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| Ga. Juvenile Justice Department wants to stop locking up minor offenders |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 11/29/2004 |
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State juvenile justice officials want to get rid of a program they say takes children who have committed minor offenses and locks them up with those who've committed violent crimes. Under the program, children who have committed offenses such as skipping school or breaking curfew end up locked up for up to 90 days. There, they end up ''palling around with our designated felons,'' said Bill Reilly, chief of staff at the Department of Juvenile Justice. And research shows they often get into more trouble once they are released. But doing away with the program would require repealing a 1994 law. The law gives juvenile court judges broad authority to sentence children up to 90 days in one of Georgia's youth prisons. Department of Juvenile Justice officials are hoping to get support from Gov. Sonny Perdue for a substitute plan during upcoming budget discussions. The current program grew out of Georgia's crackdown on juvenile crime a decade ago, which created 90-day military-style boot camps. After it was decided the boot camps were not rehabilitating children, Orlando Martinez, who was Department of Juvenile Justice commissioner at the time, phased them out in 2000. More than half of the children locked up under the program had no prior criminal record and probably should have remained in their communities on supervised probation, the Department of Juvenile Justice says. |
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