Objectives
To develop an awareness and knowledge of the Juvenile Justice system with focal attention on the rights of juveniles and a working comprehension of cases where the care of the child is cause for court intervention. Many Hispanic and non-Hispanic students in the middle school where I work have inquired about the differences between the criminal court system, the juvenile courts, and their rights, for example, if they have been arrested for selling drugs, running away from home because of sexual abuse, cruel parental punishment and other situations that adolescents confront on a daily basis. Student empowerment is an inherent corollary of this specific section of this unit.
Background Information
After the instructor presents the following necessary background to the students in the form of a middle school seminar, a question and answer session is conducted by the classroom teacher with the judge or attorney that has agreed to act as a presenter and temporary mentor for the students.
The first question that comes to mind here is related to the origins of the juvenile court system as understood by a middle school individual who is interested or concerned when confronted by a pertinent problem. According to most of the readings researched for the presentation, the first juvenile court originated in 1899 in Illinois because people expected the court to act in a parental role for the children instead of having a punitive and adversarial involvement as is prevalent in adult criminal courts. It was the belief that young people in conflict with the law needed care, custody and discipline without being handled as criminals. There was a profound distinction between children and adults. Even though the integrity and privacy of family relationships were considered as a fundamental right, very often the state had to get involved for the protection and safe guarding of children from events and circumstances that were detrimental to their physical and emotional development. The courts intervened into the child-parent relationship to serve the best interest of the child and to officiate the creation of opportunities for the child to have a family ambiance where he or she experienced love, physical and emotional development. Then and today, students were perceived as less responsible for their behavior than adults.
In Connecticut the most salient objectives of the juvenile court might be summarized as the following:
-
-To perpetuate and uphold family ties as much as possible;
-
-Provide confidentiality to delinquent and other family matters coming before the court;
-
-Assure for each youth the care an discipline which serves the child’s best interest and the best interest of society and the public, if and when, a young person is placed away from home;
-
-To find a new home for the child only when their well-being or the safety and protection of the public deems it vital;
-
-To guarantee as much as possible that the youth under the court’s authority has proper emotional, mental, physical and moral care and guidance; AND
-
-To insure that the proper cases are heard in Superior Court for Juvenile Matters (juvenile court)the court which has jurisdiction over all cases pertaining to the behavior and custody of uncared for, neglected and dependent children and youth.
The nature and procedures of a juvenile court are very often dissimilar to those applied in adult courts. Some of these distinctions are due, besides other considerations, to the belief that there exists a fundamental right to privacy in child-parent relationships and that those children in trouble need to be treated as children and youth in need of special care and guidance. In other courts, cases are commenced by an indictment rather than by petition as in juvenile court. The word respondent is utilized instead of the word defendant and allegations (charges) must be proven at an adjudicatory hearing, instead of at a trial. In adult courts defendants plead guilty or not guilty, whereas, in juvenile situations, the respondent is asked to admit or deny. Judges make a finding in juvenile matters, not a verdict, and the word disposition is used in juvenile cases instead of the word sentencing.
Children and youth do not have the same legal protections and rights that adults have but there are a variety of unique safeguards that exist for young people appearing before the Superior Court for Juvenile Matters. Generally, the public does not have access to cases in the juvenile court. Only those individuals whose presence is imperative to the cases are allowed to be in the courtroom. Court records are very confidential and generally disposable only for court personnel and attorneys connected with a specific case. Other distinctions between adult courts and juvenile include the following: delinquent youth are not legally convicted of a crime; neither the parent of, nor juveniles alleged to have committed criminal acts can ask for trial by jury, except a delinquent whose case has been transferred to adult criminal court; court and police records can be erased under certain situations; physical descriptions of juveniles, identification photographs and other things like fingerprints can be required by police when a youth 13 years or older is charged with a felony offense; and, the court’s jurisdiction includes proceedings pertaining to children from families with service needs, youth emancipation, termination of parental rights of children committed to the care of a state agency and all cases relevant to the behavior and custody of uncared for neglected and dependent children and youth.
