Prosecutors in Florida criminally charge too many youth as adults
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A Moment with… is an opinion feature in which The Palm Beach Post Editorial Board asks community leaders for their take on issues affecting our community and the state. State Sen. Bobby Powell, D-West Palm Beach, shares his concerns about the process that allows prosecutors to bypass the juvenile justice system and be charged as adults. His responses have been edited for space. The full interview can be seen online.
1. What prompted you to file Senate Bill 1498?
A 14-year old boy, direct-filed into Florida’s adult criminal justice system in the year I first filed this legislation, would be looking at becoming a 23-year old man this year. Our state leads the nation in the rate of juvenile direct filings, the ability of a state attorney to bypass the juvenile justice system and the courts and send kids directly into the adult criminal punishment system. In the nine years the Legislature has consistently failed to embrace this reform legislation, too many kids were condemned in adult courts and too many kids were sent to adult prisons, stripped of ever having a second chance for offenses that, in most cases, were not violent. This is why I’ve re-filed this legislation.
2. Describe the current process. What changes would you like to see?
Under Florida law, there are three ways a child can be prosecuted as an adult: judicial waiver, grand jury indictment, or direct-file. The latter is the most common and is completely discretionary, which means each state attorney retains sole authority on whether to push a child directly into the adult system. This is also one of the most troubling aspects of direct-file. By bypassing a judge’s approval, kids as young as 14 can be directly transferred into the adult criminal system without so much as a court hearing. My bill would ban the discretionary direct-filing of children up to 15 years of age, among other reforms. And, a youth of 16 or 17 may only be direct-filed if a forcible felony was committed.
3. Do prosecutors have too much leeway in charging youth as adults?
The danger in ceding so much authority over a child’s life to just one individual is palpable. Approximately 98% of juveniles transferred into adult court are direct-file.
There is no standardized process; disparities hinge on jurisdiction and the unchecked power of a prosecutor. Two identical crimes can have two completely different outcomes, both wholly dependent on the predilection – or the whims – of a state attorney. It also can hinge on the color of a child’s skin. In Florida, data from the Department of Juvenile Justice has shown that the majority of children sent to adult court were Black. Once a child has been charged as an adult, they are held in adult detention facilities. And the decision cannot be repealed or revoked by a judge.
4. What are your bill’s chances of getting through a Legislature that embraces a tough-on-crime culture?
It’s a lot easier to govern by slogan than it is by sound policy and sound reason. Tough- on-crime has been neither good policy nor well-reasoned. It’s become a catch-all phrase enabling lawmakers to dump by the thousands children they don’t want to deal with. And by doing so, they’ve boosted the odds that these kids tossed into the adult prison system will recidivate, costing society much more in the long run. Their criminal records will follow them for the rest of their lives, adversely impacting everything from education to careers, credit records to insurance rates. Hardly an effective way of solving crime in our communities or showing these young offenders a better way to turn their lives around.
5. What can be done to better engage the public in this issue?
The public needs to understand that a one-size-fits-all approach typically doesn’t work when trying to solve societal problems, especially when we’re dealing with kids too young and still too immature to realize the seriousness of their mistakes. That’s not to say there should be no consequences. Of course there should be. And children need to learn accountability. That’s how they learn and grow into responsible adults. But to place the future of these kids in the hands of a lone state attorney far too often condemns them to indefinite punishment, their lives permanently anchored to a ball and chain. For the sake of our communities, and for the sake of our children, we have to do better.
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