Duval County is Losing the Fight Against Crime… But No-one Seems to Care.

Interesting story in today’s Times-Union here in Jacksonville, FL.  The most telling part of the story however, was the last paragraph:

“You just can’t save everybody,” he said. “You are not going to change people’s minds when they say they are not going to work.”

So what is the judge suggesting?  That we throw in the towel and throw away an entire generation?!? 

It’s one thing to point out the issue, everyone in Jacksonville is aware of our crime problem, but just who is working to solve it.  Clearly, the current methods do not work.  More police on the street has led to more police shootings – 25 so far this year – but no reduction in crime.  Harsher sentences have led to more people in jail – 1 in every 100 Americans – with no reduction in crime.

Former Sheriff Nat Glover suggested several months ago working “up-stream” on the problem. He stated very clearly the need for programs aimed at our youth population that will keep them out of trouble, and provide them with opportunities.  

We need to spend more of our money on education and health care in our inner cities.  We need the police we already have to get more involved in the communities that they patrol so that they aren’t seen as outsiders, but more as partners.  They need to work on building trust with the kids in their neighborhoods, as role models to be looked up to, not the enemy to be despised.

What is going on with the “Jacksonville Journey”?  The budget was approved, but what programs are being put in place?  Who’s running the show?  Is this program doomed to failure because of a lack of transparency in our local government?  All that money, and who knows where it is going?  

There are a lot of great local programs already in place, like Operation New Hope, but I have yet to see a program put together by the city to really work on this issue. 

As I posted in February of this year, we hear a lot of talk about doing great things, but never see any progress.  When will this change?  WIll it?  Or does everyone in this community share the same opinion of Judge Davis – That we can’t make a change, so to hell with them…

 

The Florida Times-Union

November 19, 2008

Violent crime rates rise among youth in Jacksonville area

 

By Dana Treen, 

The Times-Union

 

Violent felony crime involving Jacksonville youth has taken a sharp uptick, but Juvenile Court Judge Henry Davis doesn’t need to see the numbers to know it. 

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He said he is watching “a whole generation – a couple of generations – out of control.”

Davis, who presides over 20 to 80 cases a day in his courtroom, said he sees little of the respect for courts or the fear of incarceration that existed when the system was founded on European judicial philosophy.

“We’re just losing our civilization day by day,” he said. “My view is we have a criminal justice system that was designed for a different era.”

The wholesale social breakdown Davis said he has witnessed during two years in juvenile court are reflected in statistics compiled by the state Department of Juvenile Justice:

The number of Duval County juveniles ages 10 through 17 charged with crimes from July 1, 2007, to June 30 increased 13 percent compared to the previous year. At the same time, the number of crimes involving juveniles increased 16 percent, meaning, youths were committing more crimes.

Murders and manslaughters charged to juveniles went down, from 14 to 10, but other violent crimes increased sharply. Armed robbery increased 25 percent; other robberies climbed 28 percent.

Auto theft, a non-violent crime but one that is also considered the juvenile “starter felony,” increased 26 percent.

Grand larceny jumped 18 percent.

“I think people are in denial [of] just how bad things are in Jacksonville,” Davis said.

The statistics drawn from the recent records of youth offenses come at the end of a fairly flat youth crime rate in Jacksonville and a decline across the state. Since 2002-03, the number of Duval County youth charged with violent offenses went from 7.9 to 7.8 per 1,000 during the 2006-07 year. Statewide, the number went from 8.1 to 7.5 per 1,000, according to the Department of Juvenile Justice.

Davis said fights at schools are becoming more common and can involve 30 or more students. Bullying is a problem, too, with groups of aggressors assaulting individuals along racial lines, he said.

“It is not uncommon for 13- and 14-year-old boys to have assault weapons in their homes,” he said. “You get cases of armed robberies at schools.”

Biggest change

In the 2007-08 school year, 18 guns were found at Duval County schools, according to information from the school system. So far this school year, seven have been confiscated. All the cases resulted in arrests, said school spokeswoman Jill Johnson.

Advocates for youth said while societal conditions contribute to the crime numbers, changes in the law have also had an impact in how children are viewed.

“We charge children as adults,” said Lisa Steely, supervisor of the juvenile division of the Public Defender’s Office in Jacksonville. “And that never used to happen.”

Jay Plotkin, who heads the State Attorney’s juvenile prosecution unit in Jacksonville, said the office has a long history of charging youths as adults.

Changes in laws, he said, have made it mandatory in some cases.

“We don’t believe the juvenile justice system is equipped to handle the worst of the worst of offenses,” he said.

Tougher approaches grew out of situations such as the Columbine High School massacre in Colorado, which spawned zero-tolerance rules and forced legislatures into enacting laws. Now, Steely said, troublesome students at middle schools and high schools are more apt to be sent to a school resource officer – who is a police officer – instead of a teacher, principal or parent.

The biggest change “is how adults treat children,” Steely said, “not how children act.”

Gordon Bazemore, a professor and chairman of the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Florida Atlantic University, advised the Juvenile Justice Department’s Blueprint Commission in its work this year to improve the system.

Zero tolerance is good to keep guns out of schools, he said, but should not be applied to minor infractions.

“Instead of just punishing kids we want them to take responsibility for what they have done,” he said. “It is that simple kind of cleaning-up-your-mess [attitude]. We don’t do that in schools.”

Underlying problem

Punishment is less of an issue than underlying problems, Davis said, such as family breakdowns that leave youth without structure in their lives.

“In most cases I have here in juvenile court there is no father in the picture,” he said. “Children are just being released on society.”

Now, he said, many young offenders consider it honorable to go to jail.

“People just expect incarceration as part of life,” he said. “Their hair is more important than a job.”

Respect for education has disappeared among a large population of troubled youngsters, he said, so those who are uninterested should not be forced to stay in school. That is among the kinds of decisions Americans will have to make if they want to find solutions, Davis said.

“You just can’t save everybody,” he said. “You are not going to change people’s minds when they say they are not going to work.”

dana.treen@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4091

 

 

This story can be found on Jacksonville.com at http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/111908/met_357516124.shtml.