Handling older juveniles accused of serious crimes

Most states try to certify older juveniles arrested for serious crimes as adults. "You do an adult crime, you do adult time," as the saying goes.

The human brain's moral centers don't reach full adult maturity until the early or mid-20s. This is reflected in our law and legal history.

Until the Vietnam era, some states would not let you vote until you turned 21. The logic was that young adults were too immature or ill-informed to vote responsibly.

While we now give anyone old enough to serve in the military without his parent's consent the right to vote, we have taken away the right to buy or consume alcohol without parental supervision. We did this because we saw that way too many people under 21 were using alcohol irresponsibly and killing or maiming themselves and others as a result. Prior to the laws being changed, people over 21 drank irresponsibly and killed people at a significantly lower rate than those under 21.

Knowing this, we need to change our court system so those convicted of crimes done before age 18 are at least offered a path to rehabilitation and, once their complete sentence, parole, and a possible short period after parole is complete without any new crimes committed as an adult, the assurance that their records will be sealed.

At least one state has implimented the option of a "determinate sentence" for youth over a certain age but young enough to be tried as a juvenile. Here is how it works:

* The prosecutor decides not to ask for an adult trial OR a judge turns him down
* The youth pleads guilty or is convicted and given either a "determinate sentence" of a stated number of years or decades, an "indeterminate" (traditional) youth sentence which means he gets out by a certain age or sooner, or a non-prison sentence such as home confinement or youth probation.

Assuming he gets a "determinate sentence" and is not yet old enough to be transfered to an adult prison:
* The youth goes to a youth correctional facility with a focus on rehabilitation
* If the youth serves enough time to be paroled before becoming a young adult, he MAY be paroled
* Under some situations, the youth may be paroled or discharged when he becomes a young adult
* If the youth is not paroled or discharged at this time, he is transferred to adult prison
* The now-adult inmate will eventually become eligible for parole if he his not already
* The inmate or parolee eventually serves his stated sentence and parole and is discharged
* The juvenile record is sealed

That last item is key. It's the "you can start your life over now, the mistakes of your immature-brained youth are forgiven" element that any society with a moral compass will have as part of its juvenile justice law.

Reforming Statutes of Limitations: A Phased-In Approach

Current statute of limitation laws are "all or nothing."

If the prosecution decides to file charges 1 day before the time limit expires, you can get the full sentence, even if you've been a responsible citizen for years after the crime.

But if they wait one day later, you are off the hook.

This is unfair to the guilty party and to society.

The purposes of statutes of limitations include:
* encourage swift justice, discourage prosecution laziness
* give people who have committed long-ago crimes some certainty that it really is behind them, at least with respect to criminal charges

====
A phased-in approach would be better.
====

Set an initial time period based on the minimum sentence, within a range of 1-10 years. Any charges brought before this time expires would not be affected by statutes of limitations.

Set a maximum time period based on the maximum possible sentence PLUS the initial time period. Any charges brought after this time period could be tried but there would be no prison term.

If charges are filed between these times, the trial and sentencing would be carried out as normal, but the newly-convicted criminal would be given day-for-day credit for time served for each day of delay after the initial period expired. The fact that he would be given such credit could not be used against him during sentencing or parole-eligibility or mandatory-release determination. However, the parole board can decide he hasn't spent enough time behind bars and deny parole up to but not past his mandatory-release date, if any.

====
Some examples:
====

A person committed second-degree murder 12 years before charges were filed. The law says the judge can sentence him from 2 years on the low end to 20 on the high end. The judge sentences him to 15 years. He gets 12-2=10 years of credit, so his effective sentence is only 5 years even though his criminal record will show a 15-year sentence.

A person stole a car 25 years ago. The police found the car with DNA but "John Doe DNA" indictments aren't allowed for property crimes in that state. 25 years later the same guy is arrested on a relatively minor felony. He is convicted and gets 1 year on the new felony. He could get 2-20 on the old car theft charge. He's charged and pleads guilty but no matter what the judge sentences him to, since 25-2=23 is more than the maximum sentence he will not serve any prison time for the car theft. He will, however, have a second criminal conviction on his record. If he later commits a third felony he may face serious prison time under "3-strikes" laws.

