

From the Scranton Times-Tribune:

Nearly half of Luzerne cases lacked representation

For years, Luzerne County Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. denied juvenile defendants their rights, imprisoned them over the recommendations of probation officers and took millions in kickbacks from the co-owner of two juvenile detention centers that earned nearly $30 million with his help...

Interviews and court documents portray Judge Ciavarella’s courtroom as a place where the outcome of cases was decided well before a hearing. Judge Ciavarella pressured court staff to recommend detention, even in cases where staffers believed detention wasn’t warranted, federal prosecutors allege...

Full rundown from Wilkes-Barre's CitizensVoice.com: Court Corruption Probe

PA: juvenile injustice, judicial avarice

The juvenile reformers and public defenders have been talking about this, and now it's made the New York Times:

Judges Plead Guilty in Payoffs for Jailing Youths

(O)n Thursday... (J)udge, Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., and a colleague, Michael T. Conahan, appeared in federal court in Scranton, Pa., to plead guilty to wire fraud and income tax fraud for taking more than $2.6 million in kickbacks to send teenagers to two privately run youth detention centers... While prosecutors say that Judge Conahan, 56, secured contracts for the two centers to house juvenile offenders, Judge Ciavarella, 58, was the one who carried out the sentencing to keep the centers filled.

“In my entire career, I’ve never heard of anything remotely approaching this,” said Senior Judge Arthur E. Grim, who was appointed by the State Supreme Court this week to determine what should be done with the estimated 5,000 juveniles who have been sentenced by Judge Ciavarella since the scheme started in 2003.

Many of them were first-time offenders and some remain in detention. The case has shocked Luzerne County... And it raised concerns about whether juveniles should be required to have counsel either before or during their appearances in court and whether juvenile courts should be open to the public or child advocates...

WA: cut advocacy for kids now, pay later

From the Tacoma News Tribune:

Cut TeamChild and you put kids, budgets at risk

When legislators consider cutting $500,000 a year for TeamChild, they should ask themselves one question: Do they want the kids it now serves to grow up to be inmates or taxpayers?

ID: 8 year old? aspie? arrest her!

Brimming with pride to see the home state make the national news on ABC. Here's one Idaho town's take-no-prisoners response to autism spectrum disorders - oh, wait a minute, strike that:

Parents Consider Legal Action After Autistic Girl, 8, Arrested at School - Evelyn Towry Was Cuffed, Led Away by Police After Scuffle Over School Party

The mother of an 8-year-old autistic girl who was arrested after a scuffle with her teachers said it was horrifying to watch her daughter be led away in handcuffs from her northern Idaho elementary school... Police in Bonner County, Idaho, charged the girl, Evelyn Towry, with battery...

Spring Towry said she got to the school... just in time to see 54-pound Evelyn - who was diagnosed at age 5 with Asperger's Syndrome, a high functioning form of autism - being walked to a police car with two officers at her side. "She started screaming 'Mommy, I don't want to go! What are batteries? What are batteries?'" Towry said. "She didn't even know what she was arrested for."

Towry, who lives in Ponderay, said Evelyn told her that she had been refused entry into a school Christmas party that had been delayed until after the holidays because of a string of snow days, because she refused to take off her beloved "cow costume" - a hoodie with cow ears and a tail.

Towry said Evelyn... told her she was put in a separate classroom away from the party, but when she tried to leave, the teachers told her to stay put. Evelyn did not listen, Towry said, and the adults physically restrained her...

Via I Speak Of Dreams.

Bonus link: for those who need a diagram to see why this was wrong (this person perhaps), Asperger Square 8 has drawn one for you:

Elements of style

Today I was in detention spending a pleasant hour with a client barely into the teen years, a child really, facing a scary felony accusation. This young person was far enough into the system to use a phrase like being on the outs, yet still innocent enough to use the word "hecka" in place of "hella," because hell's a swear word. My kid clients surprise me and impress me.

A present for my client's mom

It's Boxing Day, a good day for returned gifts and charitable acts. I'm in the courthouse parking lot after detention hearings, tapping away on my cellphone. I couldn't get every kid released today. After court, one of my client's mothers sat me down and we talked. She told me that she got the call on Christmas morning: the cops had picked up her son. She's happy, and not for a bad reason. Just now I watched her walking toward detention, to see her boy for the first time since he ran two months ago.

Eyes of a child

I finished interviewing my client, and brought his mom in from the lobby to wrap up the appointment.

Instead of sitting back down, my client went over to the windowsill and spent the rest of the session focusing animately on my views of the mountains, the capitol, the traffic and the 7-11.

I'm privileged to represent kids.

Live from the courtroom

A moment ago:

Judicial person ( to juvenile's parent): "Your behavior is not appropriate."

Juvenile's parent ( to judicial person): "Neither is yours!"

And the parent left the courtroom, not even in handcuffs.

Life in the therapeutic state

Heard today in juvenile drug court...

"We're here to support you, even if that means we have to lock you up."

... as my long conversion from drug court agnostic to drug court atheist continues.

Bonus link goes to Drug Court Justice: Experiences in a Juvenile Drug Court, by Kevin Whiteacre, Ph.D.:

Drug Court Justice takes an in-depth look at a Midwestern juvenile drug treatment court. Through observations and interviews conducted while serving as the contracted program evaluator, Kevin Whiteacre investigates how denial, surveillance, coercion, accountability, and definitions of success operate and interact in the juvenile drug court environment, and how they intertwine with institutional needs and authority structures. His findings suggest that some drug court practices may expose participants to potential harms that until now have been largely ignored in studies of drug courts. He concludes with suggestions for reducing the potential harms of juvenile drug courts.

Maybe I can get our court to order a copy.

Juvy blues

Light linking and posting this week. At the moment I'm extraordinarily bummed out about juvenile justice, and not just because Apache County, Arizona is prosecuting an 8-year-old for premeditated murder. This week I'm feeling like a collaborator, not in the pop psychology team-building sense, but in the Vichy French sense. My advocacy has done little to avoid some rotten outcomes for my kid clients.

Consequently, I'm grasping at any positive news I can find. Like this, from DOJ:

Justice Department Study Dispels Myths About Girls' Delinquency

Which leads to DOJ Girls' Delinquency webpage, featuring a stock photo of a j.d. whom many, many of my 16 and 17 year old clients would be totally into:The Center for Children and Youth Justice seems to be doing a couple of good things as well.

Erskine also had a feel-good moment on the job. I will again some time.

Don't know where he gets it from

First attempt at posting from a mobile phone using Google Android:

I've come out of court, and I'm listening to a mom berate her son for not doing anger management classes. "F*ck you, you're a bad son," she explains. As he's walking away, she adds, "Assh*le."

WA: clean your lint filter!

Why I met with my clients outside today, from the Olympian:

Fire closes family, juvenile courts for day

Thurston County family and juvenile courts are closed after a dryer fire filled the building with smoke this morning...