Whats a Young Offender in your area?

[wonderwoman]

What is considered a Young Offender in your area?

For example in Ontario kids age 16 up to 18 years are considered Young Offenders and are kept Separate and Apart from adult inmates under the jusidiction of the Ministry of Correctional Services. Although some are in Shared Facilities they never "come into contact" with an adult offender.

Young Offenders under 16 are part of the Ministry of Community and Social Services.

They can receive a sentence that is called "Open Custody" or "Secure Custody".
Open Custody sentence is spent in a community contracted "group home" type facility. Secure custody is spent in a more structured Youth Facility or in an adult institution. (separate and apart from adults.)

If a 22 year old kid gets sentenced for something he did when he was 17 he serves his sentence in a youth facility. (However, both the young offender and the Ministry can apply to have his time done in an adult facility.)

[This message has been edited by wonderwoman (edited 06-08-2001).]

[gazza]

G/day ww in victoria AUS young offenders 12-21 come under the juvenile justice system ,though it is not common for anyone say from 19-21 to be under juvenile justice if their crime is concidered serious by the justice system then they may do a lagging in an adult jail where we used to have young offenders unit for ages 17-21 http://www.officer.com/ubb/smile.gif

[wonderwoman]

Thanks, I always appreciate hearing from you!! http://www.officer.com/ubb/smile.gif

[JKT]

I don't know about other states, but in Tx, after your 17th birthday, you are considered an adult for criminal justice purposes. 16 and under go to the Juvenile Justice system.

Lots of kids get a nasty surprise on their birthday!

I'm not sure about Juvenile sentences, never worked with them.

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Optimistic pessimist: Hope for the best, but expect the worst.

Jack

JKT@guardroom.com

[Metro174]

In Maryland you are a juvenile until your 18th birthday and as such you are kept seperate from adult offenders even at booking. The exception is for certain serious crimes where you are automatically waived to adult status at either 14 or 16 depending on the crime. For example rape at 16 means they are waived and homicide at 14 is waived. Also anyone under the age of 8 is considered incapable to have commited a crime as they don't yet know right from wrong. At least legally.

[This message has been edited by Metro174 (edited 06-09-2001).]

[Sig220Man]

In California a juvenile is defined as anybody who has not yet reached his/her 18th birthday.

Unlike with adults, juveniles arrested in CA MUST be read their Miranda rights, even if the officer has no intention of interrogating the kid. However, a juvenile may be arrested by an officer for a misdemeanor not committed in that officer's presence; this is normally not possible with adults except in very specific circumstances.

A juvenile who has been arrested for a criminal offense (602 WIC), or a statutory offense such as truancy or running away from home (601 WIC), may NOT be placed in a facility that also houses adult offenders, even if they will be tried as adults.

The last time I checked, a juvenile may only be tried as an adult if at the time of the offense the juvenile was at least 16 years of age, and had committed one of a very specific set of crimes such as rape or murder. I believe the age group and/or list of crimes may have been expanded through a recent voter referendum.

After the booking process, the juvenile must either be released to the custody of his/her parents or guardians (or school for truancy), or the juvenile must be booked at an approved juvenile detention facility. In LA County, such facilities are so overcrowded that they will only accept juveniles that were arrested for serious violent felonies, or if the officer was unable to find any parents or guardians within a 6 hour time limit.

If the juvenile has not yet reached his/her 14th birthday, the officer has to take the additional step to show that the kid knew what he/she did was wrong; this is done through a questioning procedure known as "Gladys R.", taken from the name of an appellate court case.

Juvenile court proceedings are NOT open to the public, unlike for adults. For this reason, courtrooms used for juvenile proceedings often have limited seating.

Upon conviction and sentencing, the juvenile falls under the jurisdiction of the California Youth Authority, and can remain under their jurisdiction up to their 25th birthday. Most of the time they are sentenced to probation, though more serious offenders can be sent to "camp."

[This message has been edited by Sig220Man (edited 06-09-2001).]

[wonderwoman]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Sig220Man:
In LA County, such facilities are so overcrowded that they will only accept juveniles that were arrested for serious violent felonies, or if the officer was unable to find any parents or guardians within a 6 hour time limit.

Sig220Man,
Are your facilities allowed to turn juveniles away?
In Canada the system must take them whether young offender or adult.

Thanks for the imput! http://www.officer.com/ubb/smile.gif

[Sig220Man]

Originally posted by wonderwoman:
Are your facilities allowed to turn juveniles away?

Prior to transporting to a juvenile detention facility, the officer must telephone in advance to obtain authorization.

Yes, they can (and have) denied such authorization http://www.officer.com/ubb/frown.gif

[JKT]

Sig220Man, are you sure you don't work in West Texas?

Our Juvenile Justice Center, when it was built (1981), was too small. They have expanded twice, I think, but it still doesn't have an adequate capacity. For some reason our County leaders just can't seem to look past the end of the current fiscal year.

The same thing happened with our Jail. We are currently rennovating part of it, which lowered our capacity by 60-70, and our population is about 75 over what it should be before the rennovation. We need, desparately, a new facility, but they keep throwing bank-aid at the situation.

Our legal (by State rules) capacity is 760 minus the area being worked on makes it 700, and our average daily population is about 820.

Maybe, when we have to start farming out our inmates to other facilities, and PAYING them to house our inmates, not to mention transportation costs, they will wake up!

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Optimistic pessimist: Hope for the best, but expect the worst.

Jack

JKT@guardroom.com

[Don]

Originally posted by JKT:
Maybe, when we have to start farming out our inmates to other facilities, and PAYING them to house our inmates, not to mention transportation costs, they will wake up!


The last county I worked for did this for many years. Needless to say, they were very strict as to what you booked a juvie on. We had several folks (including my son) who worked part time for juvenile probation as a transport officer to take the little idiots all over the state to a REAL county, and then to bring them back. http://www.officer.com/ubb/rolleyes.gif

They finally got their shi* together (more or less) and built a juvie detention facility.

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I used to have an open mind - but my brains kept falling out.

6P1 (retired)