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Show Everything you want to know about f Juvenile Court but are afraid to ask By Erma Jean Lee '"Who is more foolish, the child afraid of the dark or the man afraid of the light?" Maurice Freehill The why's of juvenile problems in our own children or in our neighbor's is a realm of knowledge we may fear to face in our "secret heart." Why? Because to heal the problems of our children or youth, we adults might have to "grow up more" and do something about our problems. That would take work, time, one-to-one patience pa-tience and continuous effort. Even schools, apparently, do not want the challenge of working with juvenile delinquents. This task is left to the resources of social services, law enforcement, courts and attorneys. In a recent interview inter-view with Tom Freestone, Officer of Juvenile Court, and his assistant, I found that many people lack the patience pa-tience to deal with young people who have problems. He felt that a patient adult who can work on a one-to-one basis with a delinquent youth is the best deterrent to future problems, but such adults are hard to find in our community. communi-ty. Mr. Freestone drafted a paper "Practices and Procedures in Juvenile Court" which answers some of the questions many of you may have regarding regar-ding what is being done locally with juvenile offenders. The Juvenile Court Building is presently located at 780 West Main Street, and Mr. Freestone says this the permanent home of Juvenile Court. It is complete with a new courtroom and otner oilices. What is Juvenile Court? "The Utah State Juvenile Court is a state-wide court comprised of five districts. The transfer of cases between districts is readily accomplished where necessary. Computerized information and handling handl-ing is used through a juvenile information informa-tion system which is probably the best in the United States. "Referrals (complaints) made to the juvenile court are quickly processed providing action for the child and the public. The 1965 Juvenile Court Act provides pro-vides that any peace officer or other person may make a referral to juvenile court. When a referral of other than a minor nature is received, a court officer of-ficer is immediately assigned to make a preliminary inquiry into the case. This action involves meeting with the child and parent. It often results in further consultation between the court officer and the county attorney andor the police officer. Based on what is learned, a full court hearing can be quickly scheduled when reauired." Who are considered as juveniles? "Juveniles are defined by law as those individuals under 18 years of age. No other factor such as marriagechanges mar-riagechanges the age status. A person per-son over the age of 18 and under 21 may be handled by the juvenile court for any offense committed by the juvenile prior to his having reached his 18th birthday. "Adults who contribute to the delinf quency of a juvenile may be handled bj? tiie juvenile court. Other persons ove the age of 18, usually between 18 and 2lj are frequently referred to as juvenilesj and juveniles are blamed for the ir; responsible acts committed by that age-group. age-group. The 18 to 21 group fall into tbd jurisdiction of the adult court anf should be referred to as young adults.'' "The entire juvenile court system operates in strict accordance with the provisions of law. The idea that sometimes cases are handled other than as provided by law is inaccurate. An accounting of every case is made and approved in compliance with legislative intent.' What is the present nature of juvenile problems? "Status offenses probably represent the most persistent juvenile delinquency problems in the Uintah Basin at the present time. Status offenses of-fenses are defined as those violations which are illegal for juveniles only, e.g., use of alcohol, runaway, ungovernable, ungover-nable, school problems. "In the area of offenses catergorized as criminal offenses, burglary, theft and destruction of property lead the list. Use of controlled substances such as marijuana appears to be present at a fairly constant level. The runaway or ungovernable child presents special problems because such children rapid: ly drift into other more serious delin-j quency. Handling of these cases is complicated com-plicated by placement needs and lack of resources." What causes local juvenile delinquency? delinquen-cy? "Two elements are always necessary for any offense to occur. The elements are firstly, desire, and secondly, opportunity. Since oppor-; tunities frequently occur desire becomes the key factor in a youth becoming involved in an offense. Most often a child is deterred in breaking the law by the influences present in the home. It is in the home with effective parents that a child has his greatest psychological ties and overcomes or resists desire to be a lawbreaker. "A recent review of one juvenile court probation officer's case load of 60 individuals reveals 52 of those individuals in-dividuals to be from broken homes. Oci casionally a delinquent child appears under the best of home circumstances,' but by far, the larger number come from homes where adequate supervision supervi-sion is lacking." Next week, Part II. In the meantime, if you have urgent questions, please call Tom Freestone or his assistants at; w, 789-1271. If you're curious, -drop-in and visit the new courtroom at 780 West Main. |
