August 14, 2025 • 49 mins
In this episode of “Louisiana Unfiltered” 21st Judicial Juvenile Judge Jenny Fore joins Kiran Chawla as they discuss the rising pace of crime committed by juveniles and what is being done to combat it.
Chapters
03:09 The Role of Poverty and Education
05:48 Family Structures and Their Impact
07:46 The Influence of Technology on Youth
09:34 Shifts in Juvenile Crime Trends
13:25 Detention Center Insights
14:26 Addressing Recidivism
18:37 The Importance of Mentorship
25:50 Community Involvement in Solutions
28:48 Truancy and Its Consequences
31:52 Current Juvenile Crime Statistics
37:04 The Impact of Social Media
43:03 Addressing Supervision and Safety
48:28 The Judge's Perspective on Change
Local Sponsors for this episode include:
Neighbors Federal Credit Union:
Another Chance Bail Bonds:
Dudley DeBosier Injury Lawyers
Sound and Editing for this audio podcast by Envision Podcast Production:
Chapters
03:09 The Role of Poverty and Education
05:48 Family Structures and Their Impact
07:46 The Influence of Technology on Youth
09:34 Shifts in Juvenile Crime Trends
13:25 Detention Center Insights
14:26 Addressing Recidivism
18:37 The Importance of Mentorship
25:50 Community Involvement in Solutions
28:48 Truancy and Its Consequences
31:52 Current Juvenile Crime Statistics
37:04 The Impact of Social Media
43:03 Addressing Supervision and Safety
48:28 The Judge's Perspective on Change
Local Sponsors for this episode include:
Neighbors Federal Credit Union:
Another Chance Bail Bonds:
Dudley DeBosier Injury Lawyers
Sound and Editing for this audio podcast by Envision Podcast Production:
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This episode is sponsored by Deli de Bojer injury lawyers
fighting for those who've been hurt and deserve to be heard,
from crashes on the road to injuries on the job.
Our team is here to protect your rights and get results.
You focus on healing, will handle the rest.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Call four four four four four four four.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Or visit delidboja dot com.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Responsible Attorney James Pelcha Betrouge. A fourteen year old arrested
for armed robbery, a thirteen year old caught with a
(00:40):
stolen gun, a seventeen year old accused in multiple shootings.
Kids not even old enough to be driving are committing
crimes that could ruin lives forever. Juvenile crime is making
headlines more and more, But is it really getting worse
(01:02):
or does it just feel that way. Today we sit
down with a local juvenile judge who says the offenders
are getting younger, the crimes are getting more violent, and
no one in the community is immune. She would know
because she sees it firsthand every day. So why should
(01:26):
you care? Because juvenile crime often starts small shoplifting, breaking
into cars, stealing an unlocked gun, and those small crimes
can escalate quickly into something much more dangerous. We'll dig
into what's pushing kids toward a world of crime and
(01:50):
just as importantly, what we as a community can do
to guide them back, because the kids of today will
shape the world world we all live in tomorrow. I'm
Kiaran Challa and this is Louisiana Unfiltered. Welcome back everyone.
(02:21):
This week we are joined by an pretty amazing guest,
Judge Ford, juvenile judge and Livingston Parish Judge Jenny Ford.
Thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
I'm Jenny Richardson four. I'm the newly elected judge, but
not just Livingston Parish. I'm the twenty first JADC, so
all of Livingston, Tangebo and Saint Helena.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Absolutely thank you so much for thanking for having me.
I guess when we think twenty first, we all of
a sudden immediately go to Livingston Parish, right, but yes,
that is Changeabahoe Parish and Saint Alena Parish. You are
a juvenile judge.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
I am judge.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
We keep hearing and it's not keep hearing. The proof
is the putting suspects. They're getting younger and younger and younger,
and the crimes are getting more and more heinous their murder, Yes,
they're shootings. Ye.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
So I was a juvenile public defender for ten years
and then I also clerked for the outgoing judge for
a year and a half before I started that. And
the crimes have gotten worse and worse over the time
that I have been in juvenile court, and the resources
are not there anymore.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
So is there a why?
Speaker 4 (03:31):
I think systematic poverty and drug use have a lot
to do with it. I also think that truancy is
an issue. I've told a lot of people when I
was on the campaign trail that we pay ten thousand
dollars a year to educate our kids only, but one
hundred thousand dollars a year to incarcerate our kids. And
if kids aren't reading by the time they're in the
(03:52):
third grade, they're more than likely to drop out of school.
And kids that drop out of school are more than
likely on going to wind up in the system. So
why aren't we trying to put money in on the
front end to take care of these kids, to figure
out why they aren't going to school, why they aren't reading,
what's going on in their homes, and use those services
and put them in place.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
So We're not paying for them for the rest of
their lives.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
And you know, every time we've done a podcast to
where we dig in deep, be it crime, be it drugs,
things like that, we start to learn very quickly it's
an onion that you got to peel back. It's not
a simple juvenile crime is up. There's a reason. But
when you start peeling that onion.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Ba's a reason.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
There's a lot of reasons, and a lot of it
is that family structure and education. And I mean, we've
had a lot of law enforcements set right where you are,
and it comes down to there's no guardian at.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
Home, there's no family and if there is a mom
or dad, they're more like friends. So but there is
no family unit anymore. People don't go to church anymore.
So there's a lot going on there. There's no mentors.
Nobody wants to step up in the community and health
these children. So I have been pushing that to mentors
on the back end after they get out of the
(05:06):
Florida Parish's Juvenile Detention Center, their long long term program.
We have seventeen year olds that are coming out of there.
They have their high school diploma, their OSHA certified. They've
gone to North Shore Technical School in the detention center.
