The meeting was called to order at 6:35, 12 attenders.
Hennepin County Atty. Morgan Kunz joined us to explain what kind of social services a young person is likely to receive if they are taken in after committing a felony. Additionally, Atty. Kunz briefly outlined what RICO is and how it’s used on the Federal or State level. He is a Mpls. resident who also coaches youth sports. He gets into the 2nd Precinct pretty often, especially the soccer fields.
Morgan Kunz is the Managing Atty. of the Juvenile Unit which includes 21 attorneys, who deal with between 3K and 5K cases each year.
YOUTH INTERVENTIONS
By Minnesota Statute, (see note 1, below) 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.”
Public safety is first. It’s not secondary to working to prevent unlawful behavior, to responding to unlawful behavior, or encouraging juveniles to take responsibility for their behavior. The last point is very important: juveniles are not small adults: their brains function differently; they are impulsive; they are vulnerable to peer pressure; Law Enforcement must respond to these unique characteristics.
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 – connected to the youth and family’s community, regardless of level of services / supports needed.
HC Attorney General Moriarty’s campaign emphasized positive responses to juvenile treatment. In office, she engaged with Sarah Davis and the Legal Rights Center. (3) They and the attorneys in the division have spent time defining the mission and vision of the HCAO Juvenile Unit: “What are we trying to do?”DIVERSION -Diversion is a non-criminal justice response to juvenile offenses or behavior. Diversion is designed to prevent recidivism, AND to help youth avoid a criminal record.
Diversion can occur: Diversion can involve:
Without police involvement; Alerting parents to the incident;
By the Police Department; No required programming;
Pre-charge; Required programming;
Post-charge; Restorative justice;
Many other options.
HCAO uses a “tiered” response to Diversion
Letter Diversion: Sent to parent or guardian of a youth with no criminal history, who have committed very low level offenses, such as disorderly conduct or low-dollar shoplifting, asking them to address the youth’s behavior.
Curfew Diversion: Curfew diversions are not filed with the court unless the youth has a pending charge in court for a non-curfew delinquency offense. Most curfew cases are referred to The Link (4)
Pre-Charge Diversion with Required Programming
- Petty Drug and Alcohol Diversion – for youth who have been referred for MJ, possession of drug paraphernalia, 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 (e.g. disorderly conduct, assault, domestic assault, and property damage). 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.
- Eligible cases include: theft; financial transaction 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. [2-PAC will invite a speaker from HC Juvenile Probation to discuss the array of services they offer to youth. It’s a long list and too complex to outline in this presentation.]
Four Objectives of the Youth Justice System formal processing, supported by Growth Focused Case Management
- Accountability to authority and to victims, which leads to
- Compliance with rules, sanctions and requirements, leading to
- Change Behavior change / not re-offending, resulting in
- Community Safety
Some of the new programs the HCAO have launched this year are: 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.
Atty Kunz expanded only Expedited Youth Auto Processing. Auto theft rose during Covid, peaking at 600 cases submitted. When those crimes turn violent, it’s an even bigger problem. Under the Expedited Processing program, a youth accused of auto theft gets a court date 3 days later and we can get the HHS resources into play much sooner to prevent recidivism. Partners in Probation are able to step up sooner to get those services in place as well.
QQ from CPS Ali. In the 3 days before a juvenile’s court date, what keeps him from re-offending?
A: When a youth is brought into the Juvenile Detention Center, they receive a data-based “risk assessment” to determine if that person is likely to safely return to court and not re-offend. A person who has committed a felony crime, but has no previous history of crime, is likely to be kept from re-offending by their family. They’ve already seen a consequence of their offense: they were arrested and “processed” in the Juvenile Detention Center. They’re going to see a judge in 3 days, but if they commit another crime, they’re going back and are not likely to be released. The Juvenile Detention Center is NOT a place that people want to be.
When the youth gets to court after 3 days, they face Pre-Trial supervision. Some get a referral for case-management services. If they are not in school they may enter a Hennepin County Be AT School program. (6) HCAO is aware there are inequities in crime responses, racial and other inequities. Diversion is a way we can address some of those disparities. [Cooperating agencies are multicultural, and include Ka Joog, Lutheran Social Services, Phyllis Wheatly, Eastside N’hood Services and others — EQ]
QQ: Does diversion keep cases off the books making the crime stats seem lower than they really are.
A: Diversion occurs after the crime has been logged into the Dashboard. There has always been crime that doesn’t get reported to the police. If a youth causes trouble at school or does some petty shoplifting, the school or store owner is likely to call the parents, not the police.
QQ: What about Ramsey County’s approach?
A: Atty Kunz works closely with Ramsey County. Ramsey AG Choi released a report on their revision work done 2 years ago. (7)
Both offices are pushing for parallel responses to incidents. It’s important because youth are mobile; response to misbehavior should be the same no matter where they come from or where they go. It’s important that jurisdictions collaborate on responses.
[Expedited Youth Auto Processing, cont.] In the past, if an investigation discovered probable evidence to support a charge, the case could be referred to Diversion OR Submitted directly to HCAO if diversion wasn’t successful. If HCAO determined the case wasn’t chargeable, it was dismissed. If the case could be charged, it was submitted to a HCAO Diversion program. If that program was not successful, the case was charged and sent to the court for disposition. If found guilty, the subject would move to “Post Disposition DOCCR Services”.
