YOUTH COURT CAN BE A RUDE AWAKENING

Judge: 'We Have Very Few Repeat Offenders'

Parents of juvenile drug offenders cry and sometimes faint when they see
their child escorted into a courtroom restrained by shackles on their feet
and handcuffs around their wrists.

Wearing a prison jumpsuit, the juvenile stands before a Youth Court judge
with his lawyer, much like an adult inmate does in Circuit Court. An armed
bailiff standing nearby watches his every move.

The child, who has spent at least one night in a county juvenile detention
center, goes to court within 48 hours after his arrest so a judge can
determine whether he will be released to his parents or spend the next
several nights, sometimes weeks, in detention.

The juvenile is not allowed to speak during the private hearing.

"It's a great shock to the mother when her child is brought in with
handcuffs," said Velma Harrington, who serves as a liaison between Harrison
County Youth Court and the juvenile detention center.

If the judge releases the juvenile to their parents pending a plea hearing,
he may require the child to wear an ankle monitor that tracks their
movement. The judge can hold the child in detention if he believes the
child may not show up for his next court hearing, is a danger to himself or
others, or if there is no reasonable alternative to custody.

For example, a judge might hold a child if he was left alone at home all
day while his parents work, said Jackson County Youth Court Judge Sharon
Sigalis.

Sigalis, who has been a Youth Court judge for nine months, said juveniles
detained in the Jackson County Youth Detention Center sleep in small cinder
block cells furnished with a stainless steel urinal and a bed. There are no
bars. Juveniles are locked behind a solid door that has a small opening
used to serve meals.

"It is not home," she said.

Harrington said juveniles caught with one joint in Harrison County usually
don't get charged with possession of marijuana and end up in Youth Court.
Juveniles with a large amount of marijuana, a rock of crack cocaine or
another controlled substance probably will be arrested, she said.

In Jackson County, however, a juvenile found with any amount of marijuana
or any paraphernalia that shows drug activity will be prosecuted, Sigalis said.

Harrington said the juvenile can admit to the drug charge or deny the
charge during a plea hearing, which may be held a few months after the
initial court appearance. Juveniles who deny the charge go to trial and the
judge determines whether they committed the crime.

Sentences for either case vary. They include house arrest, probation, drug
treatment programs and time in one of the state's two training schools.
Youth Court officials in Harrison and Jackson counties said training
schools are ordered as a last resort.

Sigalis said she often sentences first-time offenders who admit to charges
in Jackson County to weekends in the youth detention center.

"It's a deterrent for some juveniles," Sigalis said. "We have very few
repeat offenders."