But if we're putting them back in their same environment,
what is that going to change? Yes, so I have
been talking to them about getting mentors. If we have
(05:27):
mentors that keep them straight until they can actually go
into the planet. It's hard to get in the plane
at seventeen, but you can at eighteen. But where are
they living between the time they're seventeen and eighteen? So
we need to find mentors that keep them on track
or places for them to stay until they can get
a job and get I guess secure, and where they
need to be.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
I guess. So let's talk about the family structure. You
have a lot of times nowadays it is it's young
kids pretty much having kids. So it's the grandparents.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
At a reason them are even great grandparents we see
raising these children.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
But they're sometimes they're also only in their fifties, forties, sixties,
and they're still working. Maybe they might be working multiple
jobs now if there is a parent, they're working multiple jobs.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
And then there's no supervision.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
Yes, so yeah, our detention center, our director Joey Dominici,
is great because we have one of the best in
the state.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
That serves five parishes.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
But he has now seen three generations grandparents, parents, and.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Children that have gone through his detention center.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Wow, so you see a lot of the same families. Oh, yes, yes,
that's interesting.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Then, yep, I've seen.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
So I have now had clients that I represented that
have children that may not be in the juvenile detention
center already, but they're in our department and Children Family Services.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
I'll have DCFS cases.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
With the mom because she can't take care of her child,
and then the child comes into custody in a different way.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
I guess from a judge's perspective, how difficult is that.
I understand you have to be unbiased, you have to
separate professional and personal, but you're human.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Yep, and it's very difficult.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
But juvenile judges are different because our main goal is rehabilitation.
We want to rehabilitate these families if they're coming in
in the Department Children Family Services side or to the
juvenile delinquency side, to make progress and be productive citizens.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
At the end of the day, we want them to
be able to get.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
Jobs and have some education underneath them, even if it's
technical education, to go out in the community and be
able to pay taxes. So interesting and that's my main goal,
but that's not always what's going to happen. Like you said,
we have heinous crimes and heinous crimes. You can be
charged as an adult fifteen and up for heinous crimes.
(07:52):
There's twelve I think that are automatic. But yeah, there's
some that are automatic. If you commit a crime, that
makes a charge in decision and they'll decide whether or
not they're going to charge them as an adult.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
Let's go back to that onion. We talked about parental
guidance or just any support right like you already said it.
People aren't going to church as much. There's not that
fear of God.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
These kids have no fear. They're looking at social media.
They're wanting to live lives, these fake lives that people
portray online, or they're into these social media challenges.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
It's like also too, I feel.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
Like their brain development changes when they're always on their
phones or iPads or anything else. It almost changes their
brain chemistry. So they're playing these video games. They're playing
these video games and you can shoot somebody in the
video game, but that person's coming back to life.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
If you shoot somebody.
Speaker 4 (08:46):
In real life, they're probably not gonna survive, so but
these kids have no fear of that. And then another
thing we see is older generations putting these kids up
to committing crimes because they think that they aren't gonna
be in jail, and like I said, some of them
can get charge as an adult, so they can be
(09:07):
looking at life in prison.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
You are the second person who has said that recently
that what they're seeing. I believe a local sheriff or
a murder homicide detective recently said the same thing, that
they're seeing more adults pulling kids into crime for the
reason that they're usually not going to spend the rest
(09:30):
of their lives behind bars, and that their rap sheets
are sealed.
Speaker 4 (09:33):
Yep. Well, and I will say this, Our new governor
has put some stuff into place. So now there's crimes
of violence. I think there's sixty plus crimes of violence,
and there's a database now, so if you get charged
with a crime of violence, you get put in this database,
even if you're a child. So our children need to
watch what they're doing.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
But is this database open to the public.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
My understanding is yes.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
Okay, So okay, when would you say you started seeing
the shift of younger kids committing more of the heinous crimes.
And when I say heinous, I'm gonna go ahead and
say the murders, I.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
Would say probably after twenty sixteen, twenty seventeen, maybe, So
it's been a little while and it's not a ton
of them, but one murder is a lot, it is,
so it is.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
I still have a hard time wrapping my head around
how a fifteen year old can pick up a gun
and take a life.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Well, and where are they getting these guns too?
Speaker 3 (10:33):
Is the question.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
So I'm about second a memory rights, but I also
think we need to be responsible gun owners. So we
shouldn't just have our gun in our car and it
not locked up like. We need to be responsible because people,
these children are getting into cars and getting guns out
of cars. And then my thing I like to I
hear all the time in court, which I'll never understand,
(10:55):
apparently that there's this magical.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Ditch where these guns come out of.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
Too.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
I'm like, you just did not find a gun in
a ditch. So but the kids will tell us that
that they found the gun in a ditch, which they're stolen, right, right,
But the crimes start with the smaller, petty crime, right, stealing.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
Something out of it, maybe a convenience store or a
piece of clothing, to cars to an argument.
Speaker 4 (11:21):
Times they like that feeling and they want to they
want to feel that again, so then they go to
the bigger crime to get It's like a drug feeling.
The more you do I guess the cortisol and everything
comes into your your brain and your body, and they
like the feeling.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
So now, now, being on the judge side, would you
say juvenile crime comparing it to twenty sixteen when you're
saying you kind of really started seeing the trends change,
where do you see it now nearly nine years later?
It seems like it's just gotten worse.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
It has it definitely has. I mean, let's see.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
So if to Joey Dominic, our director of Florida Parish
Juvenile Detention Center, and he has numbers since twenty twenty,
and he says, since twenty twenty, placements and our Juvenile
Detention Center have risen approximately thirty percent. And when we're placing,
it's not just for little crime. So we get six twenty,
(12:20):
six hundred and twenty and seven hundred and twenty kids
per year and a majority of these are violent or
serious offenders the detention We have a detention screening instrument
and they have to they have to score a ten
before we can even place unless they call a judge
for an override. So if they don't score a ten,
they don't go into the detention center for placement.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
What does that mean in normal people language? I don't
know what that means.
Speaker 4 (12:43):
So there's going to be certain crimes on this sheet,
and you get a score for each of these crimes,
or if you've been on probation before and they know that,
it'll be another number. Or like gun charges is an
automatic ten, so you're going if you have a gun charge,
but that it was just a misdemeanor.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Or maybe are.
Speaker 4 (13:05):
You punch somebody or something not that severe, You're usually
not going to the detention center for that. You're gonna
get sighted and then just come in front of the
judge after the DA builds it.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Okay. So the more serious of a crimerime is what.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Is going to be placed in the detention center unless
you're back.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
So if you have had a felony in the last
six months, you're gonna get extra points.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
And so there's other stuff, But like if you get called.
