People who have worked alongside New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell on juvenile justice issues struggle to understand why she appears to be taking an increasingly hard line on juvenile crime after fashioning herself as a progressive policymaker.
In a single week, Cantrell endorsed the New Orleans Police Department’s plans to enforce a juvenile curfew; six juveniles indicted as adults have been transferred to the adult jail, possibly in violation of an ordinance Cantrell voted for as a councilwoman; and juvenile judges are adopting policies to detain more offenders before seeing a judge.
New juvenile court policy could mean more children held on minor charges
In 2014, Cantrell co-sponsored a measure on the City Council to study whether there were alternatives to holding youth at the city’s adult jail, the Orleans Justice Center, then voted for an ordinance in 2015 that designated the Youth Study Center as the “appropriate adult facility for the pre-trial detention of all children ... who are charged as adults.” Cantrell’s administration has not said whether it’s invoking a section of that ordinance that allows exceptions when the 48-bed Youth Study Center is “filled to capacity.”
In 2017, Cantrell voted in favor of an ordinance aimed at keeping more juveniles from being processed through the Youth Study Center. Advocates cited research showing more exposure to the criminal justice system makes juveniles more likely to re-offend. In addition, the court can release a juvenile more quickly depending on the nature of the crime and the likelihood they will return for court.
But now, judges have said they’re more likely to override a scoring system that determines whether a juvenile can be released to their parents. Instead, they’ll use it to see additional services are needed. Although the court holds weekday detention hearings that could allow a juvenile to have appear before a judge by noon, a court document shows it took an average of five days during first quarter 2019 for a defendant to see a judge.
Advocates are expressing concern about the judges’ plan because it seems to assure that more children are going to spend additional time in the Youth Study Center. When asked about the judges’ plan on May 30, Cantrell said, “I believe that the judges have taken a step in the right direction, meaning to not only use their assessment tool they currently use, but also to lean more on their discretion. I support that.”
“We were really caught off-guard” by Cantrell’s stances, given her past support for more progressive policies, said Aaron Clark-Rizzio, executive director of the Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights. As an example from 2017, he noted Cantrell supported Police Alternatives for Youth (PAY), an ordinance that to give police more discretion to warn juveniles or issue a summons for a list of minor crimes instead of arresting them.
“That whole ordinance is based around the idea of disconnecting children from further involvement in the justice system, and these new policies do the opposite,” Clark-Rizzio said.
The Cantrell administration, when stricter curfew enforcement was announced May 30, said they didn’t see a connection between the goals of the PAY ordinance and the possibility the new policy could put youth in a potentially traumatic police custody situation. During a rally Thursday (June 6) outside City Hall, Clark-Rizzio, described the curfew as NOPD “stopping and frisking young people.”
Emily Wolff, Cantrell’s director of the Office of Youth and Families, sees it differently.
“We don’t have anyone else intervening at that hour,” Wolff said. “I don’t know of many residents who are taking it upon themselves to drive around the neighborhood to look for kids in the community that might be making the wrong choice. NOPD is a resource we do have who can intervene. ... It’s just as much about building rapport with that youth and getting them into a safe environment as it is about curbing juvenile crime."
City Councilman Jason Williams said he finds Cantrell’s return to more conservative policies “strange,” given that “it was a pretty unified council” when Cantrell supported more progressive efforts in dealing with juvenile justice issues.
“I was taken aback at her reverse course because it’s not going to solve problems. It’s not going to reduce incidences of car burglaries,’” Williams said. “I don’t know what it’s going to cost us to use our existing manpower to stop and detain any perceived juvenile out past curfew, but I’d like to figure out what that cost is going to be versus dedicating six officers to respond to car burglaries in areas where they’re rampant.”
Former City Councilwoman Susan Guidry, who chaired the council’s criminal justice committee, expressed surprise at Cantrell’s approach to juvenile justice. The two worked together on what were considered progressive crime solutions.
In an interview, Guidry said she understands Cantrell may be under “pressure” to do something about juvenile crime. A teen is charged in the May 8 fatal shooting of a woman following a botched auto burglary. In March, two teens in a stolen car crashed into a Broadmoor salon. A customer and the suspects were killed.
“I’ve got to wonder where the (mayor’s) advice is coming from,” Guidry said. “This has happened through time ... in the ’90s they were calling young people — and they meant black boys, ‘superpredators,’ and it resulted in the jailing of so many children. It was so wrong and ruined so many lives. This is just a taste, a retreat back to that type of thinking."
New Orleans juvenile charges down, car burglaries increase
via nola.comhttps://www.nola.com
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