District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro unveiled a plan Thursday (May 16) to combat what he called an “out of control” juvenile crime problem in New Orleans that includes encouraging judges to be tougher on repeat offenders and getting additional funding for his office to prosecute juvenile cases.
City leaders welcomed his suggestions, while critics said he was “sensationalizing” a recent tragedy and not proposing anything that would actually make the city safer.
In unveiling an eight-point plan at a press conference in his Mid-City office, Cannizzaro said political and budgetary pressure has been placed on prosecutors, the police department and judges to downplay the scope of the city’s juvenile crime problem.
“We will not get a handle on this problem until we all agree that for many of this city’s habitually delinquent and violent teens, meaningful consequences for persistent and violent criminal conduct not only are appropriate, but overdue,” he said.
Cannizzaro’s proposal includes an additional $300,000 for his office to hire two juvenile court prosecutors and a case screener to help manage the “growing” juvenile felony caseload.
He said the city already has sent that much this year to juvenile public defenders and to the Youth Empowerment Project, and there hasn’t been much evidence juvenile crime is dropping.
Advocates disagreed.
“The data over the last several years illustrates the overall success of the policy changes our community has made in our criminal legal system,” said chief Orleans Parish public defender Derwyn Bunton. “Sensationalizing tragedy is bad policy and offensive. What our children need is for the adults to stop letting the tail wag the dog and invest in solutions that strengthen our communities and make us safe.”
Cannizzaro has been publicly outspoken about juvenile crime in recent months. He called violent teen offenders the city’s biggest crime issue in a speech at a Metropolitan Crime Commission luncheon in February, and started his press conference Thursday by addressing the “senseless” killing of Zelda Townsend, who was shot in the head during a failed auto burglary May 8.
She and her husband, who was shot in the arm, went outside of their Cleveland Avenue home when they heard their car alarm and spotted someone in their vehicle. Police arrested three teens – ages 16, 17 and 18 – in connection with the crime.
“That an armed teenager took this woman’s life during a botched auto burglary is inexcusable, and the tragedy must be felt beyond her grieving husband and their relatives and friends,” Cannizzaro told reporters. “She should be considered family to us all. Because what happened to her could have happened to any one of us this year, in any part of New Orleans.”
The day after Townsend was killed, Mayor Latoya Cantrell and NOPD Superintendent Shaun Ferguson spoke to reporters at a news conference about the need for accountability by parents and other people in the criminal justice system, including police.
Cantrell called the killing “senseless” and Ferguson said he was “disgusted.”
“We have to create spaces for these young people to go in the event they don’t have someone to go home to or that is at home,” Cantrell said.
Goal is not to ‘lock up children’
Cannizzaro also proposed prioritizing what he called a “much-needed” expansion of the Youth Study Center, noting city officials this spring have gone to court asking judges to order some teens be transferred to the Orleans Justice Center to relieve overcrowding at the youth facility.
“Because so many violent teens are running rampant across our city, the 40-bed detention capacity of the Youth Study Center is proving inadequate to ensure public safety,” Cannizzaro said. “An immediate push should be made to expand the number of beds, counselors and security staff to more sufficient numbers.”
Aaron Clark-Rizzio, the executive director of the Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights, the public defenders for children in juvenile court, said Cannizzaro’s proposal will not reduce youth crime.
“All it does is call for more of the same – more policing and more incarceration of black children and their families,” he said. “Clearly this approach hasn’t made us safer, so why does the DA keep insisting on it? We need to invest our resources in solutions that will actually help our young people and make our community safe.”
Cannizzaro insisted his goal is not to “lock up children,” despite what critics say.
“More social services, trauma awareness and better educational opportunities are needed to steer wayward children from anti-social behavior,” he said. “But those solutions require more money and a longer timeline than we presently can endure.”
Mayor, police chief organizing meeting to address juvenile crime
Other suggestions Cannizzaro made Thursday include ending NOPD’s federal consent decree, which he said could free up about $11 million annually. That money could be re-invested into juvenile crime solutions and programs, he said.
He also proposed encouraging New Orleans police officers to enforce truancy and curfew ordinances, a practice he said has significantly declined in recent years. NOPD made 4,073 of those status offense arrests in 2011, he said. They made 287 such arrests last year, he said.
He said city leaders should demand more engagement and supervision from parents, and should encourage juvenile court judges to be tougher on repeat offenders. He said the city should restore funding to Juvenile Court for an electronic monitoring program as an alternative to incarceration.
“Our juvenile judges have an obligation to this community to stop the unrestricted release of dangerous individuals, regardless of whether they are under 18 when they pull guns on people,” he said.
Chief Juvenile Court Judge Candice Bates Anderson said juvenile judges recognize the public’s concern about recent reports of increases in juvenile crime, and they support interventions aimed at improving public safety.
“Our challenge in this community is to provide a justice system with graduated sanctions that discourage and prevent delinquent activity in the early stages,” Anderson said, noting Cannizzaro’s plan primarily addresses delinquency once a youth has committed a crime and already is in the juvenile justice system.
Judges would like to see resources directed toward early intervention and detention alternatives, she said, and are open to programs or opportunities to intervene before a crime is committed.
“This will allow the justice system to focus our limited resources on youth who present a risk to the safety of our community,” she said.
Cantrell’s office said Thursday they’re glad to see Cannizzaro is on the same page. Ferguson said NOPD is working with all partners in the criminal justice system, including Cannizzaro, and it’s important that all agencies offer ideas and solutions.
Beau Tidwell, Cantrell’s communications director, said the mayor and police chief are taking steps to organize a meeting of all involved stakeholders.
“The solution calls for a system-wide change in how things are done, regardless of the consent decree,” Tidwell said. “The wholesale improvements and reforms that need to be made will have to come on a system-wide level, across the board. We believe the DA has a role to play, and we look forward to him joining us.”
via nola.comhttps://www.nola.com
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