====
====
Some special considerations:
====
====

====
Tolling the statute of limitations:
====

Current rules on tolling would not be changed. Most states toll the statute of limitations for:
* Fleeing the jurisdiction
* Legal incapacity of a key witness, such as being a minor or medically unable to testify
* Intimidation or perceived intimidation of a witness, such as if the victim is financially or otherwise dependent on the alleged criminal
* An ongoing criminal enterprise
* Judicially granted extensions for an ongoing investigation
* "John Doe" indictments against the person matching a DNA sample, photograph, or other evidence that is presumed unique to the alleged criminal
* Any pending charge, once an indictment or equivalent is made

====
Reduction of charges by the prosecutor:
====

The prosecutor would be allowed offer reduced charges before conviction while allowing an effective sentence up to the same as if the original charges were filed (but no more than the maximum actual sentence on the reduced charge). Take the murder case above: The prosecution could offer a plea of manslaughter, which carries a 2-10 year sentence, on the condition that the person accept a 10 year sentence but serve the same 5-year effective sentence he would serve on the more serious charge. If it was to his advantage, the newly-convicted murderer could ask the parole board to treat him as if he had served 75% of a 20-year sentence.

To prevent abuse by prosecutorial bullying, if the effective sentence on the lesser charge under this rule is more than the effective sentence if the lesser charge had been the original charge, the actual plea would be the legal equivalent of pleading guilty or no contest to both charges with a judge acting on the prosecutor's motion to dismiss the higher charge. Since all pleas are under oath, a prosecutor encouraging a false plea is suborning perjury.

====
Reduction in charges by routine clemency:
====

A modified version of this would reduce the charge to match the maximum effective sentence, or to some "minimal" charge if the maximum effective sentence was zero as in the car-theft example above.

For example, if routine clemency were offered, the murderer would still be stuck with his original charge since 5 years is within the sentencing range for his crime. But the car theif would have his charged administratively reduced to the highest felony theft charge that allowed probation of 1 day or less, or to a special charge created by lawmakers for this purpose.

====
Effective dates of discharge and release when considering post-release and post-discharge conditions:
====

The date of discharge is no later than what the date of discharge would have been if the person had started serving the maximum sentence on the day the initial time period expired, plus extensions for tolls of the statute of limitations.

For example, if a person committed 2nd degree murder in 1970 and could have received 2-20 years, any conviction today will be considered to have been discharged in 1992.

If there are any post-discharge conditions or legal disabilities that are based on time, he will be given credit for all time since 1992 towards fulfilling these conditions and towards the eventual expiration of these legal disabilities.

====
Ultimate expiration of the statute of limitations
====

Allow only a specific period of time, such as 5 years for felonies or 1 year for misdemeanors - after the time where all legally-imposed time-based post-discharge penalties will have expired to file charges.

This allows prosecutors a short additional window to gain a "symbolic" conviction or to brand someone a criminal years or decades after a crime, while giving society a "date certain" beyond which they won't have to interrupt their lives to face possibly-false allegations of long-ago alleged crimes in criminal court.

====
Effect on fines
====

This plan is not designed to change the fine schedule.

====
The bottom line: The practical effect
====

Some example crimes and the effect of this change on them:

Petty crimes: Maximum sentence of 1 year or less:
1 year to bring charges to get the full maximum sentence.
2 years and a day to bring charges at all.
Latest discharge date after back-dating applied: 2 years after crime committed.

Higher-jail-time crimes: Minimum sentence 1 year or less, maximum sentence 2 years, no post-discharge conditions
1 year to bring charges to get the full maximum sentence.
3 years and a day to bring charges to get any jail time.
This is also the latest release date and the latest discharge date if the discharge date is back-dated.
4 years and a day to bring charges at all.

Low-prison-time crimes: Minimum sentence 2 years, maximum sentence 10 years, 5 years of post-discharge conditions
2 years to bring charges to get full maximum sentence.
12 years to bring charges to get any prison time.
This is also the latest release date and the latest discharge date if the discharge date is back-dated.
17 years to bring charges to get any post-discharge conditions.
22 years to bring charges at all.

