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Rietz: Law for 17-year-olds has become more confusing |
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Written by administrator
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Feb 05, 2010 at 03:16 AM |
By Mary Schenk
Sunday, January 24, 2010 8:24 AM CDT
Champaign County's top prosecutor is not totally happy with a change in Illinois law that keeps 17-year-olds charged with felonies in the adult justice system and those charged with misdemeanors in the juvenile system.
"In the past, when I spoke to high school students, I would tell them that when they turn 17, they become adults under the criminal laws in Illinois," State's Attorney Julia Rietz said. "It will be difficult to figure out how to explain that (now) they will be adults at 17 for some crimes but they will be juveniles for others, or that they might start out being treated as adults but end up being treated as juveniles. Personally, I would have preferred that the Legislature simply change the law across the board rather than making a distinction between felonies and misdemeanors."
Illinois is one of 12 states that has treated 17-year-olds as adults; 38 others consider them juveniles.
"Logistically, it will be difficult, particularly if a 17-year-old is arrested on a felony and is in custody in the adult jail and we review the case and decide that the appropriate charge is a misdemeanor," Rietz said.
"Then we either need to transfer the person to the detention center and seek detention or have them brought to the courthouse for a confidential hearing or release them and have them summonsed in for a later date. Logistically, it's going to require a lot of communication between my office, the jail, the detention center and the courts."
Rietz said for the last two calendar years, her office has charged about 200 17-year-olds with crimes while diverting – avoiding prosecution through public service and/or counseling – about 50 others.
In 2008, 83 were charged with felonies and 122 with misdemeanors. In 2009, 87 were charged as felons, 96 as misdemeanants.
Although she's not had to deal with many 17-year-old misdemeanants yet this calendar year, Rietz said the plan is to assign any 17-year-old's case to either Judge Heidi Ladd or Judge Harry Clem, both of whom hear adult felony and juvenile delinquency cases.
That should increase the judicial economy in the event a felony case is ultimately plea-bargained down to a misdemeanor, thus forcing the case back into the juvenile system.
Clem and Ladd said one of their concerns is that older juvenile offenders may be held in detention with much younger children.
"This means a street-wise 17-year, 11-month-old charged with a serious misdemeanor, or even an 18- or 19-year-old now back in on a petition to revoke probation originally received as a 17-year-old, would be held in the Detention Center with a child as young as 10. That is certainly not in the best interests of our very vulnerable and impressionable younger minors, particularly when the goal of the delinquency system is to steer youth away from negative peer and gang pressure. I cannot imagine that anyone who had truly thought this out could legitimately suggest that this is a good idea," Ladd said.
Connie Kaiser, longtime superintendent of the Juvenile Detention Center, said the impact won't be that great at the detention center because there aren't that many older teens there; but when there are, the staff does its best to keep them separated from the younger offenders.
"Particularly with school, we won't force them into a school setting with younger kids if (the older ones) are resistant. We may have to do a separate group for the older kids. At the same time, we've had a reduction in staff," she said.
Area police are aware of the change in the law and are reacting accordingly.
"We're asking our officers to be very diligent on their use of charges on 17-year-olds," said Champaign police Lt. Joe Gallo.
Sheriff's Lt. Ed Ogle said if a case is "borderline" between a misdemeanor and felony, it might be better to arrest a 17-year-old for a felony "to get him or her incarcerated and defuse the situation."
The state's attorney's office usually makes charging decisions within less than 24 hours of an arrest.
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