Juvenile Justice Process and Corrections - Research Paper Example

Juvenile Justice Process Introduction Different s have different procedures of dealing with juvenile delinquency. In this report, the procedure followed in California is examined in the light of Colleen M who is a 15-year-old girl. Details of the case are found in the ‘Risk Assessment Case Studies’ sheet. Colleen’s Case After arrest, colleen is likely to be taken to a juvenile hall. Three options are available at this point: the case might be thrown out, or she will be enrolled in an informal probation, or detained in a juvenile hall.

Taking into consideration that Colleen’s case involves murder, it is neither likely to be thrown out nor referred to an informal probation. Therefore she will be detained in the juvenile hall and wait for a court hearing (specifically, this will be the detention hearing). At the detention hearing (in accordance with WIC 636), she will be informed why she is detained and other rights she has. She will most likely only use the attorney services of the lawyer that the court will assign her. She may plead guilty (meaning the next hearing will be the dispositional hearing) or not guilty of the charges leveled against her.

Most likely she will plead not guilty and therefore after this hearing, she will either be detained or released to wait for the pre-trial hearing. Taking into consideration that she has a history of fleeing from her aunt, she is not likely to be released but rather detained till the pre-trial hearing date. Her lawyer may request a ‘rehearing’ in accordance with WIC 637 depending on the evidence available to secure her an escape from detention till the pre-trial hearing date (Superior Court, 2013).

It is worth noting that Colleen may not in any way be subjected to adult court hearing since she has not attained the age of 16 and therefore WIC 707 becomes irrelevant in her case (Juvenile Court, 2012). At the pre-trial hearing, Colleen’s case will be examined to determine whether it is worth being moved to the trial. The trial hearing will likely end up with one of the following choices: the charges will be dropped, the charges will be reduced, the charges will be sustained, or the charges will be admitted.

Colleen insists that she is not guilty and therefore she is not likely to admit her charges at this hearing but if she is to admit it would then mean the next hearing will be the dispositional hearing. Since her charges are not likely to be dropped, they will either be sustained or reduced implying that next stage will be adjudicatory hearing. The adjudicatory hearing is actually the trial and is carried out in accordance with WIC 700-702 (Juvenile Court, 2012). The trial hearing is a very critical part of the whole judicial process.

It will determine the fate of Colleen as far as judicial justice is in question. In this hearing, the charges will either be found true or not true. The charges are true in the case of Colleen. The evidence outlined in the case sheet indicates her participation in hurting her neighbor. She also tested positive to an illegal drug and her explanation is not logical. She has also behaved in a weird manner in past, for instance, taking off shoes from the feet of a corpse and wearing them - an indication that drugs might be negatively affecting her.

Colleen will then be sentenced accordingly through the dispositional hearing. Recommendation Colleen should be referred to a treatment program. It is clear that she is engaged in drugs. She also seems to be stubborn a fact that might be attributed to her not being brought up by her parents. It is possible that her absent father is a contributory factor to her current actions. It is clear that she needs psychological help. It is also clear that her pet is seemingly the only object of her affection that she has.

It may be said that her affection for her aunt cannot rival her affection for her pet – she often ran away from her aunt. It is under these circumstances that she was prompted to protect the dignity of her closest friend from a neighbor who was clearly declaring to burn her and her pet. It should be noted that she acted out of anger and felt a need to protect herself and her pet. Therefore Colleen should be placed in a treatment program to help her recover from her psychological torture that her absent parent has led her into.

The program should also help her to recover from the illegal drug use she is seemingly engaged in. Though there are many suppliers of treatment programs in California, Colleen should be reffered to the California Access to Recovery Effort (CARE) for affordability purpose (CARE, 2013). References CARE. (2013). Welcome to Care program. CARE. Retrieved from http://www.californiacares4youth.com/ Juvenile Court. (2012). Juvenile Delinquency Hearings. Judicial Council of California. Retrieved from http://www2.courtinfo.ca.

gov/protem/courses/delin/ Superior Court. (2013). Juvenile Court: Delinquency. Superior Court of California. Retrieved from http://www.occourts.org/self-help/juvenile/delinquency.html