Disposing of Repeat Juvenile Offenders in Cook County Case Study

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Juvenile Justice

Xander, an Illinois Juvenile Criminal Justice Case Study

The Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority (ICJIA, 2012) operates under a statutory mandate to improve the administration of the criminal justice system in the State of Illinois. In order to perform this function the agency must be aware of all the operational details related to the Illinois juvenile criminal justice system (ICJIA, n.d.). The Illinois juvenile criminal justice system consists of 102 county systems that operate semi-independently from state agency oversight; therefore, the procedures of probation, detention, and corrections are the responsibility of the county juvenile systems. A distinct juvenile criminal justice system (JCS) in Illinois is relatively new, having been created in 2005 by the state legislature to separate adults from juvenile offenders within prisons and jails. A few years earlier (1998), legislation was passed that mandated a criminal justice policy of balanced and restorative justice.

According to the ICJIA (2012) a juvenile is anyone who is younger than the age of 17, but the Illinois General Assembly (IGA, n.d.a) defines a delinquent minor as any person who has violated local, state, or federal laws and has yet to reach their 18th birthday. Xander is therefore a juvenile offender, who has been arrested for possession of a concealed weapon. If Xander were an adult without a criminal record this would be a Class A misdemeanor [IGA, 2012, subsection 24-1(a)(4)]; however, he is under 18 years of age and probably in possession of a handgun, which makes this a Class 4 felony [IGA, 2012, subsection 24-3.1 (a)(1)(b)]. Xander's past criminal record includes a Class 2 felony conviction for breaking and entering, which converts the current charge to a Class 2 felony for aggravated possession [IGA, 2012, subsection 24-1.6 (a)(1)(3)(D)].

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Even if Xander did not have a past felony conviction, the current charge would still be a Class 2 felony due to his documented gang affiliation [IGA, 2012, subsection 24-1.8 (a)(b)]. The minimum prison sentence for a person convicted of either of the two Class 2 felonies mentioned above is three years.

The above analysis reveals that Xander is may be at risk for being adjudicated as an adult offender under the mandatory transfer laws (Bostwick, 2010). This risk is based on Xander having been previously adjudicated delinquent for a forcible felony (burglary), if the current charge is also related to gang activity. The public defender could try to convince the judge that the concealed weapon was unrelated to gang activity, thereby trying to keep Xander within in the juvenile criminal justice system. Xander's age and felony offense, however, automatically places under the jurisdiction of adult criminal court (Bostwick, 2010, p. 7; Cook County Juvenile Court, 2009, p. 4). The automatic transfer to the adult court system would occur once Xander was arrested and booked for possession of a concealed weapon. Even if Xander had been transferred to the jurisdiction of a juvenile court, Xander's criminal record and current charge would give him a score of at least 20 on the Detention Screening Instrument and therefore would have been detained anyway (Bostwick, 2010, p. 29). Xander is in serious trouble.

The pretrial process for Xander would first involve detention in Cook County Jail while awaiting pretrial hearings, if he is a resident of that county (Illinois Supreme Court, 2014, Appendix H). Xander would be eligible….....

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