The Juvenile Justice System and Its Process
Before the two of us began our internship experience at the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services (DJS), we likely both had our own expectations of what we were anticipating going in. However, once you're involved in the world of Juvenile Justice, it becomes apparent that so much more work goes into each and every case than one would think. In order to get you acquainted with the steps a youth would normally go through in the process, we believed it would be best to outline it for you below.
Unfortunately, it'd be nearly impossible to provide you with everything there is to know, but we hope that this can give you better insight and allow you to feel more comfortable discussing some of the roles and functions associated with the Juvenile Justice System. For your own reference, we will do our best to define as many words utilized by individuals in the Juvenile Justice System as possible, when needed. You can also find the extensive list below.
1. Detainment and Adjudicatory Hearing
A youth would not find themselves involved in the Juvenile Justice System without first being detained and held in a juvenile detention center. As with adult cases, youths are innocent until proven guilty, and must await their adjudicatory hearing — this is a "formal finding by the juvenile court" where both the state and the defense present their findings, allowing the magistrate/judge to find the juvenile either 'guilty' or 'innocent' (NJDC, n.d.).
Upon detainment, a juvenile is assigned a case worker (also referred to as a juvenile case manager) as well as a public defender, unless represented by someone from a private firm. A juvenile will be held in the appropriate detention facility until their adjudicatory hearing takes place.
Maryland has several juvenile detention facilities, including Waxter's Children Center for girls in Laurel, MD and Charles H. Hickey, Jr. School for Boys in Parkville, MD. You can view the extensive map of juvenile detention facilities here.
2. Evaluations and Staffings
Following the youth's adjudicatory hearing, youths partake in various screenings and evaluations, including: Psychosocial, Psychosexual, and Psychological. The reason for these evaluations is to determine whether or not there are any factors that could possibly of motivated or clouded the youth's decision-making abilities.
Psychosocial includes societal factors and how they impact individuals' behaviors and attitudes.
Psychosexual includes pronounced sexual behaviors (such as unwarranted touching) by the youth.
Psychological includes previously or newly diagnosed mental health conditions.
"Nearly 60%" of detained male juveniles and "two thirds" of detained female juveniles having been diagnosed with "one or more psychiatric disorders." This goes to show how prevalent mental health disorders are amongst juveniles are. The results of these evaluations are discussed amongst the juvenile's case workers, the youth, and the youth's family to come to an agreed recommendation to present to the judge during the youth's disposition hearing. This gathering amongst the department's faculty is commonly referred to as a M.A.S.T. Staffing.
(Teplin et al., 2006)
3. Disposition Hearing and Service Implementation
This is when the case workers and attorneys present their case, including evaluation results, whether the youth has a prior record, and more.
Based on the youth's case and the judge's interpretation, the youth be assigned a number of court-mandated services. They can be placed on probation, which can either be monitored by routine office visits with their case manager, or the youth can be placed on CD/EM, Community Detention and Electronic Monitoring, which allows for case workers to monitor the youth's every move and allow them to either set a curfew or make sure the youth does not leave the house.
Other court mandated services could include: family counseling, anger management, substance abuse counseling/individual counseling, Teen Court, and more.
If the charge is more severe, a youth might return to their detention facility until placed in a residential facility, which is where youths are able to attend school, counseling, and take part in other programs and services in a locked-down facility.
4. Completion of Services
There are two routes juveniles can either go down when involved in the justice system. One involves their completion and compliance with the court-mandated services. This means that the youth successfully attended all of their therapy appointments, group sessions, substance abuse classes, and met curfew. The second route includes aging out of the system.
A juvenile's records are essentially wiped clean when they turn 21 years old. However, this is only true if the charges they obtained prior to their 18th birthday were not adult charges. Usually, a youth falls off here and there with their requirements and doesn't meet them consistently; however they have done enough to have their record wiped clean nearing their 21st birthday.
A juvenile could also commit a crime past the age 18, which is automatically an adult charge, and they could age out of the Juvenile Justice System by getting themselves involved in the adult system.
