Teens charged in Hickory Hills assault committed to Division of Youth Services; What that means going forward

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – OzarksFirst is providing an update to a case from earlier this year, after three teens were charged with assaulting another teen at Hickory Hills school in East Springfield.

We’ve learned that three teens, two held in Greene County, and one held in Christian County have been committed to the State Division of Youth Services.

“Division of Youth Services (DYS) is a state program, and they are charged with taking into custody youth who are committed to their care by the court,” Bill Prince, Greene County’s Chief Juvenile Officer. “It is one of the deepest end services that we have available to us.”

Prince says the only punishment more severe is if a crime where a minor is certified, and then tried as an adult.

Typically, there’s no end date on a commitment to the DYS.

“Most of the time that’s for an indeterminate period of time,” Prince said. “It gives us the option to or the opportunity to work with these kids rather than saying, you know, ‘you’re going to be committed for three years or two years’ or things like that. It’s an indeterminate period of time.

So what does that mean for the three teens, and other minors committed to DYS?

“Once that kid is committed to custody, then the Division of Youth Services comes in and classifies the youth and then decides what to do with them at that point,” Prince said. “That can include anything from placement in a secure residential facility for a period of time. It can consist of community care, which is sort of like formal probation, except that it’s under the auspices of the Division of Youth Services. Each of those programs, wherever a youth is classified to go to, will have programmatic goals. They’ll have ways to measure those programmatic goals. As the youth progresses through them, a lot of it is on the youth, you know, how well they do.”

He adds that DYS has several different facilities and the placement is based on the severity of the situation.

Prince adds that Greene County received nearly 2,000 referrals for minors a year, which can come from Police, School Resource Officers, and even parents.

He says on average, 60% of those referrals are able to be diverted away from the court system, which carries around a 90% success rate.

Around 20% of the remaining referrals end with informal probation, which the Missouri Juvenile Justice Association defines as, “Placing the child on voluntary probation under the juvenile office’s supervision. Successful completion of the informal probation period may result in a complete dismissal of the charges without any finding that the child was delinquent.

Prince adds around 10% end with formal probation, which the MJJA defines as, “Where a child is found to have committed an offense, placing the child under court-ordered supervision.”

Prince says a small amount of the remaining cases, on average, end with DYS stepping in, but he’s seeing more often than not.

“I know statewide the trend has been that more and more kiddos are getting committed to the Division of Youth Services just because of the seriousness of the behavior that we’re seeing,” Prince said. “Once we got jurisdiction over 17-year-olds, you know, we started to see the more serious behaviors the homicides, the unlawful use of a weapon, the serious assaults, you know, really picking up. DYS is better equipped in some cases to deal with those kids. So I know statewide those referrals have been going up to them.”

Prince says the prior incidents play a role in the court’s decisions.

So what’s next for the three teens and others committed to DYS?

Prince says with the indefinite timeline, it’s up to any minor to work through the programs set before them.

“We have found that for most kids, this programming is very effective. This has historically been, you know, recognized nationally for its innovative programs and the good work that it does with these youths. You just don’t see those situations very much where a youth would go to a program and, you know, be there forever,” Prince said. “There’s a provision in the statute that if you have a youth who is not working the program, the Division of Youth Services can petition the court to keep them until their 21st birthday.”

The charges and commitments they work through as minors won’t follow them into adulthood.

“We don’t arrest people. We don’t convict people. We call it taking a youth into custody, and we call it somebody has been adjudicated on a petition,” Prince said. “The net effect of that is, is that the juvenile is adjudicated delinquent as opposed to convicted of a crime. the big difference there is, is that if later on in life, you know, if they were to go apply for a job or something like that and an application asked, ‘Have you ever been convicted of a felony or a misdemeanor’, they could honestly check the box, say, no, they have not, because they have not been convicted of a felony or misdemeanor.”

Prince says the goal is to rehabilitate.

“We want accountability, you know, for the youth that they are held to account for whatever they did. We want community safety so that they don’t do it again,” Prince said. “We have to balance that with sort of this idea that we’re dealing with developing youth. I mean, we’re dealing with people whose brains are not developed yet. You know, the studies all tell us that that a human brain is not fully formed, you know, until you’re 25 or 26 years of age. So, you know, we’re dealing with with kids, you know, with low impulse control.”

Education will continue for those who are in DYS and not the classroom.

“Depending where they go and [DYS will] try to keep them regionally, they have their own educational system that these kids continue to go to school,” Prince said.

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