Medium-time prison crimes: Minimum sentence 5 years, maximum sentence 40 years, 10 years of post-discharge conditions
5 years to bring charges to get full maximum sentence.
45 years to bring charges to get any prison time.
This is also the latest release date and the latest discharge date if the discharge date is back-dated.
55 years to bring charges to get any post-discharge conditions.
60 years to bring charges at all.

Very serious felonies less than life: Minimum sentence 10 years, maximum sentence 99 years, up to 25 years of post-discharge conditions
10 years to bring charges to get full maximum sentence
109 years to bring charges to get any prison time
This is also the latest release date and the latest discharge date if the discharge date is back-dated.
134 years to get any post-discharge conditions
139 years to bring charges at all

In practical terms:

If the person COULD have received a sentence that would have had him in prison for the rest of his life if he'd been charged by the end of the initial period, there is no statute of limitations.

If the person COULD have received a long sentence that would've had him under post-discharge conditions for the rest of his life if he'd been charged by the end of the initial period, he'll live to see daylight but there is no statue of limitations.

Don't write off criminals when it comes to hiring and housing

In some states a felony record is a de facto bar from renting decent apartments or getting decent jobs for life.

A more reasonable approach would be to limit how employers and those providing routine services to the public could treat you based on how long it has been since you were in prison, on parole, or on a parole-like supervised release.

Absent special situations such as those listed below, I recommend the following as a STARTING point for how to treat ex-cons when it comes to housing and employment:

Anyone on probation or parole: Positive, neutral, or negative recommendaiton from probation or parole officer should override time-since-discharge.

Anyone who has made himself accountable to another person or group in a legally-binding way that is accredited by the state: Positive, neutral, or negative recommendaiton from probation or parole officer should override time-since-discharge.

Anyone who has made himself accountable to another trustworthy person or group other than above: If the person or group can be trusted, their positive, neutral, or negative recommendaiton from probation or parole officer should override time-since-discharge.

Anyone discharged person not on parole or probation and not under legally-binding accountability who had at least 3 years of such supervision, whose last 3 years showed consistent positive recommendations, and who has had no negative indicators during those 3 years or since: Treat as a positive recommendation.

Anyone discharged person not on parole or probation and not under legally-binding accountability who had at least 3 years of such supervision, whose last 3 years showed consistent positive recommendations, and who has had no negative indicators during those 3 years or since AND who has been discharged from the legal system for 3 years for a misdemeanor or 5 years for a felony: Consider rehabilitated.

Anyone discharged from the legal system for 5 years for a misdemeanor or 10 years for a felony and no negative information during that time: Consider rehabilitated.

Anything in between: Treat it on a case-by-case basis. While summarily denying housing or employment based only on criminal activity may be efficient from the landlord's or employer's point of view, it is very inefficient from society's point of view. Although they may not be able to measure it, the landlord and employer pay "their share" of this inefficiency every time they turn down someone just because of a criminal record. If every landlord and every employer would do "their part" and not automatically disqualify criminals except where required by law, society would be better.

====
Special situations that might require special handling:
====

* Parole and probation officers and others who are known to "grade high" or "grade low" or who are not willing or able to justify their assessments
* Anyone with a recent history of gang involvement
* Anyone with an offense against another person can't demonstrate he is a low risk of hurting people again
* Anyone with a recent history of lack of self control that is likely to lead to criminal acts affecting housing or employment
* Anyone whose specific criminal history legally disqualifies him from a particular job or for promotion opportunities expected to be earned by those holding the job
* Anyone whose specific criminal history legally prevents him from residing in a particular location
* Anyone with a current or only-recently-resolved emotional issues which this job or housing situation may re-trigger, but only if such issues are likely to impact the housing or employment in question or are more likely to result in a parole or probation violation, or result in a new criminal offense than denying the employment or housing in question. For example, expected absenteeism due to violating probation is grounds for denying employment.

