Florida Catholic | No Justice For Juveniles

No justice for juveniles?

The Florida Department of Justice’s Blueprint Commission hopes to revamp the juvenile justice system with goals of redemptive laws and a reduction of juvenile delinquency.

YEDICA LEAL | SPECIAL TO THE FLORIDA CATHOLIC

Published: 03.14.08

Some of the offenses that, under current Florida law, can result in an arrest record: petty theft, classroom disruption, battery (such as fighting in school), using a fake ID, and having consensual sex with a boyfriend or girlfriend 15 or younger. (In some instances, consensual sex may result in a minor having to register as a sex offender.)

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To solicit a talk at your school or to your parish youth group regarding the consequences of juvenile offenses, call Carlos Martínez at 305-545-1616.

MIAMI | If your child commits an adolescent misdeed — such as using a fake ID or sleeping with his underage girlfriend — it could cost him his future.

That’s because of the way Florida law treats juvenile offenders, said Carlos Martinez, chief assistant public defender for the 11th judicial circuit in Miami-Dade County.

“Our juvenile and criminal laws are not redemptive. It’s like having a crucifixion without a resurrection,” said Martinez, a graduate of Immaculata-La Salle High School in Miami.

“Adolescence is a stage where we do lots of things, dumb things that affect others, but that does not mean we should punish (offenders) for life and push them into a low social-economic level,” Martinez said.

He explained that under Florida law, a minor who is arrested is subject to having his fingerprints put on file with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, having his arrest record become almost permanent, having his personal information made public and having many of his rights revoked.

“An adult offender has the right to receive clemency for his crime after serving his sentence, but a juvenile offender has to continue paying for it,” said Martinez, who has been making the rounds of public and private high schools to make students aware of the potential consequences of their misbehavior.

In February, Martinez and 24 other members of the Blueprint Commission, created by the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, presented a proposal to Florida Gov. Charlie Crist that asks for changes in the way state laws deal with juvenile offenders.

On average, about 90,000 adolescents are arrested each year in Florida, Martinez said, about 10,000 of those in Miami-Dade and Broward counties; 30 percent of those cases are diverted and not taken to court even though 70 percent of those arrested are never arrested again.

“The rest do not qualify for pretrial diversion, and almost always they are young people from low-income families who suffer, because their parents cannot take time off from work to attend follow-up court sessions,” Martinez said.

One of the proposals presented to the governor calls for setting age 11 as the minimum age for prosecution, which does not exist right now. Martinez is also suggesting additional changes to Florida laws through his office’s Charting a Path to Redemption plan.

In addition, an adolescent who is arrested for a serious crime from age 14 on is subject to being tried as an adult. If convicted in adult court, it disqualifies him from Bright Futures scholarships for college and from obtaining numerous occupational licenses from the state.

“These laws, department regulations and rules keep adults, who perhaps committed a crime when they were 15 and who have not committed a crime since, from becoming something as common as a barber, an exterminator or a masseuse,” said Martinez. “It prevents them from obtaining more than 700,000 possible jobs.”

The Blueprint Commission aims to refocus “zero tolerance” state laws toward intervention and prevention of juvenile crime, and rehabilitation of juvenile offenders. The goal is to keep them from becoming repeat offenders, improve their educational skills and provide them with “the means to contribute positively to society,” according to Frank Brogan, Blueprint Commission chairman and former lieutenant governor of Florida.

“Statistics confirm that adolescents who enter the adult judicial system are more likely to commit other crimes,” Martinez said.

He recently visited Belen Jesuit Preparatory School to make the students there aware of the serious consequences that might follow a juvenile offense.

“Almost all the students we have spoken with have the same reaction. They are indignant at the harshness of the law and consider the consequences unjust,” Martinez said. “If, as a society, we prevented and intervened more, we would be helping to rehabilitate aggressors and reduce the number of victims.”

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