How does the state of Connecticut determine what specific minors fall under the jurisdiction of the Superior Court for Juvenile Matters? How does the State law define the word children and in which cases is the State required to intervene? These questions are very germane to the students’ understanding of the Superior Court for Juvenile Matters and for their awareness of an institution that very often has a major impact on their future. The state’s determination of the nature of a delinquent act committed by a youngster depends on the age of the child. According to the information read, the law in Connecticut defines the word children for purposes of the juvenile court system as persons under the age of sixteen (16) and the word youth as individuals sixteen (16) to eighteen (18) years of age. Five categories of minors come under the jurisdiction of the Superior Court for Juvenile Matters. In two specific categories the behavior of the child or youth is often the reason or cause of the court’s involvement in the situations. These two categories include a child who has violated or attempted to violate a state or federal law, municipal or local ordinance or an order of the Superior court. A minor who falls into this first category is referred to as a delinquent child. When a minor commits or attempts to commit certain grievous offenses he or she often is adjudicated as a serious juvenile offender if the crime is first and second degree assault, armed robbery, murder, arson, kidnapping, rape and others. Depending on the alleged crime, a decision can be made to place the child away from the home community for up to one year, to place the offender in a detention facility until a final decision is made on the case, or there may be an automatic transfer of certain juveniles to adult criminal court.
Another category of minors in which the behavior of the child or youth is the cause of the court’s intervention is a child in a family with service needs. A family with Service Needs has a child under sixteen years of age. This child under sixteen years of age who is or does one of the following: has exhibited a consistent pattern of truancy in school or has been chronically and overtly defiant of school rules and regulations, has ran away from home without just cause; has shown immoral or indecent conduct; or is beyond the control of parents or guardian.
In the categories previously described the reason or cause for the court’s intervention was the behavior of the minor involved. In the other categories, the care of the child or youth is the cause for the court’s involvement in the cases. One category is that of an emancipated minor. A special hearing is provided before a person is put into the emancipated minor description. This is a person reaching his or her eighteenth birth and whose parents are free from any authority, responsibility. The minor or the parents may request that the court make a legal decision that there are no obligations or responsibilities between child and parents. A second category involves the dependent neglected and uncared for children and youth and includes any individual under the age of eighteen who has experienced any of the following unwanted situations: is homeless or has been abandoned; has been denied the necessities of life, has been physically, or emotionally maltreated, sexually molested, or has received an unusually cruel punishment by parent or guardian; has been or is being denied proper living conditions or is being allowed to live in conditions that are injurious to his or her health; is being denied adequate care and attention or whose parent or guardian is unable to provide necessary care. These are the determinations which have to be made by the courts.
The last category of cases which involves the care of the child or youth as the reason for the court’s intervention are the types of juvenile court cases requiring termination of parental rights. In these serious juvenile cases the judge must find “clear and convincing” evidence that constitute a higher standard of proof far more demanding than is required in many other cases involving dependent, neglected or uncared for children or youth. In a far-reaching case involving the court intervention into the child-parent relationship, the court severs all legal rights and responsibilities between a child and his or her parents. After this has transpired, the child can be adopted by another family. Thus, whether the juvenile case is a termination of parental rights, an emancipated minor, dependent, neglected, and uncared for children or youth, in all the above categories the lives and futures of many young people is influenced by the courts.
Of all the categories previously described, that of the emancipated minor holds much interest and intrigue for this teacher as well as various students. One of the reasons why the topics for this unit were somewhat changed was an experience I had on June 23, 1992. This was the graduation day for the Sheridan Middle School. I hugged one of my students and said “Congratulations, you and your family deserve this wonderful day.” The male student turned to an obviously attractive but older woman, he kissed her and said, “Mrs. Greenia, I want you to meet my wife.” He discerned my reaction and before another word was uttered, he said, “Yes, I am married, I am an emancipated minor.” Needless to say, I did not know what the student meant. And here I am explaining and paraphrasing researched information that applies to other emancipated students in middle and high school.
First, the court has a hearing in which it is determined whether the individual is in one of the following situations: the person is on active duty with one of the U.S. armed forces; the person lives by his own free will separate and apart from the parents and is responsible for his own total financial upkeep; the minor has been legally married; and that the granting of emancipated status is in the best interest of either of both parties. The parents of any person between the ages of sixteen and eighteen or the child himself or herself may ask the court for a legal determination that the minor and parents are free from any authority, obligation or responsibility to each other. After the court issues an order of emancipation, the minor may become active in many legally recognized adult behaviors. The emancipated minor may enroll in any college or school without parental consent, establish a separate residence, consent to medical, dental or psychiatric attention and care without parental control or knowledge, sue and be sued by his or her own name, and sell real and personal property and can no longer be the subject of a petition as abused, dependent, neglected or uncared for under juvenile law. And do we have minors in the middle and high schools in New Haven who are already involved in “emancipated” situations but are not aware of it? I know of a few at the middle school level and intend to work with them alone with the judges, attorneys and Department of Children and Youth Services.
