Advertisement

Florida bill relies on civil citations to reduce youth arrests

 
Published Feb. 9, 2015

TALLAHASSEE — When state lawmakers meet to consider sweeping changes to the criminal justice system next month, they also will consider a plan to reduce the number of youth arrests.

The proposal, State Bill 378, would expand the state's civil citation program, which gives police officers the option to prescribe community service or intervention programs for young people who commit minor crimes, rather than arresting them.

Leading the lobbying for the bill: Thomas Wenski, archbishop of Miami.

Wenski said he supports efforts to reduce juvenile arrests because "the consequences are horrendous."

"Most of these cases don't really require police intervention," he told the Times/Herald. "And when the police do intervene, rather than treating (the offenders) as the incarnation of Bonnie and Clyde, it is important to remember that they are kids."

Under current law, police officers can only issue civil citations to first-time misdemeanor offenders. The bill would let officers issue civil citations to young people who have already been in trouble.

It would also enable officers to issue a warning, or call a young person's parent or guardian.

"This would go a long way to give police officers the flexibility to give civil citations, rather than arresting these kids and putting them on a negative track," said Sen. René García, the Hialeah Republican who is sponsoring the bill.

García said the bill would also help "alleviate the load in the prison system."

The measure has garnered bipartisan support in the upper chamber. Democratic Sens. Dwight Bullard of Miami and Audrey Gibson of Jacksonville have signed on as co-sponsors. Gibson is the vice chairwoman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee.

García's bill does not yet have a companion in the House. There is, however, a similar proposal, House Bill 99, by Reps. Gwyndolen Clarke-Reed, D-Deerfield Beach, and Darryl Rouson, D-St. Petersburg, that would require officers to give a civil citation to a first-time juvenile offender.

Rouson said reducing the number of youth arrests should be a top priority.

"The civil citation program recognizes that juveniles sometimes make immature decisions and exercise poor judgment," he said. "They shouldn't be brought into the criminal justice system and given a record when we can divert them, or use the civil citation as an opening for getting them services."

Florida has already had considerable success. The number of juvenile misdemeanor offenses statewide dropped by 11 percent from 2012-13 to 2013-14, according to a recent report from the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice. Broward County had 1,229 fewer misdemeanor arrests, the report found.

Statewide, the number of arrests for serious offenses has fallen from nearly 122,000 in 2009-10 to 78,000 in 2013-14. That's a 36 percent drop, according to the agency's latest statistics.

FDJJ Secretary Christina Daly pointed out that the number of juvenile arrests has been dropping nationwide. But she said civil citations "have certainly contributed" to the state's downward trend.

"What it allows us to do is intervene and assess those kids early, and provide the opportunity to keep them from going deeper into the system," Daly said.

Contact Kathleen McGrory at kmcgrory@MiamiHerald.com. Follow @kmcgrory.