Speaker 4 (13:29):
If the Sheriff's department gets called three or four times
out in that weekend and we can't get this child
under control, then they're going to call the judge for
an override and we'll place them then.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
So basically, the more serious offenders, the repeat.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Offenders, are going to be in the detention center.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
And that's who you're saying between six hundred and twenty
to seven hundred and twenty kids a year.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
Yeah, because our the DSi Detention Screening instrument is going
to prevent low risk offenders from entering.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
And this is the River Perishes to ten center.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
You said Florida parishes, So it's going to be Livingston,
tangiba Ho, Saint Helena, Saint Tammany in Washington.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
Okay, Okay, those died. Where would you say? You're seeing
some of the highest numbers of sidding all crimes though.
Speaker 4 (14:14):
He's his numbers are saying that Saint Tammany has had
the largest number of placements with eight hundred and eighty
seven since twenty twenty, and Tangibahoe was going to be
a close second with eight hundred and fourteen since twenty twenty.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
And then that in that same period the average length
of stay is thirty six point five days. So our
detention center is going to be a pre adjudication program,
so before kids go to trial, they're going to be
in there. Or if they're on probation and they are
not following the rules of their probation and they're held
in contempt, they get so many days for being held
(14:48):
in contempt and they will serve their contempt days there.
We do have twelve long term bets, so if I
feel that a kid needs to be in a long
term placement, I can ask them to be evaluated for
our Florida Parish's long term Florida Parish is also now
has twelve Office of Juvenile Justice beds, So if I
(15:09):
put them in the custody of OJJ, then the Office
of Juvenile Justice could also ask for their placement in
Florida Parish's Juvenile Detention Center as a long term post
adjudication program.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
What constitutes a client's not the right word a child.
I'm going to go in and say a child to
be in the long term program.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
So these are going to be the kids that are
not sentenced and put on probation. They're sentenced to two
years secure or two years in a facility.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
So basically they just served their time. Correct.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Okay, okay, yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
That makes sense. So they but that's only if you're
charged as an actual juvenile juvenile.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Correct, This is the juvenile detention center.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
Because the juveniles who do get charged as as an adult.
The difference is you're now facing charges as an adult
and you're going there to adult jail.
Speaker 4 (16:06):
Yep, sentencing as an adult and going to adult jail.
So sometimes they'll let the children stay if their charge
as an adult in the detention center until they turn
to eighteen. But the code provides that the DA can
ask them to be moved into the adult facility.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
But then we're talking about Preya and all of those other.
Speaker 4 (16:28):
Things where and anybody under the age of eighteen has
to be pretty much housed by themselves. And I think
that they can only put four seventeen in under and
a cell together, and they can't see the adult prisoners.
So it puts a burden on the adult system too
when we're housing juvenile juveniles in an adult facility.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
The Florida Parish is Juvenile Center. They have really revamped
o the way they're doing things, So we're the.
Speaker 4 (16:59):
Only sinner in the state that provides a post adjudication
program like I was talking about earlier, where the courts
can commit the kids into Florida Parish's custody. So we're
the only one in the state. We're the largest one
in the state housing up to one hundred and twenty
one kids serving the five parishes that I talked to,
thirty seven hundred square miles and six hundred and fifty
(17:20):
thousand citizens.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Is what we serve with Florida Parishes.
Speaker 4 (17:25):
And then if you're in the long term program, we're
looking at these kids getting OSHA.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Certified, PPE certified. They have a Driver's ED program in there.
Speaker 4 (17:36):
They have the only robotics instruction nationwide, and the Driver's
ED program is the only one nationwide, and treatment planning.
They're going to get all of their mental health services
in there. So the only thing I feel like we're
not doing is mentoring them more on the way out
to place them in a better environment or find them
(17:56):
jobs and that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
That's what I was going to ask, Well, I guess
let's back up a little bit, okay, to recidivism. How
important Number one for people who don't know it, What.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
Is that it's the likelihood of you going back into
a jail or committing another crime.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
So how what all are you doing? And what all
is the Florida Parish's Juvenile Center doing to try to
prevent kids from coming back?
Speaker 4 (18:24):
Education, education, education, setting them up for success, giving them
the tools they need to survive in the real world.
So they're not going to survive if we just give
them mental health services. They need a job when they
get out, they need a place to stay, So that's
what we're looking at. Florida Parishes is looking at a
Fenn's house, which is like a family in needs of
(18:44):
Services house too, which would be more of a step
down in a group home. And I think that they
would also look to taking some of these kids when
they finish the long term program and putting them in
this step down house or a group home and maybe
even be able to take them to work until they
can or find them other jobs until they can go
out in the community on their own and make a living.
(19:05):
So that's another thing we're looking at right now.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
Are you seeing success when it comes.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
To your long term program?
Speaker 3 (19:12):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Yes, any numbers there, I don't.
Speaker 4 (19:15):
Have them in front of me, no, but I know
that my kids that have gone through the program have
done well.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
And you're not seeing them again.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
No, not necessarily. So there's a couple, but of course.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
They're always going to be a couple. But the majority
of them are staying away. But again, how much of
this comes down to you, guys? And I want to
say you guys, I mean all officials in the juvenile
detention center or in juvenile crime. You can provide so much,
but if there isn't the will.
Speaker 4 (19:48):
They have to want to change, yes, and we can't
make them change.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
That's what I was going to ask. I guess from
a judge's perspective, do you see a lot of that that, Hey,
we've done everything that we possibly.
Speaker 4 (19:59):
There are cases like that And you hate to say
that because again we're talking about children, so you want
them to succeed, But yeah, there are cases like that
that the children they're just in a bad environment. They
can't make their way out of the bad environment, or
they think something's promised to them and they just don't
want to make the change.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
So are you give if you can give me a
breakdown on age, it feels like it was eighteen year
olds committing the murders. Then it became seventeen. But now
we're seeing fourteen and fifteen year olds.
Speaker 4 (20:32):
I would probably say some of them are fifteen and sixteen,
fifteen and sixteen, but I also say I have twelve
and thirteen year olds testing positive for fentannel how exposure
being around people smoking out of apes or marijuana vpes
that they don't know that it's least so I had
(20:53):
I had a kid in our drug court because we
also have a drug court in Tangebahoe in Luvingson Parish.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
So those are the kids that we.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
Will meet with on a weekly basis. Like I will
see on a weekly basis, but my team will see
them probably two or three.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
Times a week.
