TALLAHASSEE
Like the adult crime rate, the juvenile crime rate is also plummeting in Florida.
“This trend grossly underreported,” state Sen. Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island, tweeted after Gov. Rick Scott and the Department of Juvenile Justice highlighted the 2013-14 stats in a release this week. A former state prosecutor, Bradley has helped guide criminal justice spending and programs over the last two years.
The DJJ said the number of juveniles being arrested for crimes – felonies, misdemeanors and violations of probation – dropped 8 percent from the prior year. Since 2009, the number has plunged 36 percent, from nearly 122,000 a year to just under 79,000.
“Making Florida the best state in the nation to get a job and raise a family is our mission – and that starts with making sure we have safe communities for our families and job creators,” Scott said.
Scott can point to a 28 percent drop in juveniles arrested for felonies since 2009, including a 66 percent drop in juveniles arrested for murder or manslaughter since then.
Florida officials can take some of the credit for the declining juvenile crime rate. But like the drop in adult crime, Florida is also following a national trend in declining juvenile crime. The National Center for Juvenile Justice reported in July that the number of juvenile cases nationally had declined 24 percent between 2007 and 2011 – the latest year in the report.
Florida officials have been pro-active in trying to address the juvenile crime trends. They have initiated a series of programs designed to better direct the funding and resources to the most critical juveniles, while also expanding programs that can divert some juveniles from a more serious life of crime.
“This decrease in arrests over nearly every juvenile offense category, including serious offenses, shows that DJJ’s reform initiatives are working,” said interim DJJ Secretary Christina Daly.
Daly said the DJJ embarked a reform initiative, called the “Roadmap to System Excellence,” two years ago with the aim of improving the system. She said it includes revamping community-based intervention programs as well as providing services for juveniles such as vocational training, education, employment and transportation.
The pivotal question remains how much those reforms are helping reduce juvenile crime as opposed to national trends, like an improving economy, that can also impact crime rates.
But Florida has embraced some innovative programs. One of the most significant is the use of “civil citations” to divert juveniles who commit less serious crimes from ending up in the traditional system.
Only juveniles committing first-time misdemeanors, like petit larceny or vandalism, are eligible for the program. Juveniles who commit crimes involving firearms, sexual incidents or gang activity are not eligible. Juveniles with previous citations are also not eligible.
The juveniles receiving the citations are sent through an assessment system that directs them to alternative programs like community service, restitution or holds them to standards like monitoring their progress in schools.
Between October 2013 and this September, some 21,393 juveniles met the criteria of the program, with 8,344, or 39 percent of those juveniles being issued citations rather than being arrested, the DJJ said.
In addition to its diversion value, the citation program is also much cheaper. DJJ estimates it costs $386 to send a juvenile through the assessment program versus $5,000 for covering the cost of law enforcement, prosecutors, public defenders and courts in the traditional system.
The increasing use of citations can be directly linked to the declining number of youths being arrested for crimes.
“We are dedicated to a comprehensive strategy – working with these children to provide not only the treatment they need but the tools they need to stay on a successful path once they are no longer under our care,” said DJJ Secretary Daly.
WINNER OF THE WEEK: Revenue. State economists projected that Florida should have a budget surplus in excess of $950 million in the coming year. It will help make it easier for lawmakers and Gov. Rick Scott to meet some of their campaign promises, including a record level of public school funding and more tax cuts.
LOSER OF THE WEEK: Gerald Bailey. The veteran law enforcement official abruptly resigned from his position as commissioner of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Bailey, who was appointed by Gov. Jeb Bush and the Cabinet in 2006, will be replaced by Rick Swearingen as an interim commissioner, subject to approval by the Cabinet.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “As a result of these conversations and thoughtful consideration of the kind of strong leadership I think America needs, I have decided to actively explore the possibility of running for president of the United States,” Jeb Bush said in a Facebook message.
