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Miami leads in keeping kids out of jail, but much of Florida fails

Miami Herald - 12/27/2019

Dec. 27--TALLAHASSEE -- If you're a kid in Miami-Dade, Broward and Monroe counties who commits a nonviolent low-level crime for the first time, you're very likely to be diverted to a program intended to keep you out of the school-to-prison pipeline, according a new report released Friday.

But if you live in other parts of the state and you get caught for crimes like shoplifting, vandalism or possessing marijuana, your odds of getting arrested, sent to jail, and getting a stain on your record are much higher.

The result is "unequal justice by geography," concludes the report Stepping Up: Florida's Top Prearrest Diversion Efforts 2019. The fifth annual study was sponsored by a broad ideological coalition that includes the Southern Poverty Law Center, the James Madison Institute, the ACLU of Florida, Florida PTA, Florida League of Women Voters, Florida Juvenile Justice Association, and Joseph W. & Terrell S. Clark.

Miami pioneered the innovative use of so-called "civil citations," which replace jail time with programs often involving community service and counseling, and the three South Florida counties have been leaders in implementing them.

Instead of arrest and prosecution, juveniles caught in misdemeanor nonviolent offenses such as underage drinking, disorderly conduct, vandalism, loitering, school fights and possession of alcohol or marijuana are given a civil citation and are often required to pay restitution, perform community service, receive counseling or substance-abuse treatment.

Those who successfully complete the program have their charges dropped and those who don't face prosecution. Civil citations are not offered to habitual offenders.

Florida arrested 6,200 children, or 38% of those caught committing first-time common youth misbehaviors in 2018-19. That is down 1 percentage point from the previous year, as counties are increasingly turning to diversion programs to keep first-time offenders from cycling back into trouble.

But the numbers also are worrisome for advocates, because they represent a plateau from recent annual decreases. Advocates warn that arresting youthful first-time offenders produces only negative impacts, costs taxpayers and scars people's records.

"This plateau, the first since statewide data has been publicly reported in 2011-12, is cause for concern that some law enforcement agencies are ignoring the harms of arrests for common youth misbehavior on youth and taxpayers," said Dewey Caruthers, author of the study and president of The Caruthers Institute, a St. Petersburg-based nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank that conducts the annual research.

Particularly troubling, the report found, was the increase in the number of very young children -- ages 11 and under -- who were arrested by police. Of the 739 children eligible for arrest between October 2018 and November 2019, 270 were arrested, according to the Department of Juvenile Justice, which state law requires to maintain the statistics. The department maintains an interactive table for tracking alternatives to arrest by county.

"A child's brain is still developing and we must prioritize civil citations when it comes to dealing with juveniles to achieve the best outcomes for them and our communities," said Scott McCoy, senior policy counsel for the Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund.

In South Florida, Miami-Dade, Broward and Monroe counties found ways to avoid arresting 100% of the children ages 11 and under who got into legal trouble, but in Palm Beach County, police arrested 6 of the 16 children under age 11. Sheriff's offices in Escambia, Polk, Hillsborough, St. Lucie, and Marion counties arrested high numbers of very young children.

"These are not felonies. And most agencies are able to address 11-year-old misbehavior without making an arrest," the report concludes.

Florida law requires that officers who make arrests for common youth misbehavior, instead of issuing civil citations, must provide reasons in writing for the arrests. But the report's authors suggest that the requirements should be higher.

For the fourth year in a row, Miami-Dade and Pinellas counties outperformed the rest of the state by issuing civil citations to 91% and 97% of all kids caught in low-level crimes, respectively. Counties with the next highest levels of civil citations were Pasco, Washington, Monroe, Clay, Duval and Putnam, with rates in the 80% range.

Highest rates of arrest

But the study also revealed there were 10 law enforcement agencies responsible for nearly one third, about 1,900, of the 6,200 first-time arrests for common youth misbehavior statewide in 2018-19.

In ranked order from the highest number of arrests: Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, Orange County Sheriff's Office, Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office, Escambia County Sheriff's Office, Lee County Sheriff's Office, Osceola County Sheriff's Office, Polk County Sheriff's Office, Palm Beach Sheriff's Office, Collier County Sheriff's Office, and Tampa Police Department.

The report recommends that legislators pay attention to the geographical disparity and design strategies to end the practice.

"Some counties mandate juvenile civil citations and arrest only in rare and exceptional circumstances, while others only occasionally use pre-arrest diversions," the report noted. "This is due to the discretion provided to counties, cities, law enforcement agencies and school districts on how they implement their programs."

In 2018-19, the Hillsborough County sheriff's office led the state in arresting juveniles with a rate of 45%. Orange County followed with an arrest rate of 44%.

For years, researchers have been accumulating data that show that keeping youth out of the school-to-prison cycle saves taxpayer money and prevents kids from damaging their futures. Youth who have a juvenile arrest often have to disclose it on applications for employment, school, loans, the military and housing.

The diversion programs also keep kids out of the state's juvenile justice commitment programs, the privately run facilities that were found to be rife with abuse, a low-paid workforce and questionable hiring practices in the Miami Herald's 2017 "Fight Club" series.

A good deal for taxpayers, too

Civil commitment is also good policy for taxpayers, as it requires fewer law enforcement resources and results in less recidivism, the study concluded. The state is expected to save $70 million to $221 million over a five-year period by diverting kids from prison and into civil-citation programs, the study concluded. A 2011 TaxWatch study found that cost savings estimates of issuing a civil citation rather than an arrest range from $1,467 on the low end up to $4,614 per pre-arrest diversion.

In 2017, the Florida Legislature passed a bill that requires every judicial circuit in the state to implement a civil citation program. But a shortage of resources and community commitment has created a geographical disparity that has created unequal justice in Florida, the report found.

"We know now this is an effective strategy to reduce the expensive and harmful effects of an arrest," said Deborrah Brodsky, director of the Project for Accountable Justice housed at Florida State University. "We don't have the answers for every community at the state level, but we have the strategies."

Florida leads the nation in effective pre-arrest diversion efforts, the report found. But its success appears to be reaching a plateau.

"Based on the current trends, over the next three years the Institute estimates that nearly 20,000 Florida children will be arrested for first-time common youth misbehavior -- acts that in previous days resulted in a trip to the principal's office or a call to parents," the report found.

"Large county laggards like Orange and Hillsborough with only 45% and 56% pre-arrest utilization rates in 2018-19, as well as smaller ones like Hardee and Gadsden with zero utilization rates, seem unmoved by the data that shows arrests for common youth misbehavior harms public safety, diminishes youth futures and burdens taxpayers."

Mary Ellen Klas can be reached at meklas@miamiherald.com and @MaryEllenKlas

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