Speaker 4 (21:08):
And I had a couple of kids that were addicted
to fentanyl and they will go out and buy fentanyl.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
But when you're set up at that early in age.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
It's hard.
Speaker 4 (21:21):
Hard, it's hard to make a change when you are
thirteen fourteen years old because.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
Your mind is in one hundred percent developed.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
It's not it's not.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
That's terio.
Speaker 4 (21:32):
So and a lot of these kids we got to
think about this too. They're self medicating what happened to
them before they were twelve and thirteen. What have they
witnessed since they were born? Were they a drug affected newborn?
Was their brain chemistry change because there were a drug
affected newborn?
Speaker 2 (21:49):
So it's a lot to think about.
Speaker 4 (21:51):
But I want to get all the training I can,
so we're a trauma informed court too. So there's something
called Trauma Based Relationship Intervention and it's out of TCU
University and they have a practitioner school and me and
Judge Belzer, who hears twenty percent of the juvenile cases
in the twenty first we're going in November to be
(22:14):
tbr I practitioners. Will never be a practitioner, but it'll
help us see a different side of this on the
bench too, to see what we can do to help
these kids.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
Is there anything that you've seen or learned that you
maybe didn't know prior to becoming judge.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
No, I wouldn't say that, just because I had been
in the system for so long before then.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
So I was there once a.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
Week on Tuesdays because I was a juvenile public defender
even before that, I said, I clerk for the judge,
so I was in her court all the time, and
even just seeing the juvenile delinquency.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Side of it.
Speaker 4 (22:49):
I was still there for the Department and Children Family
side of it, and all of these cases, a lot
of them are intertwined. Some of these delinquent kids probably
should have been in the Department of Children and Family
Services a long time ago. So when you have a
mom or kids that are ten years old missing thirty
and forty days at school, that's not really their fault,
(23:11):
or even younger than that.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
So these and that's what I was talking.
Speaker 4 (23:15):
About earlier, where we need to look at it on
the front end and get involved in the front end
and see is this mom does she just not have
a car? Why are they missing the bus? Is the
parents on drugs? Do they not have food?
Speaker 3 (23:28):
Like?
Speaker 2 (23:28):
There's a lot of stuff.
Speaker 4 (23:30):
Going on to why these children aren't in school, But
if we can figure it out and put the services
in place, or is it a mental health issue? I mean,
we have a whole bunch of mental health issues around
the state, and there's no beds for that either, So
we just need to see what's going on to try
to catch it.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
On the front end.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
We all sit here and we read the headlines. We
as a media company, we report the headlines, but we're
human as well, and that when we see a fourteen
year old, a fifteen year old, or a repeat offender
who's now said seen but has been doing things since
they were fourteen, what can we as humans even do.
We're watching it, but we can't go tell somebody how
(24:11):
to be a parent. It's kind of almost this. We
want to help, but you can't tell somebody how to
live their life.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
No, and they want We just talked about that too.
They have to will help yeseah.
Speaker 4 (24:24):
So I mean I do think that we need more
community involvement, but in a mentor since also on the
foster parent side of it, we have one of the
biggest caseloads in the state with these kids that are
in foster care, but we don't have any beds or
homes for them foster homes, so we have been making
a big push for that and mentors anywhere I go
(24:45):
talk to those are the two things I'm like, we
need foster parents and we need mentors. If you don't
think that you can commit your life to being a
foster parent, which a lot of people can't, can you
do something else to help us?
Speaker 3 (24:56):
Okay, So let's talk about that. What all goes into
entering and fostering, How do people sign up? What does
it entail?
Speaker 4 (25:03):
So DCFS has the curriculum to become a foster parent,
and it's a pretty intense.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
I guess training to become a foster parent.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
And I will say I think Livingston has the most
kids in foster care with the least amount of beds
are foster homes available, So you'll go through an intense
training and then I think that one of the other
things that we need to remember too when you sign
up to be a foster parent. The law in Louisiana
is reunification. We're trying to get these parents to have
(25:35):
their kids back because we want a family unit. So
that's another thing that's hard to do. You are helping
raise this child and you want what's best for them,
but you also have to help this parent work their
case plan or do everything that they need to be
to get their child back, and it doesn't always happen.
(25:58):
But that was another big push from the state. It's
called Quality Parent Initiative and all of our foster parents
we want to be QPI so that they can help
the bio parents with I guess getting their children back
or if they need help, if they get their child back.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
It takes a village to raise a child. Oh yeah,
I need help.
Speaker 4 (26:21):
I have a lot of family and friends that can
help me, but some of these people don't. So that's
somebody that they can rely on, A farmer, foster parent
that may have had their kids to help them when
they need help.
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one zero zero seven seven. What about mentoring is that
through DCFS, So we don't have a mentoring program setups.
Speaker 4 (28:00):
So I have been talking to churches who try to
get a church some churches involved in mentoring. So we
are working on that, actively working.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
On that right now.
Speaker 4 (28:10):
And we're also actively working on truancy right now. The
DOE in the Louisiana Supreme Court is doing a huge
push on truancy. And I don't think people realize when
you miss five days of school in a semester, that's
six absence you're considered truant, and over ten in a
year you're considered truant. So living Ston, Tangibra Hill, all
(28:32):
of them have to report to the DOE and when
those kids miss five days of school, they're coming straight
to our Family and Needs of Services program. At that time,
a sheriff's office share steputy is going to go out
to the home to see if they can lay eyes
on this child and see what's going on in the
home to see why they're missing school. And we're going
to get a FENDS referral at the same time. So
that's going to be at five apenss. So's it's going
(28:56):
to be intense this year from the DOE perspective, and I'm.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
Glad it happens after that.
Speaker 4 (29:01):
Then, so they will come in from FENDS and if
we'll try to get them to sign something called an
attendant's Improvement Plan, and if they are working the plan,
then they're fine. If they're not working the plan, they're
going to have to come see me, and at that
time I.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Can sanction them.
Speaker 4 (29:17):
I can put them in jail for not their kids
not going to school. I can find them. If it's
a older child, I can put the child in the
detention center because we know that they'll get educated at
the detention center.
Speaker 3 (29:29):
Okay, So, and so the parents can come before you
as well.
