The Florida Bar

Florida Bar News

Are civil citations part of the answer to juvenile justice reform?

Associate Editor Regular News

The state’s juvenile system needs to combine “accountability with compassion,” provide individual determinations for youth instead of labeling them into categories, ensure the civil citation program is used across the state consistently, and continue communication and collaboration between agencies, families, and officials who deal with child offenders.

Whitney Untiedt, an Akerman partner and director of the firm’s pro bono initiatives, moderated the juvenile sentencing workshop at the Bar’s Criminal Justice Summit. The session included Brian Berkowitz of the Department of Juvenile Justice in Tallahassee; Julianne Holt, 13th Circuit public defender; Ralph Larizza, Seventh Circuit state attorney; and Sen. Perry Thurston, D-Ft. Lauderdale.

“We have statistics from DJJ to tell you what works, what isn’t working, and we can make the changes. But in the bubble of Tallahassee what are the discussions?,” said Thurston. “We don’t have enough representation from lawyers like you are, who actually know what’s going on in the system. We have individuals who have never been in a criminal courtroom in their lives making decisions about what they think is the right thing.”

The civil citation system, which is used for first-time youthful offenders, has only a 4 percent recidivism rate, according to Berkowitz. “It’s been very successful,” he asserted, and the panel largely agreed.

Sen. Perry Thurston The Department of Juvenile Justice encourages all circuits and counties to use civil citations, which provide a way to evaluate, assess, and treat at-risk kids early, Berkowitz said. But civil citations, which have been around since the early ’90s, are only used in a few jurisdictions and not very frequently.

Holt said although it takes more effort to work with this system, and the workload isn’t funded, she has seen a difference in Hillsborough County. “It’s reduced my caseload tremendously. We’ve gone from having 7,000 juvenile cases pending at one time to about 2,900 coming into the system,” she said.

Holt’s office asked children in detention centers: What do you want?

“They would like to have a place to live where they don’t have firearms going off at night. They would like a nice safe community. They would equally like to have some kind of employment opportunities. And they would like an opportunity to do something after school other than just hang out,” Holt said. “What we discovered is they are also looking for a positive role model in their life.”

Holt said Big Brothers Big Sisters, and other local groups, match mentors with low-level and serious child offenders in her county. For kids in pretrial detention, Holt said they receive assessment and cognitive behavioral therapy in an attempt to convince the state attorney they should not be adjudicated as adults. With the drop in caseload, individualized case plans are possible in her county, Holt said.

After a rash of Pinellas County car thefts resulted in multiple deaths, the creation of a 2017 bill, which allowed for “prolific juvenile offender” status, bothered Holt, she said.

“We’re looking at this from a public health approach,” she asserted, adding a mental-health court to deal specifically with juveniles is in the works. “We have to stop labeling people. We have to recognize that mental health is a true, true, true factor in our community. We have kids that are talking about suicide at 8, 9, 10 years old. That’s unacceptable.”

Larizza said if victims object to civil citations, they cannot be issued.

“You can be tough on crime and compassionate. When it comes to the juvenile justice system, you can’t forget, the kids need to be accountable for what they do,” said Larizza, reminding the audience that ultimately the goal is public safety. “Nobody wants to ruin a kid’s life, but at the same time, we’ve got a job to do folks.”

For anybody who is involved in law enforcement, Larizza said, change is not always welcome. He said communication between agencies is important, so all players understand civil citations are “a good thing.” That’s why Larizza got 15 law enforcement agencies in Volusia County to sign a memorandum of understanding.

Thurston said after the 2018 Parkland high school shooting, a mental-health component was interjected. Some students, however, experience shootings daily in their neighborhoods, he said, but the legislative funding for those resources isn’t there. “So it comes down to what is the priority of the state? Your budget is a reflection of your priorities, and if your priorities are not your children, then you won’t get the funding.”

News in Photos