Juvenile Justice Reform
Tess Neff, Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court Administrator, holds a ceremonial processing book after officials announcing a plan to book teenage offenders arrested in Cleveland at juvenile detention, rather than in Cleveland City Jail alongside adults.
(Cory Shaffer, cleveland.com)
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Teenage suspects arrested in Cleveland will no longer be booked alongside adults at the Cleveland City Jail, under an agreement announced Wednesday by Cuyahoga County law enforcement and court officials.
The teens will instead be taken from the police district where they were arrested to the Cuyahoga County Juvenile Justice Center on the city's East Side.
The reform represents a "major restructuring" of a long-standing practice that put about 1,100 teenagers a year in the same facility as adult murderers, rapists and gang leaders, Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Duane Deskins said at a news conference announcing the agreement.
"These young people are not going to be sitting next to the worst adult offenders in Cleveland," Deskins said. "Every minute that a young person is not exposed to that kind of element is a positive change in that young person's life."
Currently when a teenager is arrested, police officers take the child to the local police station, then to the Cuyahoga County Justice Center downtown to be booked into Cleveland City Jail. Then, police would drive the child to the Juvenile Justice Center at Quincy Avenue and East 93rd street, where court officials would either book them into juvenile detention or release them.
The change is expected to streamline the booking process, cut down on the time teenagers are held in police custody and keep arrested juveniles and adults separate, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty said.
The move also is expected to cut down on the miles and hours Cleveland police officers spend driving the children around the city, "eliminating the free taxi and babysitting service," McGinty said.
The idea for the change came during consent decree negotiations between Cleveland and the U.S. Department of Justice that mandated police reforms, said Martin Flask, executive assistant to Mayor Frank Jackson.
Cleveland police and Cuyahoga County sheriff's deputies began using the new process in the Second and Fourth districts on Wednesday.
The juvenile court will have to hire more staff to handle the suspected increase in children brought to the center before the agreement extends to all five of Cleveland's police districts, Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court Administrative Judge Kristin Sweeney said.