Speaker 4 (29:33):
Yep, And I can hold them in contempt and also
put them in jail to depending on why their children
aren't going to school.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
And you're saying that's going to really pick up stream
this year.
Speaker 4 (29:41):
It is why the department in the edits look they
are over all of the schools watching their numbers, so
the schools system actually has to meet with them depending
on what their numbers look like in the past and
how many referrals they were doing.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
Because this was always the law, just nobody.
Speaker 4 (29:57):
Was looking at it, okay, so they really are cracking
down on it this year.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
So do you see a difference though that in previous
you've been judged for.
Speaker 4 (30:08):
So Livingston, I will say, was always pretty on board
with doing what they needed to do education wise. Some
of the other parishes not so much. So I'm curious
to see. We just started school the first week of school,
so I'll be able to tell you more soon.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
But I think I think that there will be a
change this year.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
I guess it's kind of to me where my brain
is going right now, is that you have to have
that will to change. Ye, So you missed all this
school me. My mom and dad looked at me with
their eyes wide open. I was scared school me too, Yes,
I was so scared. So me going before a judge
and the potential of facing a detention center in jail.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
And that's not going to scare everybody.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
No, And that's what I was going to try to
ask that have you seen a little bit that wait
when this process what.
Speaker 4 (30:55):
We have when we get into these homes, I do
think it makes a difference. But we weren't able to
get into some of the homes before. Why just because
there was no referral, Like we didn't know that they
were missing this much school and when we did find out,
it was like forty and fifty days of school, or
they may have come in for another issue, like a
delinquency issue. So now we're saying, well, why haven't you
(31:19):
been going to school all year? So it was too
late at that point, they were already committing crimes.
Speaker 3 (31:24):
Ok.
Speaker 4 (31:24):
But if we get it more towards the front end,
it may stop them or deter them from doing some
of the other things that they would be doing.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
Well to our listeners, if somebody knows that there is
a child who hasn't been going to school for two weeks.
Speaker 4 (31:38):
You can report it to our friends Family and Needs
of Services.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
So if you go to www.
Speaker 4 (31:44):
Twenty first JDC dot org, there will be a link
for our Family and Needs of Services program and you
can make a call and self report.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
Okay, let's switch gears and talk about juvenile crime. Okay,
what would you say you're seeing the most of when
it comes to we've been talking hat crimes are picking
up with juveniles, what would you say you're starting to
see the most of in the twenty first JD scene.
Speaker 4 (32:05):
And that's going to be depend on parish. So most
of your heinous crimes I think are going to come
more out of Tangiba Hope Parish and your gun charges.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Livingston is more drugs.
Speaker 4 (32:16):
Not to say that we don't have gun crimes or
murders and that kind of stuff, but they're more likely
going to happen in Tangeba Hoe Parish. And some of
those are really going to happen in the city limits
of Hammon and Ponchatoula is where you see a lot
of it and not always like they're all around. But
I won't see those cases because they're going to go
(32:38):
to the city court judge.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
Okay, okay, and then what about Saint Helena.
Speaker 4 (32:44):
Saint Helena doesn't have a very high population. I mean,
we have had issues, We're gonna have truancy issues there
and there have been shootings there for sure, young young kids,
but their population just isn't isn't as big as the
rest of them.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
Which that also plays into it. But then sant Alena's
education system is almost close to one of the worst
in the state.
Speaker 4 (33:06):
So hopefully our truancy and THEE will help with that
this year.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
Okay, let's talk repeat offenders. We're seeing more and more
and it's it is. As a reporter, we cover it
all the time. It gets to be where the child
is now seventeen, ye, that's considered an adult. But we're
able to find out. Okay, well, at sixteen they went
to court for a murder or an attempted murder, but
(33:35):
a bond was set, they were able to get out.
They're back out on the streets and now they've killed
another person. But because they were sixteen or fifteen, they
were charged as an adult. So we as the media
are able to get this the summary of what happened fifteen, sixteen, seventeen,
three different shootings, attempted murders or murders. But you keep
(33:55):
getting out why because how the.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
Law has written.
Speaker 4 (34:00):
Right now, their number one priority is rehabilitation, so they're
not going to go into a secure facility. For some
crimes you have a mandatory minimum even if you're tried
as a juvenile, but some of them it's not until
second offense. A second offense is committed where you have
to serve some time in a secure facility. So it's
(34:20):
just how some of the laws are written right now.
Speaker 3 (34:24):
But what about and again, excuse my ignorance, which is
why we wanted you on here, because you don't hear
often from a judge. But juvenile crime is picking up
so much. Why does a juvenile even get crime If
they were just picked up for their second offense and
it's a heinous.
Speaker 4 (34:39):
Crime, well, and they should be held, but not all
the judges around the state are going to do the
same thing. And that's why some of the legislation was
set forward. So I may hold them, but there may
be a judge in a different jurisdiction that's not going
to hold them.
Speaker 3 (34:54):
Can you hold them?
Speaker 4 (34:56):
I can hold them if it I mean, you're really
supposed to set a bond because they're entitled to one.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
Regardless if it's first degree murder.
Speaker 4 (35:04):
I mean, it's just like being an adult. They still
get bonds for a first degree murder, So not all
of them.
Speaker 3 (35:11):
No, yeah, but but what it be is that is
it similar to adult cases in a sense of the
DA has to come before you and say, hey, judge,
we believe this June and.
Speaker 4 (35:21):
I would weigh it and then decide whether or not
I was going to set one or not.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
Okay, so I guess And this is not a youah no,
this is state wid Yeah.
Speaker 4 (35:30):
Everybody's going to be a little bit different because we're
human and we think we have different thought processes and
everybody around the state and the crimes that come across
around the state are going to be different too well.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
And it's one of those it's Monday morning quarterbacking. Be
it a domestic be it a child who keeps going
through the system. We on Monday morning can say, well,
the first time the judge set a bond of this one, yeah,
the second time they only set a judge I mean,
they only set a bond this much. So it's easy
to point the finger. This is the judge's fault.
Speaker 4 (36:05):
And there is a preset bond schedule in the twenty
first JDC, so some of those are preset. Like we'll
look at the bond schedule and that's what we're setting.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
Them at Okay, so what so then if there's a
preset what is that for?
