Editorial by Gloria Padilla
San Antonio Express-News
SAN ANTONIO, Tex. — When I was growing up, there was a public service announcement aired by our local television station right before the late-night news asking, “It’s 10 o’clock; do you know where your children are?”
Being a naive kid, I always thought it was silly that parents would not know where their children were after dark.
Today that PSA does not seem so silly.
The state’s juvenile crime statistics for fiscal year 2007 indicate that if some parents don’t know what their children are doing, they should.
A record number of cases were added to the juvenile dockets of district and county courts in Texas during 2007, according to the annual statistical report compiled by the Office of Court Administration.
That’s 53,015 new cases, which represent an increase of 7.4 percent from the previous year.
According to the Office of Court Administration, that is the largest annual increase since 1997.
Bexar County was a significant contributor to last year’s juvenile crime stats, recording 11,397 juvenile referrals in calendar year 2007, compared to 10,435 during the same period in 2006.
One of the more troubling statistics in the state report was the 231 juveniles certified for trial as adults in 2007.
In Bexar County, 33 cases were filed for certification, according to the district attorney’s office. The number of youths certified was not readily available, but court officials said almost all the cases presented were certified.
The sad part is that these cases represent 14-, 15- and 16-year-olds who could go to state prison and be housed with older and more experienced criminals.
Ironically, while the number of certifications in Texas was down from 2006, it was still the second-highest number of juveniles sent to adult court in the past seven years. That is hardly something to brag about.
The growth in the juvenile court business is keeping the county’s 198-bed juvenile lockup at capacity most days.
Court dockets are full.
During the last county budget cycle, the district attorney’s office added a prosecutor and an investigator to its juvenile prosecution section to keep up with the caseload.
Jill Mata, chief of the district attorney’s juvenile prosecution unit, is at a loss to explain the spike in juvenile referrals.
The increase in juvenile cases is not only in Bexar County and Texas but also across the country, she said.
About a decade ago, there was a similar spike in statistics. A strong law enforcement and prosecution stance on juvenile crime and gang-related activity helped curtail it.
Shortly after taking office in 1999, District Attorney Susan Reed began an innovative program to halt gang activity by seeking civil court orders prohibiting individual gang members from associating with one another or anyone accused of a felony.
A total of seven injunctions were issued. It was a law enforcement tool that worked.
“As soon as news about the injunction spread, the gang members scattered,” said First Assistant District Attorney Cliff Herberg,
Unfortunately, all but one of those injunctions have expired. The sole active one expires in June.
The district attorney’s office is examining the possibility of seeking new injunctions, Herberg said.
It sounds like a good idea.
Copyright 2008 San Antonio Express-News