Citing a rise in serious and violent crimes, Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher on Tuesday announced a new initiative that he says is designed to “examine and transform the current juvenile justice system to improve outcomes for youth, their families, victims and the community.”
Fletcher, a former St. Paul police juvenile unit commander, said he will convene a panel of experts and “parents whose children have been failed by the current juvenile justice system” to examine the juvenile justice system to “identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.”
Fletcher said the experts will be from law enforcement — including school resource officers — prosecution, probation, corrections and agencies that help youth. In addition, the group, to be named the Juvenile Justice Reform Committee, will be made up of former employees of Boys Totem Town, Ramsey County’s former juvenile detention center that shuttered in August 2019 after alternatives to incarceration efforts led to high vacancy rates.
“The shortcomings of the current juvenile justice system are well documented as more and more youth are becoming involved in serious and violent crimes ranging from auto thefts, carjackings and shootings,” Fletcher said in a statement announcing the initiative. “I have talked with dozens of parents who have made it clear: the status quo is not working; there are no consequences, no resources and no support. Youth are frequently released from custody only to repeat the same dangerous and criminal behavior.”
In response to the announcement, Ramsey County Board Chairwoman Toni Carter said in a statement that for many years Fletcher has held a seat on the county’s Criminal Justice Coordinating Council and Transforming Systems Together board, but chose not to participate.
“Regrettably, Sheriff Fletcher has not taken advantage of our standing invitation to engage with county and community stakeholders who continue working to review, determine and assess current and new strategies for meeting community needs in juvenile justice or related areas,” Carter said.
Commissioner Trista MatasCastillo said through her Twitter account that Fletcher’s proposal “would take us backward and is based on a false and archaic way of thinking. We cannot keep repeating the sins of the past.”
Fletcher said the new committee will draw upon parent experience, data and research, stakeholder collaboration and community engagement as the foundation of the work. It will also prepare a formal report and recommendations to be forwarded to the state legislature for “long-term and systematic reforms,” he added.
“To be clear: this is not an opening to say that all youth belong in custody or that detention is the only option,” he said. “It is an opportunity to work together to design a system that holds youth accountable by promoting personal change, providing resources (including for parents), and ultimately ending the cycle of criminal behavior so that the necessary life changes are made to empower youth to grow into productive, law-abiding members of the community.”
Fletcher said the committee’s work will also include developing “appropriate and effective responses,” increasing community resources and helping kids succeed. It will review detention criteria, risk assessment tools, charging practices, probation resources and adjudication processes in addition to facility needs, he said, noting the county board’s decision to close Boys Totem Town.
“We all share a responsibility in helping youth lead successful lives,” Fletcher said. “The future of our communities is dependent on the success of our children. We can, and must, do better.”
Exact juvenile crime statistics were not immediately available Tuesday afternoon, Fletcher said in an interview Tuesday. He said statistics are not always indicative of the situation because crime victims do not always know if the offender is a juvenile.
St. Paul police arrested juveniles in 411 serious crimes in St. Paul last year, the lowest in the preceding four years, according to the police department. The serious crimes counted were homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, theft, auto theft and arson.
In 2019, police made 740 arrests of juveniles for serious crimes in St. Paul. The city saw an average of 558 arrests per year involving juveniles from 2016-2018, the statistics show.
TOTEM TOWN’S CLOSURE
Boys Totem Town was in operation for more than 100 years in St. Paul’s Battle Creek neighborhood. But occupancy at the residential treatment facility decreased over the years as Ramsey County’s judicial system shied away from out-of-home placements for juvenile offenders. In 2015, Ramsey County had 125 juveniles in out-of-home placements; in 2019 they dropped to 32. By the time it closed, there were six enrolled.
County officials at the time attributed the declines to ongoing community-wide efforts through the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative and related Deep End Reform, strategies that took the focus off confinement and on things such as “functional family therapy and culturally-specific services.”
“That trend aligns with a general reduction in crime rates over the past several years in Ramsey County,” the county said then in a statement.
In late 2016, Ramsey and Hennepin counties ditched plans to build a joint center for delinquent youth following public outcry that the proposal was not in the best interest of teens and that it ignored the will of the community. Officials from both counties had been analyzing and meeting for several years on how they might work together to improve and broaden services for delinquent teens in the metro area. Part of the discussion included building a joint facility to replace Boys Totem Town and Hennepin County’s Home School.
Fletcher said Tuesday he was against the closure of Boys Totem Town, but that the decision was made before he took over as sheriff in January 2019. He said that four months ago he spoke with Ramsey County Attorney John Choi and Ramsey County Chairwoman Toni Carter about a need for 30 beds for teens that are serious offenders.
“The removal of Totem Town created this problem for us,” Fletcher said Tuesday.
Now, when kids are adjudicated delinquent for a serious crime, they go to other parts of the state, such as Brainerd, Moorhead or Rochester, Fletcher said.
“That makes no sense to force the families to drive for hours in order to visit their children,” he said. “I’m actively in contact with two kids that were involved with carjacking. And they’re there in Moorhead, but their families have a difficult time, they’ve been there for six months. These are some of our more serious offenders. But that doesn’t accomplish the goal either.”
Mara H. Gottfried contributed to this report.
"current" - Google News
September 15, 2021 at 12:11AM
https://ift.tt/3CdcD16
Ramsey County Sheriff announces initiative meant to ‘transform the current juvenile justice system’ - TwinCities.com-Pioneer Press
"current" - Google News
https://ift.tt/3b2HZto
https://ift.tt/3c3RoCk
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Ramsey County Sheriff announces initiative meant to ‘transform the current juvenile justice system’ - TwinCities.com-Pioneer Press"
Post a Comment