Speaker 4 (36:21):
I wouldn't be I don't have the paper in front
of me. But yeah, there's a preset bond. So felonies
are going to be certain much and depending on how
heinous the felony, it could be more. But yeah, there's
a preset bond schedule.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
Do you see the juveniles getting more? Do you see
the juveniles getting braver? In what sense?
Speaker 4 (36:46):
Like I said earlier, I just don't think that they
have a real grasp on reality and what's what's really
going on in that if you shoot somebody or commit
these crimes, it's almost sometimes it's like a game to them.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
Some not all of them, but some of them.
Speaker 4 (37:01):
Some of them I feel like are put in a
bad position and that's what they do. But some of them,
I feel like they're doing these TikTok challenges or it's
what's that that card game that they all play, Grand
Theft Audio Auto, and I'm like, what are y'all doing?
I tell my kids all the time that they're I
(37:22):
have a four and a six year old. I'm like,
y'all aren't getting phones, y'all aren't on social media. I
don't let my kids play with my phone. They don't
have tablets. I'm like, y'all are getting a watch that
has you can call four people or a flip phone
because it's I'm telling you, it's changing their brain chemistry.
Speaker 3 (37:40):
Agreed. Agreed, judge, let's talk about social media. You just
said that how you're strict you are when it comes
to your own kids as a parent. In fact, I
can't think of the name of the documentary, but they
had a really good documentary that once you get on
your phone, there are algorithms to where you don't put
that phone down, and we're seeing it more and more.
(38:01):
You look up a vacation, you look up a flight
to I don't know.
Speaker 2 (38:05):
And they know what you're looking for. It just keeps
populating on your screen.
Speaker 3 (38:08):
But the next thing you know, you're gonna get ads
for flights to the same place you looked at or travel.
All of a sudden, everything changes. You go shopping for
I don't know, a bridal dress, everything changes to that.
So it's scary.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
How much your phone's Your phone knows a lot, yes, and.
Speaker 3 (38:26):
It like sucks you in. How big of a role
are you seeing social media playing when it comes to
juvenile crime, well, so there's.
Speaker 4 (38:33):
A lot of stuff we're talking about sexteing that can
happen over the phone. I just think that kids need
to be very careful about what they're putting in any
kind of platform and social media. These children that we
see a lot of times, or even we were talking
about bullying and maybe somebody that just keeps aggravating you
(38:56):
on the phone, which at that's like cyberstalking. It could
be a lot of stuff like that, but they need
to be watching what they're sending through social media. If
it's threats or if it's nude pictures, it doesn't go away.
People think that Snapchat just goes away, but you could
subpoena all those records so and it comes back up,
and you know, it's very scary. Is I was in
(39:18):
a conference last week with an FBI agent and what
they can do with AI and what they can make
with AI and how they can manipulate your phone to
thinking somebody else is sending something to you. It's just
insane to me. So you have to be very careful
about what you're sending, who you're sending stuff to.
Speaker 2 (39:39):
It all will come back.
Speaker 3 (39:41):
So but a lot of that responsibility, of feel falls
on a parent, A twelve year old who just got
a phone number one. I never had one till I
hit late high school, and that was so I could
call mom and dad, let know and finish.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
All this technology. No, it was a regular phone. We
could barely text on it.
Speaker 3 (39:58):
Yes, and now you can control or watch where you're
going location, and I get that, But a lot of
the responsibility, I feel like also falls on a parent.
Speaker 4 (40:08):
And I agree with that, but I will tell you this.
Parents are trying to figure out what their children are
doing on social media, and then the children are trying
to block their parents from what they're actually doing on
social media. So I guess unless you take all those
apps away, which you probably should anyway, our kids don't
need to be on TikTok snapchat and I would oh,
(40:30):
And then you know what else was crazy that I
learned last week was the emojis and what these emojis
mean to different people, and stuff that you may send
out in an emoji has a whole different meaning in
the generation right now. So they will have whole conversations
and emojis and you have no idea what they're talking
(40:50):
about I would be so lost me I was lost.
So even if you're a parent checking on a phone,
how are you supposed to know what all emojis mean?
Speaker 3 (41:01):
Well, not only that, but if you erase a text message,
how does a parent go about finding that text?
Speaker 2 (41:06):
There's ways to get them back.
Speaker 4 (41:07):
I know that for law enforcements it's gonna be a
lot easier. But there's and I don't know if there's
a permanent delete, but there is a text message that
I accidentally deleted the other day that I needed to
go back, and you can just edit it and look
through your recently deleted text messages. But I'm sure children
also know how to get those off their phone too.
Speaker 3 (41:27):
But what about catfishing? We hear more and more children
falling prey to that, yes, victims and the people doing it,
but then AI.
Speaker 4 (41:39):
And then meeting up with these people and getting sex traffic.
That's realz too, especially in this I twelve Ian corridor
and suicides.
Speaker 3 (41:48):
Let's talk about all of that. You, as judge, are
you seeing any of that?
Speaker 4 (41:54):
I haven't seen it so much in our jurisdiction, but yes,
I have heard about it in other jurisdictions and in
other states. And it's very scary because you send out
something and even if it was to a these kids
go through girlfriends and boyfriends in a two week period.
You could be with somebody earlier that day, even hours,
and you'll send them something inappropriate, and later that day
(42:18):
you're broken up, and do you think that they're really
not going to send that to people? So and then
that's where that whole cat fishing comes in.
Speaker 3 (42:26):
Or and for people who know what is catfishing.
Speaker 4 (42:32):
I guess that's when you pretend to be somebody that
you aren't with and you could do a whole different
face and everything, and you can even be catfished by
an adult, like adults can be praying on children, and
we have seen that in our jurisdiction. We have so
but none of that comes before me. But it's very
scary and it the sheriff is doing a great job
(42:54):
cracking down on that, but it is very scary. The
amount of stuff and the people that these children trust
on social media and will go meet up with anybody.
It's just insane to me. So I guess I supervision
back to supervision talk.
Speaker 3 (43:12):
To the parents who were listening that what can they
do in these situations. You talked about falling victim to
sex trafficking, especially the E ten I twelve quarter. Unfortunately
that is very, very big here, drugs and suicide.
Speaker 2 (43:26):
You have to have your eyes on your children at
all times. And I mean I felt like I was.
You talked about it too. I was afraid of my mom.
