Statistics for Juvenile Justice Essay

Juvenile Justice Compare

The author of this report has been asked to do a compare and contrast of the juvenile justice system of three different states. While all states have a juvenile justice framework, each state does things at least a little differently and thus these differences and outliers should be explored and explained. The three states that will be compared and contrasted are New York, California and Georgia. While these three states have stark similarities, they also have ways that are entirely different from each other for whatever reason.

New York has a decentralized framework when it comes to the handling and adjudication of criminal justice cases for juveniles. The detention and probation supervision of juveniles in New York is done by the Local/Executive branch of government. The Juvenile Corrections arm of law enforcement resides in the statehouse while after-care supervision is done by a combination of the state and local jurisdictions. Delinquency jurisdiction for New York resides in the family courts and is established on a county-by-county basis. The family courts in question are of limited jurisdiction. Like New York, California is also a decentralized state when it comes to the handling of juvenile cases. The Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) is the agency with primacy in the state. The service classifications for California area almost identical to New York. The detention and probation supervision of juveniles in California, like New York, is handled by the local authorities. Also like New York, juvenile corrections is handled by the state in California. The one point of difference is the fact that aftercare is handled by only the state in California while it is handled by multiple jurisdictions in New York. Georgia is really entire different from both California and New York. Rather than being decentralized, Georgia has a state-wide Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice. This is a state executive agency that administers most of the delinquency services that are needed. Detention and corrections are both handled solely by the state executive realm but both aftercare and probation are handled by a combination of local and state jurisdiction agencies (NCJJ, 2005). The NCJJ website in its more up-to-date and modern form, they openly tout that they are a non-profit and private organization dedicated to helping youths in the juvenile justice systems of the states around the country (NCJJ, 2016).

The author of this report then consulted the National Juvenile Defender Center (NJDC) website to see what they have to say about juvenile justice for each state when it comes to court cases. In New York, all children that are in delinquency proceedings have a right to a lawyer. This person is called a law guardian. The source of this law guardian can vary but it will generally come from a legal aid group, a contract attorney system or a panel system. In Georgia, the state provides counsel to youth offenders through a statewide public defender system. This program is known as the Georgia Public Defender Standards Counsel, or GPDSC. A defender for each circuit is appointed to follow offenders through their original cases and any appeals. Funding is not provided by the state so it has to come from the counties. Finally, California has a system similar to Georgia, although it is entirely county-based. Their system is called the California Public Defender Association. In short, Georgia and California are similar in the general public service they offer while New York puts much more onus on other parties in terms of where the defender comes from (NJDC, 2016).

The Office for Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention has an informational chart that shows placement…