Question

If you were a state legislator, and you had the opportunity to rework the juvenile justice system, would it be to the advantage of the taxpayer and the juveniles to split the juvenile courts into two sections? For example, one section would handle status offenders, and one section would handle juvenile delinquents. How would the system decide who would go to a juvenile delinquency court and who would go to a status offender court? Explain.

Answer 1

Splitting the juvenile court into two sections would definitely be an advantage in terms of cost savings. Locking up juveniles I'm jails is extremely expensive for taxpayers. In addition, taxpayers pay in the long term as well in the form of lost future earnings, lost tax revenue and other ripple effects. Therefore, a split juvenile court system would improve the process of adjudicating a juvenile as delinquent and deciding the penalty based on the crime. Since some juvenile offenders are amenable to treatment and rehabilitation, overreliance on imprisonment should be decreased.