Running head: JUVENILE JUSTICE SYSTEM Plea Bargaining in the Juvenile Justice System Shenandoah County, Virginia Juvenile Court Julia Ann Tafoya Trident University International CJA502 Managing Criminal Justice Administration Dr. James Herndon October 16, 2014 1 Running head: JUVENILE JUSTICE SYSTEM Plea Bargaining in the Juvenile Justice System 2 Plea bargaining in the criminal justice system has become a controversial issue. Unfortunately, it is no different in the Shenandoah County juvenile justice system. Over the years, plea bargaining in the juvenile justice system has grown tremendously due the ever increasing amount of cases involving criminal activity. Shenandoah County Juvenile Court The purpose of the Shenandoah County Juvenile court is rehabilitation rather than punishment of a juvenile who has committed a crime and is under the age of 18 years of age (Virginia's judicial system, 2009). It is thought that it is better to rehabilitate a juvenile than to send him or her to jail; however there are cases where juveniles are held in a juvenile correctional facility for the area until they are of adult status so that they can be tried as such if the crime is severe enough. Currently, the age of 18 is the point where an individual is considered an adult and he or she is accountable for their own actions as that point (Cornell, 2014). Plea Bargaining Many years ago, when the court system was split into adults and juveniles, plea bargaining for juveniles was more of the rarity than was commonplace; however, since that time, the number of juvenile cases has increased tremendously. Courts also believe that juveniles can be rehabilitated so that they do not commit the same crimes in their adult life and should therefore be given a chance to show their worth (Shepherd, 2008). Juvenile Plea Bargaining Plea bargaining works for juveniles similarly as it does for adults in that it helps to lighten the caseload for the prosecutor and court. A plea bargain is a deal or agreement between the prosecutor and the defendant that will be upheld in court and signed by the judge for a lesser punishment. The defendant is offered this in exchange for a guilty plea and once the judge signs off on the agreement in court, it is a binding contract(Shepherd, 2008). In Shenandoah County Juvenile court, it is the hope of the court, judge and prosecutor, that the juvenile merely needs direction, Running head: JUVENILE JUSTICE SYSTEM diversion, guidance and rehabilitation instead of punishment by detainment at the local juvenile correction facility in order to prevent future criminal activity (Shenandoah county , 2014). Involvement There are several different stakeholders involved in a plea bargain process in the Shenandoah County Juvenile court. The presiding judge, defense attorney and prosecuting attorney collaborate the plea bargain for the Shenandoah County Juvenile Court (Shenandoah Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court, 2009). This is for the actual plea bargain only; however, due to the ever increasing amount of juveniles that are involved in court, there can also be other outside agencies involved in the process such as juvenile probation and parole, department of health and human services, mental health community services and residential diversion programs (Shepherd, 2008). These different organizations are involved so that the juvenile individual has the help that is needed in court. For example, a plea bargain could consist of a suspended jail sentence as well as probation in which case, the juvenile probation office would help to assist the defendant in several areas such as monthly monitoring, direction to places where community service can be completed and other community organizations. A residential diversion program is an important tool in helping an at-risk juvenile. This program can help he or she to learn many valuable tools for life such as self sufficiency and anger control as well as various other tools necessary to become a productive adult member of society. One such program that is used for the Shenandoah County Juvenile Court is The Discovery School of Virginia. The judge in the case makes the decision that the youth is at-risk for more criminal behavior but feels that with the right tools, can become a productive member of society and remands the youth to this school to complete its 12-18 month program successfully or else face the state facility for juveniles (Discovery School, 2014). The Juvenile Delinquency Prevention and Control Act of 1968 (later renamed the Juvenile Delinquency Prevention Act in 1972) helps to provide various community-based preventative services to at-risk youths. This act helps to provide the community serving the Shenandoah County 3 Running head: JUVENILE JUSTICE SYSTEM 4 Juvenile court with necessary funding to help with diversion programs and is commonly known as the Family Assessment and Planning Team, or FAPT (Shenandoah Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court, 2009). Together with other local communities such as Court Services Association and local mental health community service boards, funding for at-risk youths is more possible than in previous years (Cornell University, 2014). All of these individual organizations working together are an extreme benefit to those juveniles who are considered at-risk of committing a crime now or in the future so they are indeed necessary individuals whose involvement is compulsory in the plea bargain process. Running head: JUVENILE JUSTICE SYSTEM References Circuit Court (2014). Shenandoah county Retrieved from http://shenandoahcountyva.us/courts/ Cornell University (2014) Juvenile justice: an overview. Retrieved from http://www.cornell.edu/wex/juvenile_justice Shenandoah Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court (2009). Virginia's judicial system. Retrieved from http://www.courts.state.va.us/courts/jdr/shenandoah/home.htm Shepherd, R. E. (2008). Plea bargaining in juvenile court. Criminal Justice, 23(3) 1-3 Discovery School. (2014.). The Discovery School of Virginia Retrieve from http://www.discoveryschool.org/ 5