====
Some legal changes that should be made to make this happen
====

Landlords and employers should have general immunity from civil lawsuits if they rent to or hire a person with a criminal record, provided that they make a good faith effort in all of these areas:
* The employer or landlord checks the employee or tenant's recent (last 7-10 years for felonies, less for misdemeanors) public criminal record.
* If the employer takes risks that are ALREADY considered by applicable law to be "high risk," he either provides risk mitigation or alerts affected parties so they can manage their own risk. For example, a white-collar crook with access to a company's books requires either checks and balances to prevent fraud or notification to all stockholders so they can sell or vote to fire the management if they choose. A landlord renting to a person with recent criminal convictions for gang activity or any such convictions and any known recent gang-related behavior should forward this information to local police so they can step up patrols.
* If a landlord or employer has a significant concentration of criminal tenants or employees AND as a group the total tenant base of the property or the total employment at any one location during any one shift represents a significantly higher risk to anyone as compared to a property or location of employment with a randomly-selected group of individuals, the employer or tenant either mitigates the risk or alerts those put at risk that they need to watch their back.

Landlords and employers should be financially encouraged to house and hire those straight out of prison.

All inmates approaching a possible release date and all recently-released convicts should be given free access to credentialed rehabilitation specialists who are funded well enough to do their job right. These specialists will be in a position to provide positive, neutral, or negative recommendations regarding the suitability of a particular individual for a particular housing or employment situation from a public-risk perspective. Such individuals should have legal immunity for making a recommendation that later turns out to be incorrect.

Signature line starting 2012-04-23:

Base 13 math: "What do you get if you multiply six by nine?" / "Six by nine. Forty two." / "That's it. That's all there is."

Previous journal entry containing historical sig lines: http://slashdot.org/journal/94557/my-sig-lines

Remember the NSA line eater?

Well, it appears that the Department of Homeland Security and others are now monitoring Facebook and other social media web sites for certain keywords (Article at Animal New York, and on Slashdot. I wonder if Slashdot Journals count as social media web sites?

Well, here goes nothing (text shamelessly copied from the Animal New York story linked above):

