Juveniles Getting The Wrong Message
Some children won’t believe a stove-top is hot until they touch their fingers to a burning element.
They learn quickly - sometimes painfully - about consequences.
But young lawbreakers in Spokane County are being met by a legal system of cool indifference. They’re approaching the stove time and time again only to find it’s not hot, as people warned. And they won’t be held responsible for their actions.
A recent Spokesman-Review story revealed a backlog of some 3,000 arrests of juvenile offenders who hadn’t been prosecuted. The juvenile detention center, overflowing last fall, is now half empty. Kids are walking away from arrests, learning that crime does pay, that there are no consequences.
That’s the wrong message to send kids, a message Spokane will pay for dearly in years to come as youngsters work up the ladder of crime unchecked.
The arrests are being made. In fact, juvenile arrests were up 11 percent in 1994, the highest ever in Spokane County. A police study in April showed that many young offenders were being put back on the street then because of crowding at the detention center and in the courts. Instead of learning a lesson, they were committing crimes and getting arrested again before their first offense ever was processed.
The fault lies in the prosecutor’s office. Four deputy prosecutors and two secretaries struggle under the burgeoning case load. More than 40 prosecutors are assigned to adult court. In other words, while roughly 30 percent of the county’s crimes are committed by kids, about 9 percent of the county’s prosecutors are assigned to handle those cases.
The theory is, Superior Court crimes are more serious. The flip side is, ignoring criminals when they’re young makes them feel invincible, untouchable.
Nationally, violent crime by teenage boys is skyrocketing. Homicides committed by 14- to 17-year-old boys jumped by 165 percent between 1985 and 1993. Locally, arrests of juveniles have kept pace with adult arrests since 1987.
The best juvenile program at Spokane’s disposal is its diversion program. Better than 80 percent of the first and second offenders never come back. Early intervention and certain consequences have an impact.
But that can’t happen with the current system. Arrests are pouring in from street cops, and many of those crimes are increasingly serious. That means they take more time, more resources, more people.
Prosecutor Jim Sweetser should recognize that. Until there’s a system-wide dedication to handling each case quickly and with authority, we’ll just continue to create criminals.
The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Anne Windishar/For the editorial board