My mom was not my good friend. Like my mom.
I had a curfew.
Speaker 4 (43:41):
Really, I wasn't allowed to go anywhere most of the time.
Speaker 3 (43:44):
Same.
Speaker 2 (43:45):
So people just.
Speaker 4 (43:47):
Need to be vigilant. They don't need to be living
through their children. They need to be parenting their children.
Speaker 3 (43:52):
And that's that's extremely important. We want to be liked, yeah,
you want to be liked by your parents, but there's
a fine line where but you want.
Speaker 2 (43:59):
To raise your children. Yes, safely.
Speaker 3 (44:02):
Yes, Especially in the day and age we're living in,
it's not as simple as it was when we were kids.
Speaker 2 (44:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (44:07):
No, there's way too much, I guess social media and
just everything that's going on with all of these children.
So there's more drugs, social media, all the stuff.
Speaker 3 (44:21):
AI.
Speaker 2 (44:22):
It's just insane, sad.
Speaker 4 (44:25):
It's sad that our children have to deal with all
of that, even though some of it, I guess is
for the better good. But and it may make our
lives easier, but it does not make our children's lives easier.
I don't think I feel like it makes them grow
up faster.
Speaker 3 (44:39):
It does. I agree with that. Let's talk. I know
you brought your own notes as well. Let's talk some
other statistics. You were telling me that you've got statistics
when it's close to Office.
Speaker 4 (44:50):
Of Juvenile Justice, so they will take care of our probation.
There are probation officers, but they also have non secure homes,
which is or of like a group home setting, and
then they're going to have secure homes. So during the
first quarter of twenty twenty five, there were four hundred
and eighty youths served in a secure custody. That's around
(45:10):
the state legal status three hundred and ninety five nine
secure custody and thirty nine fens custody statewide. So our
fends that's really going to be a status offense. And
usually we don't place children for that, but I guess
if they need like a psychiatric resident treatment facilities, sometimes
we can place them through our fens adjudications into those beds.
Speaker 2 (45:35):
But yeah, I mean that's.
Speaker 4 (45:36):
A lot and I will say there's a wait list
to get into some of these secure beds. So if
I do sentence a kid to secure, I don't want
them waiting at the detention center. I want them getting
their services and doing what they need to do. So
I will usually order that they be moved within fourteen
(45:57):
days to where they need to be. Okay, And that
doesn't always happen because, like I said, there's a waiting list.
Speaker 3 (46:06):
Yeah, but it does sound like for the Florida Pearrish's
Juvenile Center, if you are in the long term process.
Speaker 4 (46:13):
That that program's amazing. So if they have beds there,
that's where I want my children at.
Speaker 3 (46:17):
But it almost sounds like you're in a better place
there if you don't have the proper guidance and parental guidance.
Speaker 2 (46:23):
No one d percent you are.
Speaker 4 (46:25):
And some of the kids that know that they're going
to be in a secure facility, like when I was
their attorney, they would say, can you see if I'm
appropriate for Florida pearrishes know or they'll ask their attorneys now.
But I will also say this, you have to have
in at least a year. You have to be backing
up a year, and then you have to be sixteen,
because most of these kids come out with their high
(46:47):
school diploma. So you don't want kids that are fourteen
and fifteen that may be backing up a year or
two coming through this program. And then what are they
doing when they already have their high school diploma and
some can't already get into the technical school.
Speaker 2 (46:59):
There's still too young to do that. So it's just
a fine line.
Speaker 4 (47:02):
We got to make sure that that's the right plane
for them.
Speaker 3 (47:06):
So let me ask this, and I want to be transparent.
This was eastpount Rouge, but recently we had law enforcement
come on from eastpount Rouge and what they told us
that when they're out on the streets and the young kids,
it's almost like a badge of honor that yeah, I
did this on the streets, I killed so and so and.
Speaker 4 (47:25):
And I can't speak for over there, but I can
say that sometimes these kids do wear it as a
badge of honor because some of them like having the
ankle monitor, and that's a badge of honor having an
ankle monitor.
Speaker 2 (47:37):
And it's not for all the kids, but some of
them do.
Speaker 3 (47:41):
So, Oh my god, I can only I keep saying
we're trying to get father.
Speaker 4 (47:47):
We're trying to get away from that because now they
have come out with watches that almost look like eye watches.
Instead of having ankle monitors, they're risk monitors because if
they place words. Of course, if we have a kid
on probation that may be a little bit of a
runner and needs more structure. They like having the ankle
(48:08):
monitor because it gives them something to hold over their head.
People know where they're at. But you also don't want
them playing football with a big ankle monitor on. But
you do want these kids involved in something to keep
them on course. So we will try to get them
risk monitors now, but some of them don't want that.
Speaker 3 (48:29):
Why did you run for juvenile judge.
Speaker 4 (48:31):
Because I felt like I was the most qualified and
best person in the race to make a difference in
our community. So when I graduated pretty high in my
class and I worked for some big law firms and
that did not it wasn't the fit for me. And
so when I clerked for Judge Edwards twelve years ago,
(48:53):
I fell in love with being in juvenile court, helping
the families and communities of juvenile court, and I never left.
Speaker 2 (48:58):
So that's that's why I want to help.
Speaker 3 (49:01):
And that's what I was gonna ask.
Speaker 2 (49:02):
These kids are our future and somebody needs to help them.
Speaker 3 (49:05):
So well, you answered my next question that are you
seeing that? Are you being able to do that?
Speaker 4 (49:10):
And little by little but an onion, just like you said,
it's gonna we're gonna have to pull it back one
later at a time, and there's not one answer for
juvenile crime.
Speaker 3 (49:20):
Well, judge for is there anything else you'd like to
add that I have not discussed, We discussed at all,
we did. I appreciate you so very much for coming
for I appreciate it absolutely. To our listeners, we thank
you for listening and as always, we will see you
on the next episode of Luisiana Unfiltered.
This episode is sponsored by Deli de Bojer injury lawyers
fighting for those who've been hurt and deserve to be heard,
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Responsible Attorney James Pelcha Betrouge. A fourteen year old arrested
for armed robbery, a thirteen year old caught with a
(00:40):
stolen gun, a seventeen year old accused in multiple shootings.