What are some of the constitutional rights that youths involved in delinquent cases have? What special rights if any do children appearing before the Superior Court for Juvenile Matters have in Connecticut? According to the Hartford Institute of Criminal and Social Justice and other authorities on juvenile law, youth involved in delinquent cases are afforded certain constitutional rights. These rights include, among others, the following:
-
1. To be informed of these rights;
-
2. To receive adequate notice of allegations (charges);
-
3. To have “guilt” determined by proof beyond reasonable doubt;
-
4. To appeal to a higher court the final decisions of Superior Court of Juvenile Matters, after completion of the dispositional hearing;
-
5. To remain silent and not to be penalized for doing so;
-
6. To be heard and present evidence in their own behalf;
-
7. To confront and cross-examine witnesses;
-
8. To be represented by a lawyer and to be provided with an attorney at the expense of the state if the minor cannot afford one; and
-
9. To be protected against double jeopardy.
Furthermore, in Connecticut minors involved in cases before the Superior Court for Juvenile Matters have the right to “request a release from custody on bail.” Connecticut is one of the few states in the country to give this right to juveniles. Also, if a statement, admission or confession is obtained from a minor and used as evidence, the child can request that the court disallow this evidence in court if such documents or statements were obtained from the child without the presence of both the child and the parent or guardian, and only if they were advised of their rights. If a parent has been a victim of personal violence by a child the court may demand that said parents can testify against their child.
After the teacher and the presenter have explained the background information and the constitutional rights to the students, the teacher will take the students through the part of the lesson called Step by Step Through a Delinquency Case including what to do if they are stopped by police, what happens if they are taken into custody, what to do and say while in custody, what transpires in a detention center, what comes next if they are released to the parent or guardian, and what occurs if they are placed in a detention center and other crucial information.
Students will achieve an understanding of the various phases involved in a delinquency case such as the detention hearing, the investigation and non-judicial disposition, a plea hearing, a contested adjudicatory hearing (trial), a transfer hearing, probations, investigations, a dipositional hearing and other terms like enforcement of orders, appeals, confidentiality of records, and circumstances under which the erasure of police and court records can take place. For a comprehensive and complete source for a step by step explanation of a delinquency case, the classroom teacher might want to use the book entitled Step by Step Through the Juvenile Justice System: A Handbook for Connecticut published by The Hartford Institute of Criminal and Social Justice.
Most of the constitutional rights afforded to minors categorized as delinquents also apply to children and youth that fall into the other categories such as serious juvenile offenders, children in a family with service needs, dependent, neglected and uncared for children and youth, children involved in termination of parental rights and others. However, the steps and procedures for a neglect case and for an emancipated youth case have different characteristics and ramifications. For example, in order for a judge to issue an order that terminates parental rights, there must be clear and convincing evidence that, “after no less than one year of commitment to the Department of Children and Youth Services,” one more of the following scenarios is prevalent in the child’s life:
-
1. The child has been denied the care required for his holistic well-being as a direct cause of the guardian or parent actions;
-
2. The minor has been abandoned by the parent’s failure to maintain a reasonable degree of concern and interest in the welfare of the child;
-
3. There has been physical abuse which is sufficient evidence of the termination of parental rights;
-
4. The parents of a child previously found by the court to be neglected have failed to achieve a degree of rehabilitation that would lead the court to believe they could (within a reasonable time) be responsible for taking adequate care of the child;
-
5. There is an absence of a current healthy relationship between child and parent, and it would be injurious and detrimental to the child to wait the length of time required to begin or reestablish such a parent-child relationship or bonding.
In any case involving the termination of parental rights, the judge must consider any efforts made to reunify the family, the child’s age in emotional ties and must find that the termination is in the best interests of the child or youth.
After the teacher and presenter take the students step by step through a delinquent case, they will continue the same process with step by step lessons through a neglect case and step by step through an emancipated minor case example. The matter needed for this part of the lesson will be found at the end of this unit in the reference materials.
Assuming that the students have been taught the background information in the form of seminar and question and answer sessions, they are now ready to read and learn the following list of concepts and vocabulary, as defined by The Hartford Institute For Criminal and Social Justice and other authorities on the Juvenile Justice System:
