Ramsey County Attorney’s Office defends early-intervention plan to reform potential repeat offenders

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The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office wants to take the adversarial sting out of its handling of some juvenile cases in an effort to reform potential repeat offenders earlier.

For the past two years, the office has been experimenting with a different approach to deciding the trajectory of non-violent cases of youth ages 10 to 17.

A three-person team — called the Collaborative Review Team — seeks to gain a holistic view of a juvenile offender before deciding if he should be returned to his family, be referred to a social worker, be referred to a community alternative or be charged with the crime.

“Part of what we’re trying to change as a county is that whatever door you get referred to the county through (social services, justice department, etc.), we want to help,” said Erica Schumacher, the director of strategic initiatives and community relations in the county attorney’s office. “We want to help address these underlying situations instead of it being just about consequences.”

SIXTY-SIX CASES SINCE ITS INCEPTION

Since its inception, the team has processed 66 cases, learning and refining as they go.

One of the lessons learned was that CRT would not be handling aggravated robbery, homicide, criminal sexual or assault cases, officials said. They initially looked at Kendrick Washington’s case in which the 16-year-old was involved in a shooting in May and then in July stole a car that resulted in the death of a dog that was in the vehicle.

“That probably informed some of our early learnings, in that we’re not going to do aggravated robberies,” Schumacher said.

Washington ended up getting charged, pleading guilty to second-degree assault, theft and animal cruelty and was sentenced to detention.

“We had thought that by only focusing on out-of-custody cases, we would eliminate the most complex cases, but we realized that wasn’t necessarily the case,” said Dennis Gerhardstein, spokesman for the county attorney’s office.

WHY OFFICIALS SAY CHANGE IS NEEDED

According to the county’s research based on data between 2010 and 2019, 80 percent of youth do not have adult felony charges, but the percent of youth that do rises with increasing contact with the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office. During that time frame, about 230 youths came back 12 or more times.

Overall, one in five youths who interacted with the Ramsey County justice system went on to commit a felony as an adult, the research says.

“We’ve got kids that were referred 30 and 40 times to the system from the time they were 10 to 17. So, clearly, it’s not working for them,” Schumacher said.

TRADITIONAL VS. CRT

So how is CRT different than the traditional way Ramsey County has dealt with juvenile cases?

“What happened before this process is the prosecutors would charge them all and bring them all into the system,” said Jim Fleming, the county’s chief public defender. “We would run them through like turkeys on a processing line and just spit them out. We’re labeling kids, telling them they’re bad and, guess what, they’re coming back as adults.”

He said the traditional way often means the juvenile is in court months after the crime was committed.

“The wait times are very long. They never actually get to meet the person they’ve harmed. Not everybody gets a trial,” Fleming said. “Maybe the system would work if every case that was put in, we could try it. But in Ramsey County, that’s about 14,000 cases. We’ve only got 29 judges.”

CRT sees the whole picture, rather than just a police report, Schumacher said. And, based on what they know about brain development in juveniles, relationships are key, as is processing the case quickly.

NUANCES OF THE PARADIGM SHIFT

Behind every initiative is an underlying philosophy. The county attorney’s office has spelled out the specifics driving its changes in a document that is several pages long. Here are a few areas where the two approaches differ, with the traditional approach listed first:

RESPONSE TO CRITICS

Some of CRT’s loudest detractors are in law enforcement.

“The CRT ‘committee of three’ does not reflect the concerns of law enforcement, the child’s parents, the victims, or the community at large,” Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher said in a recent letter to the county attorney.

Fleming said Fletcher’s objections are political.

“He wants to make it sound like serious violent-person offenses are going through this process and that is not at all true,” he said.

Some have questioned if what Ramsey County Attorney John Choi is doing is legal.

Robert Small, executive director of the Minnesota County Attorneys Association, declined to comment specifically on CRT but said, “Prosecutors have wide discretion to seek justice subject to laws, professional responsibilities and the will of the people.”

IS CRT SOFT ON CRIME?

Some cases may involve a firearm but not a violent crime.

Joseph Olson, a former attorney, professor and founder of the Gun Owners Civil Rights Alliance, worries CRT could set a bad precedent if it doesn’t punish juveniles caught with an illegal firearm whether or not they used it in a crime.

“The message that gets out to the teens on the street is, it doesn’t cost you anything to carry a gun,” he said.

Fleming said so far, he’s seen a fair balance in the decision making and adds that the team only handles a percentage of the cases. He knows of five juveniles who were certified to be tried as adults for their crimes that were not referred to CRT.

HOW TO MEASURE SUCCESS

How will the county attorney’s office know if it’s succeeded in limiting recidivism?

They will review data, case files and surveys to determine if the youth experienced meaningful accountability that involved a supportive adult in his or her life. This could mean a coach or parent. And, if they were held accountable, did they address or repair the harm they did, was a plan to address any underlying causes developed, and was there a restored sense to the offender for a positive future, said Kara Beckman, a University of Minnesota researcher contracted by the county attorney’s office.

“We’re not going to pretend that this is a magic bullet, but we’re aiming for this to be better than what we currently have,” Beckman said.

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