The meeting was called to order at 6:35, 12 attenders.
Hennepin County Atty. Morgan Kunz explained the social services a young person is likely to receive if they commit a felony – He also outlined RICO and how it’s used .
YOUTH INTERVENTIONS
By Minnesota Statute, the purpose of Juvenile Delinquency Law is to: Promote public safety; Reduce juvenile delinquency by “developing individual responsibility for lawful behavior”; Recognize “the unique characteristics and needs of children and that give children access to opportunities for personal and social growth.” (1)
YOUTH INTERVENTIONS APPROACH
Improve community safety and well-being through programs that lead to positive outcomes for youth, families, community, but center on victims and their healing.
Positive Youth Development approach (2)
Grounded in youth development science & research
Interventions are most effective when: Immediate - as soon as possible in time to behavior; Relational - accountability to those most impacted; Individualized - accounting for the individualized strengths and needs of each youth and family; Community based, to establish connections..
HC Att. Moriarty and the Legal Rights Center. (3) have redefined the mission and vision of the HCAO Juvenile Unit.
DIVERSION -Diversion is a non-criminal justice response to juvenile offenses or behavior, designed to prevent recidivism, AND to help youth avoid a criminal record.
Diversion can occur with or without police involvement, pre- or post- charge, with or without programing, and with other options.
HCAO uses a “tiered” response to Diversion
Letter Diversion for youth with no criminal history, who have committed a very low level offense; sent to guardian.
Curfew Diversion: Most curfew cases are referred to The Link (4)
Pre-Charge Diversion with Required Programming
Petty Drug and Alcohol Diversion – MJ or drug paraphernalia possession, or alcohol related offenses.
Pre-Charge Diversion to Provider – Youth with little or no history who are referred for a juvenile petty offense, a misdemeanor offense, some felony property offense, and some felony drug possession offenses.
Juvenile Family Violence Diversion – The case involves family domestic violence. The victim or parent must agree to diversion.
Post-Charge Diversion is used for all JPO cases, all misdemeanor cases, all gross misdemeanor cases, felony property cases including: theft; finance card fraud; receiving stolen property; motor vehicle theft; damage to property; drug offenses.
Ineligible cases are: robbery; felony level assault; felony gun cases; fleeing in a motor vehicle; felony criminal sexual conduct.
Assessment and response (5) Hennepin County is able to divert about 1/3 of their cases away from the court. Of the remaining 2/3, the youth will often go on probation.
HCAO launched new programs this year: Expedited Youth Auto Processing,Youth Group Violence Intervention, Alternative Pathways for HHS, Pre-Trial Supervision, Rule 20.01 Services, Multidisciplinary Team for Youth-in-Custody.
Only only Expedited Youth Auto Processing will be discussed. Under the Expedited Processing program, a youth accused of auto theft gets a court date 3 days later HHS resources and Partners in Probation may come step in sooner.
In court, they face Pre-Trial supervision, or Be AT School program. (6) There are inequities in crime responses, Diversion can address some of that: [Cooperating agencies include Ka Joog, Lutheran Social Services, Phyllis Wheatly, Eastside N’hood Services and others — EQ]
Because Diversion occurs after the crime has been logged into the Dashboard, it doesn’t affect crime statistics. Also, youth are mobile so it’s important that responses are uniform across jurisdictions. See Ramsey AG Choi’s report on their revision work (7).
[Expedited Youth Auto Processing, cont.] In the revised procedure, if there isn’t enough evidence to support a charge, a case can be referred to HCAO Youth and Family for support from School Based Resources, Community Resources, Community Restorative Practices, and/or Family Response Stabilization Services (FRSS), a new emergency response program, which puts a professional in the home for 72 hours arranging long-term support from Hennepin County System of Care Resources. It’s a 24/7 service. (8)
For more information, check the Hennepin County Data Dashboard. You select the years on the top line, then limit your search by age, race, offense, etc.(9)
Summing up: In 1993, there was a huge surge in crime across the country, including Minnesota. The Minnesota Supreme Court commissioned two studies: one on juvenile crime; one on racial disparity in the juvenile justice system. The current structure of our certification of juveniles into adult court, our extended jurisdiction of juveniles and related laws were passed based on those two reports which said, you don’t reduce crime by punishment or sending people to residential treatments. The way out is strengthening families and strengthening communities.
It’s Atty Kunz’ belief that the way out of juvenile crime is to strengthen families so they can provide the care their children need, so they have safe child care when parents are working. We need to have robust community programs in our parks and schools so kids have safe social activities. Partnering across communities is the safe and effective way to reduce crime.
Questions:
CPS Ali: What I’m hearing is complaints that the County is too lax, and too easy on the kids who are making trouble.
Kunz: For newspaper reports, one of the issues is that juvenile cases are private. When a juvenile is charged with an offense, the case is not public. Minnesota law protects the juveniles’ privacy as it should. Media are hampered by the fact that reporters are not allowed in the courtroom. Reporters are not allowed to look at the court file. It’s important to protect juveniles from the kind of scrutiny that adults face.
A few juvenile cases are public. If a 16-year-old commits a felony, that can be public.
EQ: The S’Trib did an expose on the Juvenile justice system in 2021 Judge Kappelhoff and his team presented their programs at 2-PAC that April. (10)
QQ: What’s your take on the uptick of more serious crime being performed by juveniles?
Kunz: Covid had a huge impact on youth. It interrupted social networks, school networks and more. Now that school has resumed, children show up at school and they don’t know anyone. When they’re off balance, it’s easier for people to make bad choices. Social media is also a big problem.
Kunz: There are some times when removal was needed, but it was over used. There are downsides — when you remove a person, you break what social ties they did have. That makes it even more important that the kids will have a strong support when they come back to the community.
What is RICO and how does it work in Minnesota
In May, U.S. Atty Luger used RICO ( Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act ) to apprehend 45 members of the Highs and the Bloods gangs in Minneapolis. In August, the S’Trib reported more members had been taken off the streets. (11)
Kunz: The RICO cases that have been in Minnesota have been federal prosecutions. Because they have been prosecuted federally, they can include acts that happened outside of Hennepin County.
RICO operates in Minnesota also. If you are part of a ring, you’ve conspired with other people to commit felonies. RICO is a legal mechanism to acknowledge that conspiracy is more serious. RICO allows prosecutors to use higher penalties. RICO allows prosecutors to get more detail about the nature of the crime. You can expand from the individual cell phone theft to the conspiracy that led to the theft. (12)
Footnotes, State of the Precinct, and Youtube Link are in Part 2 of this report.
2nd Precinct Advisory Council 