2600
Abu Sayyaf
Afghanistan
Agent
Agriculture
Agro
Agro Terror
Aid
Air Marshal
Airplane (and derivatives)
Airport
Al Queda (all spellings)
Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF)
Al-Shabaab
Ammonium nitrate
AMTRAK
Anthrax
Antiviral
AQAP (Al Qaeda Arabian Peninsula)
AQIM (Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb)
Arellano-Felix
Artistics Assassins
Attack
Avalanche
Avian
Bacteria
Barrio Azteca
BART
Basque Separatists
Beltran-Leyva
Biological
Biological infection (or event)
Biological weapon
Black out
Blister agent
Blizzard
Body scanner
Border
Border Patrol
Botnet
Bridge
Brown out
Brush fire
Brute forcing
Burn
Burst
Bust
Cain and abel
Calderon
Canceled
Car bomb
Cartel
Cartel de Golfo
Center for Disease Control (CDC)
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
Chemical
Chemical burn
Chemical fire
Chemical Spill
Chemical weapon
China
CIKR (Critical Infrastructure & Key Resources)
Ciudad Juarez
Closure
Cloud
Coast Guard (USCG)
Cocaine
Collapse
Colombia
Communications infrastructure
Computer infrastructure
Conficker
Consular
Contamination
Conventional weapon
Crest
Critical infrastructure
Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
Cyber attack
Cyber Command
Cyber security
Cyber terror
DDOS (dedicated denial of service)
Decapitated
Delays
Denial of service
Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
Dirty bomb
Disaster
Dock
Drug
Drug Administration (FDA)
Drug cartel
Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)
Drug trade
Drug war
E. Coli
Earthquake
Ebola
Eco terrorism
El Paso
Electric
Emergency
Emergency Broadcast System
Enriched
Environmental terrorist
Epidemic
Erosion
ETA (Euskadi ta Askatasuna)
Evacuation
Execution
Exposure
Extreme weather
Extremism
Failure or outage
FARC (Armed Revolutionary Forces Colombia)
Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS)
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
Flood
Flu
Food Poisoning
Foot and Mouth (FMD)
Forest fire
Fort Hancock
Fundamentalism
Fusion Center
Gang
Gas
Grid
Gulf Cartel
Gunfight
Guzman
H1N1
H5N1
Hacker
Hail
Hamas
Hazardous
Hazardous material incident
Hazmat
Help
Heroin
Hezbollah
Home grown
Homeland Defense
Human to ANIMAL
Human to human
Hurricane
Ice
IED (Improvised Explosive Device)
Illegal immigrants
Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE)
Improvised explosive device
Industrial spill
Infection
Influenza
Infrastructure security
Interstate
IRA (Irish Republican Army)
Iran
Iraq
Islamist
Jihad
Juarez
Keylogger
Kidnap
La Familia
Leak
Lightening
Listeria
Los Zetas
Magnitude
Malware
Mara salvatrucha
Marijuana
MARTA
Matamoros
Meth Lab
Methamphetamine
Metro
Mexican army
Mexicles
Mexico
Michoacana
MS13 or MS-13
Mud slide or Mudslide
Mutation
Mysql injection
Narco banners (Spanish equivalents)
Narcos
Narcotics
National Guard
National infrastructure
National laboratory
National Operations Center (NOC)
Nationalist
NBIC (National Biosurveillance Integration Center)
Nerve agent
New Federation
Nigeria
Nogales
North Korea
Norvo Virus
Nuclear
Nuclear facility
Nuclear threat
Nuevo Leon
Outbreak
Pakistan
Pandemic
Phishing
Phreaking
Pirates
Plague
PLF (Palestine Liberation Front)
PLO (Palestine Libration Organization)
Plot
Plume
Pork
Port
Port Authority
Powder (white)
Power
Power lines
Power outage
Public Health
Quarantine
Radiation
Radicals
Radioactive
Recall
Recruitment
Red Cross
Red Cross
Relief
Resistant
Reynose
Reyosa
Ricin
Rootkit
Salmonella
San Diego
Sarin
Scammers
Secret Service (USSS)
Secure Border Initiative (SBI)
Service disruption
Shelter-in-place
Shootout
Sick
Sinaloa
Sleet
Small Pox
Smart
Smuggling (smugglers)
Snow
Social media
Somalia
Sonora
Southwest
Spammer
Spillover
Storm
Strain
Stranded/Stuck
Subway
Suicide attack
Suicide bomber
Suspicious package/device
Suspicious substance
Swine
Symptoms
Taliban
Tamaulipas
Tamiflu
Tamil Tiger
Target
Task Force
Telecommunications
Temblor
Terror
Terrorism
Tijuana
Tornado
Torreon
Toxic
Toxic
Trafficking
Transportation security
Transportation Security Administration (TSA)
Tremor
Trojan
Tsunami
Tsunami Warning Center
TTP (Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan)
Tuberculosis (TB)
Tucson
Twister
Typhoon
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS)
U.S. Consulate
United Nations (UN)
Vaccine
Violence
Viral Hemorrhagic Fever
Virus
Warning
Watch
Water/air borne
Wave
Weapons cache
Weapons grade
Wildfire
WMATA
World Health Organization (WHO and components)
Worm
Yemen
Yuma

I really, really hope the feds use software to eliminate posts like these. I'd hate to think that some poor agent has to waste time seeing if I'm a potential threat or just some guy who cares about striking a good balance between spotting legitimate threats and labeling anyone who happens to say the "wrong" thing at the "wrong" time a terrorist.

The government is offering up to $8,000 for first-time home-buyers to buy a house. The intent is to stimulate the economy. This is great for those who would be better off owning but are trapped renting because they can't afford to buy, but who could afford a house if only it were $8,000 cheaper.

If you were going to buy a house anyways and can afford it without the aid, is it moral to take the money?

If you had no intention of buying a house because renting makes more sense to you, is it moral to buy a house just so you can have the extra $8,000?

With deficit spending, every "extra" dollar spent by the government is a dollar that comes out of our children's and grandchildren's pockets, with interest.

The same moral question applies to financially healthy companies who take advantage of tax breaks they don't need or who choose to operate less efficiently so they can qualify for government funds or tax breaks.

Comments welcome.

What do you think of idle.slashdot.com?

