Juvenile crime falls to a 10-year low in North Carolina

Last year, juvenile crime in North Carolina fell to a 10-year low, which reflects the many different departments and agencies working together with delinquent minors.

“The number of commitments to our youth development centers has dropped from 1,300 back in 1998 down to 400,” said North Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Communications Director William Lassiter. “From 2006 to today, we’re down almost 20 percent in juvenile crime overall.”

The juvenile system collects information on juveniles under 16 years old, according to Lassiter.

“We collect data on every single crime that comes in because any time a crime is committed, a juvenile-delinquent offense is committed, a juvenile complaint is filed with our office,” he said. “We collected over 40,000 complaints last year.”

Of those received complaints, almost 90 percent were delinquent complaints with the remaining complaints being classified as undisciplined, according to the department’s 2009 annual report.

The top offense last year was simple assault with slightly more than 4,100 delinquent complaints, according to the report. Misdemeanor larceny and simple affray (fighting) followed as the next two most frequent offenses.

“And there are what are considered level one, level two or level three dispositions, with three being the most severe or the most intense form of consequences and supervision that would be provided to a child,” Lassiter said. “For a child to end up going to a youth development center, they have to be at a level three disposition option.”

The 1998 Juvenile Justice Reform Act states a juvenile cannot go to a development center for just committing a misdemeanor, which contributed to the lower populations in the centers, according to Lassiter.

The largest drop with commitments came between 2000 and 2001, when the juvenile-commitment numbers fell from 975 to 660.

Locally, the Swannanoa Youth Development Center remains the only development center in Buncombe County working with juveniles, according to the report.

“We have a core curriculum that we work on,” said Swannanoa Youth Development Center Director James Pronko. “We teach them new social skills and how to react to situations so that if they’re faced with a similar situation, (they know) how they can better handle themselves in more appropriate ways.”

The Swannanoa center currently works with 48 juveniles, with the average stay hovering between six months to a year, according to Pronko.

“These kids are just kids. They need a second chance,” he said. “We have kids here who are getting their GEDs, off-campus employment. We’ve got a dog adoption program here.”

The development centers teach kids basic life skills and good behaviors so they can go on to successful lives, according to Lassiter.

“The difference between a juvenile-justice system and the adult system is that the juvenile-justice system is set up specifically for the purpose of rehabilitation,” he said. “We often say ‘habituation.’ And the difference there is when you’re focusing on rehabilitation, you’re saying that they actually knew those good habits at one time in their life and you’re trying to get them back to that point.”

The Juvenile Crime Prevention Council located in Asheville assesses available programs and funding for juveniles, but does this process on the local level, according to Cynthia Barcklow, chairperson of the council.

“And that’s one good thing about the JCPC is it’s not a bunch of people sitting on a committee who actually don’t do their work,” she said. “We have about 20 to 25 members and we meet every other month.”

The council’s membership includes the Asheville Police Department, the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Department, the chief court counselor and a member from the district attorney’s office, according to Barcklow.

“The reason the JCPC formed is that we’re charged with looking at options that are available to the youth that have been adjudicated or youth that are at risk of being adjudicated,” she said.

Last fiscal year, which runs from July to June, the prevention group worked with 511 juveniles, according to Barcklow.
Although the JCPC helps juveniles turn their lives around, the council could still improve, she said.

“But we could always use more money and there could always be more agencies in the community to help juveniles,” she said. “Each community is responsible for assessing what they need. So that’s a really good part of the legislation.”

At the Swannanoa center, the staff makes every opportunity with the juveniles an educational one, Pronko said.

“But we just kicked it up a notch here in Swannanoa where we’re teaching them basic social skills. We encourage outside speakers to come in and talk to these kids who have been incarcerated and tell them the real story,” he said. “We have changed mindsets here in Swannanoa. It’s not three hots and a cot.”