Open house to highlight DA’s juvenile division

By: Pierrette J. Shields,© 2009 Longmont Times-Call

BOULDER — Juvenile crimes tend to stay under the public’s radar, except for a few high-profile cases.
But the Boulder County District Attorney’s Office is planning to open its doors to anyone interested in glimpsing the system teens and children face when they are accused of breaking the law.
The juvenile division of the district attorney’s office has scheduled an open house from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday in the jury assembly room at the Boulder County Justice Center at Sixth Street and Canyon Boulevard in Boulder.
“There are a lot of questions out there about what happens to juvenile crimes,” division supervisor Peggy Jessel said.
From October 2008 to October 2009, the division handled 755 juvenile cases. Of those, 158 were violent crimes. The kids ranged in age from 11 to 17; 609 were boys, and 146 were girls.
Children referred to the justice system may find themselves in detention, referred to diversion programs or on probation. In September, 237 children and teens were on probation in Boulder County, and 21 of them were being intensively supervised.
Twenty-five teenagers were in the Platte Detention Center, while two others were in the Boulder County Juvenile Detention Center, which usually houses an average of eight young inmates and has a capacity of 21.
We’ve got this whole system in Boulder County, layers and layers of administrators and treaters,” Jessel said. “We in Boulder County try to keep kids out of the division of youth corrections.”
She said the district attorney’s office hopes to hear residents’ questions and concerns about juvenile justice issues.
“We see a lot of repeat offenders. We see a lot of kids come back. Does that mean something is not working, or does that mean the family is not working?” Jessel said. “What we’d really like to do is get a lot of people to come and talk to us.”
Jessel said there often is debate about the best ways to handle juvenile offenders, and new technology is generating concern among law enforcement and parents.
For example, she said, “sexting” among teenagers may constitute a sex crime, depending on what happens to graphic images sent from cell phone to cell phone. In many cases, the subject has taken a self-portrait and shared it with another child. That person may be too young to consent to sexual activity but is distributing graphic self-portraits, which recipients may then share with other children. It is difficult to determine who is committing what crime, if any, in those circumstances, Jessel said.
“The school resource officers are really struggling with this,” she said. “We’re seeing a lot of that, and it is sad.”
The is the first time the division has held an open house. After Wednesday’s event, Jessel said, the division hopes to schedule another in Longmont.
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