* The first thing I read every day
* It makes me laugh
* It's okay
* Not worth my time
* Take it out and shoot it
* Spare time? What's that?
* Sorry, too busy reading 4chan
* Give me CowboyNeal's journal any day

Registered users can use the Slashdot Classic Discussion style. But what if you aren't logged in? You can still get the classic view by disabling JavaScript. Thanks to tools like NoScript you can browse Slashdot with scripting disabled then temporarily enable and disable it as needed.

If you found this information helpful, please reply.

Poll: I think life on Mars...

* never existed.
* was microscopic but is now extinct.
* was intelligent but is now extinct.
* is microscopic and it's still there.
* is intelligent, hidden from our prying eyes, and want to stay that way.
* is intelligent and invaded Earth 10,000 years ago.
* is Intelligent, planning to invade, and has already taken over CowboyNeal's body.

Poll: What should /. have done for April Fools in 2008?

* I vote for what they actually did. Subtle.
* Reruns are cool OMGPONIES!
* Celebrate history and redirect page to mcom.com.
* Announce Microsoft/Sourceforge merger.
* Announce that yesterday was indeed December 31, 1983.
* Put up a fake ad "Cowboyneal.com is for sale. Send bids to bids@cowboyneal.com."

What are you giving up for lent?

* Red meat
* Sex/booze/cigarettes
* SCO-bashing
* Religion
* I GIVE UP NOTHING!
* Life itself
* Reading Cowboyneal's Blog

Previously archived comments: here and here

What are you giving up for lent?

* Red meat
* Sex/booze/cigarettes
* SCO-bashing
* Religion
* I GIVE UP NOTHING!
* Life itself
* Reading Cowboyneal's Blog

Previously archived comments: here

What are you giving up for lent?

* Red meat
* Sex/booze/cigarettes
* SCO-bashing
* Religion
* I GIVE UP NOTHING!
* Life itself
* Reading Cowboyneal's Blog

We have several foreign/non-US-citizen-worker labor problems in America:

• For some jobs, there are not enough workers, so work doesn't get done.
• For some jobs there are not enough workers at prices the market will bear, so work doesn't get done.
• People don't like illegal aliens because they are a "domestic outsourcing," taking "American" jobs

A solution:

• Open-door immigration to anyone who isn't a criminal, terrorist-wanna-be, unhealthy, or otherwise undesirable.
• A payroll tax equal to the minimum wage for all non-citizen workers. For individual contract labor such as day-laborers, some tech workers, and most entertainers, tax the payer an equivalent amount.

This would strongly discourage hiring non-citizens for low-wage jobs while at the same time giving any employer a legal way to hire someone if they really wanted to.

The $13K-$14K/year increased costs would also make it harder to hire lower-middle-wage workers and make it somewhat harder to hire mid-wage tech workers. It would have virtually no effect on those filling 6-figure+ positions. It is precisely those positions where it's in America's best interest to hire the best candidate no matter what his country of citizenship.

--
If America decides it really does want to have more lower-wage non-American workers, the tax could be capped at 75%, 50%, or even 25% of the wages for lower-wage workers, with the tax itself capped at the minimum wage, currently $5.85/hr.

Capital punishment is the ultimate punishment. It should be reserved for those who:

* caused a death. The death penalty for treason, rape, or other crimes where no death results is simply cruel and unusual.
* committed their act in cold blood without any mitigating circumstances. The slightest mental illness, the slightest intent not to kill, the slightest other circumstance which, if not present, would have resulted in a non-lethal outcome means life in prison is better.
* is, barring divine intervention, beyond redemption. The slightest acceptance of moral responsibility, even after sentence is handed down, means the execution should not go forward.
* the person would endanger the lives of others if he were incarcerated for life in the most secure prison possible

Very few people are simultaneously immoral or amoral and at the same time not mentally ill.

Of those who are, most can be kept from killing again by incarceration. For some, incarceration in a "supermax" prison may be necessary.

The number that is left is either very small or zero.

Since the combination of these conditions never or almost never happens, it is simply much more efficient to have life in prison than to have a death penalty.

I marked this "Pay no attention to my musings." If this shows up on Firehose then then the 'hose is hosed.