INDIANAPOLIS —
A new Indiana law will give juvenile court judges some power to intervene with troubled children before they end up as defendants in the criminal system.
The law stems from an innovative program launched by a central Indiana judge who’s convinced that an increase in preventative action will decrease the punitive measures he has to dole out.
The legislation, which goes into effect July 1, allows a juvenile court judge to use court resources to set up and coordinate voluntary mentoring and tutoring programs for children and teens identified by teachers and others as at-risk for failure, expulsion, or other disciplinary action.
“We don’t need to wait till something bad happens to help a child,” said Hamilton Superior Court Judge Steve Nation, who set up a model program in Westfield on which the new law is based.
Driving the Westfield program was the increasing caseload that Nation saw in juvenile court. He said many of the juveniles who landed in the court system had dropped out or been expelled from school. “We needed to find a way to intervene before they got in front of me,” Nation said.
Also driving it was a 2009 law passed by the state legislature that opened the door for Nation to work with local city and school officials to establish the Westfield program.
That 2009 law mandated Indiana school districts work with parents and the juvenile justice system to craft student discipline policies that rely on suspensions and expulsions as a last resort. It gave school districts until July 1, 2011, to come with their own plans as to how to do that.
Both laws depend on early-intervention programs that are well-coordinated and put the best interests of the child first. That’s not easily done, Nation said, but it’s critical to prevent children from falling through the cracks.
“It’s really about working together as a community to take care of your community’s kids,” Nation said.
Earlier this year, when Nation and Westfield Mayor Andy Cook talked to a committee of lawmakers about the at-risk prevention program in Westfield, they cited two examples of students who’ve benefitted from the program. Both students had disciplinary problems at school and were at-risk of being suspended or expelled if that bad behavior continued.
Both students were struggling with family issues: One has a father in prison for killing her mother; the other is a student whose father suffered a fatal heart attack after the student accidentally struck him in the chest with a baseball.
In both cases, the students were assigned volunteer mentors who’ve worked closely with them, Nation said. He credits those relationships with helping to keep both of those students in school and out of the juvenile court system.
Rep. Cathy Richardson, a Noblesville Republican who authored the at-risk prevention bill, said it’s not a cure-all. It’s success depends on having qualified volunteers to work with students, and having families of those students who must voluntarily agree to let them enter the program. She said it also depends on having school officials, parents, and court officials willing together.
“It won’t help every kid,” she said. “But if we can help a few kids turn their lives around, we think they’ll help somebody else do the same someday.”
Richardson’s bill received bipartisan support in the legislature. In the state Senate, sponsors included Sen. Tim Lanane, a Democrat from Anderson and Sen. Jim Buck, a Republican from Kokomo.
Buck said the legislation found favor among lawmakers because they saw it as one step toward reducing Indiana’s growing prison population. “There’s got to be some better alternatives to just warehousing people in prison,” Buck said.
News
Indiana law aims to help troubled children
Measure gives juvenile judges means to intervene early
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