Combating juvenile crime a continuing struggle

Judge Betty Adams Green says the answers to reducing juvenile crime and cutting recidivism rates include revamping juvenile court laws and developing after-school programs to keep children out of the system initially. Matthew Williams/The City Paper

Juvenile crime is a multi-faceted problem that Judge Betty Adams Green says is costing everyone money.

“I do think you’re going to pay now or you’re going to pay later. And I think we have been very penny wise and pound foolish in this country for a long time for building prisons instead of building daycare centers,” Green said.

She told a lunch meeting of the Nashville Women’s Political Caucus on Thursday that juveniles cost the social services and criminal justice systems, an amount that only grows as juveniles re-offend, often with more serious offenses.

“The people we lock up are not paying taxes. They’re not contributing, they’re draining on society,” Green explained. She said the average cost of housing a juvenile in a detention center is $67,000 per year.

The problem, police say, is a core group of repeat offenders. Of the 674 unique juveniles arrested over the last year on charges of committing serious crimes, such as aggravated assault, burglary, homicide, drugs or weapons, 85 percent of those children had been arrested for some kind of offense—misdemeanor or otherwise — before.

“One of the things we’ve been trying to focus a lot of attention on,” said Metro Police Chief Ronal Serpas, is that “the rate of repeat offenders in this state is absolutely obnoxious.”

“You have your small group of kids who are constantly in trouble,” explained Marlene Pardue, captain of the Youth Services division with the police department. “It’s not the bulk of kids that are in trouble, it’s this small percentage.”

Ganging up on the problem

Factors contributing to juvenile crime range from poverty to teenage motherhood, but also include gangs. Combating the influence of gangs is another area of the police department’s work.

Operation Safer Streets, which started in 2006, uses officers from multiple units to patrol areas known to have gang problems. So far, the program has 1,341 arrests as of May 19 — resulting in mostly misdemeanor charges.

However, state law, which Green calls “rather archaic,” does not allow the system to hold misdemeanor offenders until their court hearings.

“They may commit another theft or another burglary before they get back on that first one,” Green said.

Green says one of the key problems facing the juvenile justice system is the fact that the juvenile code has not been revised since the early 1970s.

“I think we’re going to have to take a comprehensive look at how the code serves our need today. The sooner we can get services in place, the sooner we can stop recidivism,” she said.

In contrast to the high overall recidivism rates for juveniles, police statistics show arrests of juveniles for the violent crimes of homicide, rape, robbery or aggravated assault, are down 43 percent for the year.

“We are trying to grapple with that data point,” Serpas said.

He said the police department is still trying to determine if the decrease is due to a smaller number of kids in the repeat offender category, a higher number of juveniles deciding not to commit crimes or more children being tried as adults.

Another reason, Serpas said, could be that Operation Safer Streets arrests have influenced the perception that police are cracking down on crime.

“We’re into the fifth month,” he said, suggesting more time is needed to see if the downturn continues through the summer when youths have more time on their hands.

Bringing parents into the picture

The police department and juvenile courts are working to be proactive by identifying at-risk children and families before they become recidivism statistics.

The police department has two officers working out of its Youth Services division who visit families of kids that have been arrested or cited. Called the Parental Enforcement Program, it aims to help parents be better parents.

The program originally started in 2006 to check for juveniles violating probation, but quickly expanded to visits of kids that are in danger of becoming serious offenders.

“It’s just really a proactive approach for [the parents] to interact with the police department in a positive way,” Pardue said. “They talk to the parents a little about parental responsibility and on the things parents could be charged for and they take a brochure that lists a bunch of services that are in Nashville that are available to families.”

Pardue said they also teach parents how to find the information they need to make better choices.

“Maybe there [are] some life skills that may be lacking. Everybody doesn’t know how to get on the Internet to research something, and a lot of parents, they just need being directed to the right resources,” Pardue said.

Neighborhood issues

Pardue said having enough after school programs remains an issue which is supported by Green’s statement that most juvenile crimes are committed between the hours of 2-6 p.m. when kids are out of school, but guardians are not yet home.

“I know from several schools that within 45 minutes after school’s out, the halls are closed and the floors are swept,” said Anderson Williams, who works with the Oasis Center, a crisis and youth development center. Williams was also on the task force that looked at rezoning Metro Schools. The group issued its report this week focusing on returning to neighborhood schools.

“I don’t know if that has a connection, but logic would say that kids that are closer to school would have a better shot at playing in the band or football if they’re going to be able to get a ride home,” Williams said.