Pubdate: Sat, 28 Feb 2004
Source: Island Packet (SC)
Copyright: 2004, The Island Packet
Contact:  http://www.islandpacket.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1514
Author: Noah Haglund
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

MORE YOUTHS CHARGED IN CRIMES

More youths in Beaufort County were charged with violent or serious
offenses during the 2002-03 fiscal year than the year before,
according to statistics from the state Department of Juvenile Justice.

The figures did not show a similar rise in the overall caseload.

The numbers, however, do not match those kept by the Beaufort County
Sheriff's Office or Solicitor's Office. Local officials said the
numbers greatly underrepresented the volume of juvenile cases they
dealt with last year.

Statistics released earlier this year by the Department of Juvenile
Justice show 583 cases for the 2002-03 fiscal year, which ended in
June. But Sheriff's Offices officials said the actual number of cases
was 1,197 in 2003, a number that includes youths sent to diversion
programs. Officials from the Solicitor's Office agreed with the
Sheriff's Office number for the January through December period.

The difference has to do in part with the way the Department of
Juvenile Justice calculates the statistics, said Loretta Neal,
spokeswoman for the department. The state agency only counts the most
serious offense that each juvenile offender is charged with, leaving
less serious charges uncounted when one person is charged with
multiple offenses. For example, a child charged with shoplifting,
truancy and murder would only be tallied as one case of murder.

The department uses this method to identify youths who are more likely
to re-offend, rather than to keep track of the number of each type of
offense being committed, Neal said.

The department's figures for the 2002-03 fiscal year show a total of
114 violent or serious offenses, a jump of 39 percent over the
previous fiscal year's total of 82. The total number of cases
increased 7 percent to 583 from 547.

Statewide, the juvenile caseload increased 2 percent during the same
period, according to the department's statistics.

Figures from the 2001-02 fiscal year showed an overall jump of 43
percent from 382 to 547 cases, with a 64 percent increase in violent
and serious cases, which went from 50 to 82.

Violent and serious offenses include murder, voluntary manslaughter,
first- and second-degree criminal sexual conduct, armed robbery,
arson, first-degree burglary, second-degree burglary when it involves
a business, first- and second-degree drug trafficking, and all other
offenses classified as crimes against people.

The top five offenses in the county, according to the 2002-03 fiscal
year statistics from the Department of Juvenile Justice, were 52 cases
of simple assault and battery, 39 cases of contempt of court, 31 cases
of second-degree lynching, 29 cases of simple marijuana possession and
28 cases of misdemeanor domestic violence.

The Sheriff's Office's own figures for top offenses in the 2002-03
fiscal year show 87 cases of runaway juveniles, 61 cases of disturbing
schools, 61 cases of shoplifting, 60 cases of assault and battery and
57 cases of simple possession of marijuana. Runaway juvenile is a
status offense, or one that only applies to an individual because of
his or her age. It is not a criminal offense.

Based on its own observations in recent years, and not the Department
of Juvenile Justice figures, the Sheriff's Office has observed more
younger offenders and more female offenders, said Lt. Steve Mendoza,
who oversees the School Resource Officer programs.

"This is all around the county," Mendoza said. "I couldn't single out
any particular area."

The Sheriff's Office has tried to address juvenile crime with two
programs for young offenders. Two years ago, the Sheriff's Office
created Fresh Start and SMART -- Success, Motivation and
Responsibility Training -- to keep juveniles charged with nonviolent,
misdemeanor offenses out of the court system. The programs handled 270
youths during 2003 calendar year.

"These two programs are actually helping to alleviate the docket and
speed up the process," said Staff Sgt. Alfredo Givens, the direct
supervisor for the school resource officers.

"Prior to the two programs being started there was nothing around for
parents or guardians that wasn't in the court system," Sheriff P.J.
Tanner said.

Fresh Start is community-service driven and generally includes about
30 youths at any time. The program usually lasts about 90 days. The
participants are tracked for three years after entering the program.

SMART offers young people a month of workshops and seminars plus six
months of follow-up, with about 16 to 20 youths a month. Tanner said
the local DARE program -- Drug Abuse Resistance Education -- that
tried to steer youths away from drug use was scrapped because it
lacked a built-in mechanism to track its success rate.

In Beaufort County, 67 percent of the juvenile cases were prosecuted,
or ruled upon, compared with 45 percent of juvenile cases around the
state, according to the Department of Juvenile Justice figures for the
2002-03 fiscal year.

Solicitor Randolph Murdaugh attributed the higher prosecution rate in
Beaufort County to having a full-time prosecutor who worked primarily
on juvenile cases for about two years.

He said that Kelly Walker, who left the Solicitor's Office last month,
had been an extremely effective assistant solicitor and that his
office is interviewing potential replacements right now.

"We're handling probably three times the caseload recommended by the
national district attorney's association," Murdaugh said. "All we're
trying to do is stay even." Murdaugh said Beaufort County has a
considerably higher number of juvenile crimes than the other four
counties in the judicial circuit: Jasper, Colleton, Hampton and
Allendale. But none of the other counties has even a third of the
population of 120,937 calculated for Beaufort County in the 2000 census.

Murdaugh said he would like to have more court time and more
solicitors to prosecute the cases that come up. But without one, he
said, the other does a limited amount of good.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin