Juvenile justice system criticized

Stephen Curran

Wednesday, May 19, 2004 | 10:55 a.m.

Top juvenile justice experts called for wholesale changes in how the state treats its underage offenders, saying Nevada's current rehabilitation methods are outdated.

One state legislator went so far as to suggest levying user fees on divorces as a way to pay for the proposed reforms.

Kirby Burgess, director of Clark County Juvenile Justice Services, appeared Tuesday before an interim legislative committee meeting on the state's juvenile justice system and proposed community-based programs to allow minors convicted of small-scale crimes to return to mainstream society.

Similar programs, which provide employment and mental health counseling, have been successful in other communities, he said.

A progressive house arrest program that would reduce the number of children remanded to state facilities could be included, Burgess said.

"It isn't a novel idea, it's just new to us (in Nevada)," Burgess told the committee meeting in Carson City, his appearance broadcast to the Grant Sawyer State Office Building in Las Vegas. "We either pay now or pay later. An independent living transitional system is needed."

The committee consisted of Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, D-Reno; Sen. Terry Care, D-Clark County; Sen. Maurice Washington, R-Sparks; Sen. Valerie Warner, D-Las Vegas; Assemblyman Bernie Anderson, D-Sparks; and Assemblyman John Carpenter, R-Elko.

Larry Carter, juvenile justice program chief for the Division of Child and Family Services, said community-based programs would address the disproportionate number of minority children in state custody.

The Clark County juvenile population is currently 9.1 percent black, but the percentage of black children remanded to state facilities is almost double that, at 16.1 percent. Still, minority incarceration in Nevada is lower than several other states, he told the committee.

"Nevada has really moved on this in the past few years," Clark said. "There are significant strides being made but there's still a way to go."

The programs would cost between $500,000 and $600,000 to start but would ultimately save the state money, he said. The state estimates it costs $141 per day to keep a juvenile in detention; electronic monitoring cost $25.

The committee, led by chairperson Sheila Leslie, voted to hear a "concrete proposal" by the legislature's next full session.

"This is not an issue we're going to resolve today," she said. "But we'd like to see a concrete proposal by the next meeting."

A similar program to that proposed by Burgess is also in effect in Missouri, which includes a system of residential and non-residential programs. The program is responsible for improvement to that state's juvenile recidivism rate, according to a Nevada Assembly resolution.