In the revised procedure, if an investigation could NOT find sufficient evidence to support a charge, the case can be referred to HCAO Children and Families Division – Law Enforcement Collaborative Meetings. At this point, response is the same for all “unchargeable” cases: HCAO Outreach to Youth and Family to offer voluntary support. Those supports may include School Based Resources, Community Resources, Community Restorative Practices, and/or Family Response Stabilization Services (FRSS).
FRSS is a new emergency response program, promising a professional in the home in 1 hour, who will stay with the family for 72 hours as they settle the immediate issue and begin to arrange long-term support available through Hennepin County System of Care Resources. It’s a 24/7 service. (8)
Atty Kunz pointed out this is a huge and important expansion of a County Attorney’s Office services. Traditionally, they only focused on the investigation to dismissal or to DOC track but couldn’t do much for the youth but had no resolution to offer youth who had not committed a chargeable offense. In contrast, the HCAO Juvenile Unit can now offer services through Hennepin County.
RESULTS: Pilot Program over the summer. This will be continued into the school year. June-August, 2023, 82 young people were referred from Hennepin County police departments and from the Hennepin County Dept of Community Corrections and Rehabilitation. 72 cases were screened, as of Sept. 62.5% were screened out, most because they were already on active probation or had active cases. Of the remaining 27, all but one was contacted by a social worker. The person not contacted already had other HCAO services.
January-August, there were 429 juvenile Motor Theft cases. Of those: 58% charged, 9% declined, 4% deferred, 11% pre-charge diversion, 5% referred to HSPHD, 13% pending.
For more information, check the Hennepin County Data Dashboard. Notice that you can select the years covered on the top line. The balance of the chart lets you limit your search by age, race, offense, and more.(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. At that time, it was said that the way out of juvenile crime is not prosecution. You don’t reduce crime by sending people to out of home placement or 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.
EQ: Building on that: the Star Tribune and other publications never tell the full story; they stop at “arrest”.
Kunz: When someone makes a bad choice, especially juveniles, there has to be accountability. But: What does “accountability” mean? What is the most effective way to get that juvenile to not reoffend? We need to think about getting a juvenile on the right path. To make a better choice next time? To get a job they need? To get the trauma counseling they need? How do we support their parents to support that child so they aren’t out that late at night? Often when crime happens, the reaction is that there should be stronger sentences. That hasn’t worked.
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, see 1/25/21 report. Judge Kappelhoff and his team presented at 2-PAC that April. (10)
QQ: Are the diversion programs at the mercy of the election cycles.Kunz: The Diversion program we have has been in effect since the early 1990s. Mike Freeman was a strong supporter and Mary Moriarty has doubled down on diversion. There will be more support for these programs because the data are good. This is true on the national level as well. Some difference that may develop is more focus on smaller, community-based programs.
QQ: What’s your take on the uptick of more serious crime being performed by juveniles?
Kunz: Covid had a huge impact on youth, and more so on children who have fewer support resources in their lives. Covid interrupted social networks, school networks and more. Now that school has resumed, children show up at school and they don’t know anyone — it’s all new. When they’re off balance, it’s easier for people to make bad choices. Social media is also a big problem.
Mpls Atty Okoronkwo: Agreed on that. He has two teens, and even with phones that are accessible by parents, there are issues. The City Attorney’s Office employs a lot of diversion as well, in cases, obstruction of legal processes, and so on. Our belief is that there are consequences to conviction. Kids have little impulse control, in peer group situations, young people get involved in violence who wouldn’t get involved otherwise. There is a perception that nothing is happening. They try to step in with curfew violations and similar, but the reality is that this starts the whole process.
Kunz: I agree with that. You have to look at the individual situation and what’s involved.
Emilie: Former MPD Bike Cops for Kids officers mentored Minneapolis boys in Red Wing Boys’ Residence. They reported that the only support some of those boys had in Minneapolis was their peers on the street.
Kunz: There are some times when that sort of removal was needed, but it was over used. As much as those programs could do, there are downsides — notably, when you removed 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 a car gets stolen, Minnesota law will have an individual response. On the other hand, if you are part of a ring, you’ve conspired with other people, you’ve done felonies in furtherance of that conspiracy. RICO is a legal mechanism to acknowledge that conspiracy is more serious. HCAO used RICO a few years ago dealing with a cell phone stealing ring that centered on Hennepin at 5th. As bars were closing and people were leaving late at night, there was a ring of people who were taking their cell phones and taking money from the apps on the phones. We did use RICO in this case.
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:
1. https://www.revisor.mn.gov/court_rules/ju/subtype/rjdp/id/1/#1.02 AND https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/260B.001
2. https://www.acf.hhs.gov/fysb/positive-youth-development
3. https://legalrightscenter.org/
4. https://www.hennepin.us/residents/public-safety/youth-connection-center
5. See YouTube video 14:52-17:53 cited at end of this page.
6. https://www.hennepin.us/-/media/hennepinus/residents/public-safety/yjc/be-at-school.pdf
8.https://www.nexusfamilyhealing.org/nexus-facts/FRSS
9. https://www.hennepinattorney.org/about/dashboard/data-dashboard
10. https://courtwatch2pac.com/2021/05/04/april-report-part-1-keeping-kids-on-track-and-out-of-trouble/
12. https://kornerlaw.com/federal-crimes/federal-racketeering/
Youtube: https://youtu.be/qWxWvaVhhMY
2nd Precinct Advisory Council 