Kids not even old enough to be driving are committing
crimes that could ruin lives forever. Juvenile crime is making
headlines more and more, But is it really getting worse
(01:02):
or does it just feel that way. Today we sit
down with a local juvenile judge who says the offenders
are getting younger, the crimes are getting more violent, and
no one in the community is immune. She would know
because she sees it firsthand every day. So why should
(01:26):
you care? Because juvenile crime often starts small shoplifting, breaking
into cars, stealing an unlocked gun, and those small crimes
can escalate quickly into something much more dangerous. We'll dig
into what's pushing kids toward a world of crime and
(01:50):
just as importantly, what we as a community can do
to guide them back, because the kids of today will
shape the world world we all live in tomorrow. I'm
Kiaran Challa and this is Louisiana Unfiltered. Welcome back everyone.
(02:21):
This week we are joined by an pretty amazing guest,
Judge Ford, juvenile judge and Livingston Parish Judge Jenny Ford.
Thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
I'm Jenny Richardson four. I'm the newly elected judge, but
not just Livingston Parish. I'm the twenty first JADC, so
all of Livingston, Tangebo and Saint Helena.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Absolutely thank you so much for thanking for having me.
I guess when we think twenty first, we all of
a sudden immediately go to Livingston Parish, right, but yes,
that is Changeabahoe Parish and Saint Alena Parish. You are
a juvenile judge.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
I am judge.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
We keep hearing and it's not keep hearing. The proof
is the putting suspects. They're getting younger and younger and younger,
and the crimes are getting more and more heinous their murder, Yes,
they're shootings. Ye.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
So I was a juvenile public defender for ten years
and then I also clerked for the outgoing judge for
a year and a half before I started that. And
the crimes have gotten worse and worse over the time
that I have been in juvenile court, and the resources
are not there anymore.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
So is there a why?
Speaker 4 (03:31):
I think systematic poverty and drug use have a lot
to do with it. I also think that truancy is
an issue. I've told a lot of people when I
was on the campaign trail that we pay ten thousand
dollars a year to educate our kids only, but one
hundred thousand dollars a year to incarcerate our kids. And
if kids aren't reading by the time they're in the
(03:52):
third grade, they're more than likely to drop out of school.
And kids that drop out of school are more than
likely on going to wind up in the system. So
why aren't we trying to put money in on the
front end to take care of these kids, to figure
out why they aren't going to school, why they aren't reading,
what's going on in their homes, and use those services
and put them in place.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
So We're not paying for them for the rest of
their lives.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
And you know, every time we've done a podcast to
where we dig in deep, be it crime, be it drugs,
things like that, we start to learn very quickly it's
an onion that you got to peel back. It's not
a simple juvenile crime is up. There's a reason. But
when you start peeling that onion.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Ba's a reason.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
There's a lot of reasons, and a lot of it
is that family structure and education. And I mean, we've
had a lot of law enforcements set right where you are,
and it comes down to there's no guardian at.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
Home, there's no family and if there is a mom
or dad, they're more like friends. So but there is
no family unit anymore. People don't go to church anymore.
So there's a lot going on there. There's no mentors.
Nobody wants to step up in the community and health
these children. So I have been pushing that to mentors
on the back end after they get out of the
(05:06):
Florida Parish's Juvenile Detention Center, their long long term program.
We have seventeen year olds that are coming out of there.
They have their high school diploma, their OSHA certified. They've
gone to North Shore Technical School in the detention center.
But if we're putting them back in their same environment,
what is that going to change? Yes, so I have
been talking to them about getting mentors. If we have
(05:27):
mentors that keep them straight until they can actually go
into the planet. It's hard to get in the plane
at seventeen, but you can at eighteen. But where are
they living between the time they're seventeen and eighteen? So
we need to find mentors that keep them on track
or places for them to stay until they can get
a job and get I guess secure, and where they
need to be.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
I guess. So let's talk about the family structure. You
have a lot of times nowadays it is it's young
kids pretty much having kids. So it's the grandparents.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
At a reason them are even great grandparents we see
raising these children.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
But they're sometimes they're also only in their fifties, forties, sixties,
and they're still working. Maybe they might be working multiple
jobs now if there is a parent, they're working multiple jobs.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
And then there's no supervision.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
Yes, so yeah, our detention center, our director Joey Dominici,
is great because we have one of the best in
the state.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
That serves five parishes.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
But he has now seen three generations grandparents, parents, and.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Children that have gone through his detention center.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Wow, so you see a lot of the same families. Oh, yes, yes,
that's interesting.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Then, yep, I've seen.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
So I have now had clients that I represented that
have children that may not be in the juvenile detention
center already, but they're in our department and Children Family Services.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
I'll have DCFS cases.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
With the mom because she can't take care of her child,
and then the child comes into custody in a different way.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
I guess from a judge's perspective, how difficult is that.
I understand you have to be unbiased, you have to
separate professional and personal, but you're human.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Yep, and it's very difficult.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
But juvenile judges are different because our main goal is rehabilitation.
We want to rehabilitate these families if they're coming in
in the Department Children Family Services side or to the
juvenile delinquency side, to make progress and be productive citizens.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
At the end of the day, we want them to
be able to get.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
Jobs and have some education underneath them, even if it's
technical education, to go out in the community and be
able to pay taxes. So interesting and that's my main goal,
but that's not always what's going to happen. Like you said,
we have heinous crimes and heinous crimes. You can be
charged as an adult fifteen and up for heinous crimes.
(07:52):
There's twelve I think that are automatic. But yeah, there's
some that are automatic. If you commit a crime, that
makes a charge in decision and they'll decide whether or
not they're going to charge them as an adult.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
Let's go back to that onion. We talked about parental
guidance or just any support right like you already said it.
People aren't going to church as much. There's not that
fear of God.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
These kids have no fear. They're looking at social media.
They're wanting to live lives, these fake lives that people
portray online, or they're into these social media challenges.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
It's like also too, I feel.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
Like their brain development changes when they're always on their
phones or iPads or anything else. It almost changes their
brain chemistry. So they're playing these video games. They're playing
these video games and you can shoot somebody in the
video game, but that person's coming back to life.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
If you shoot somebody.
Speaker 4 (08:46):
In real life, they're probably not gonna survive, so but
these kids have no fear of that. And then another
thing we see is older generations putting these kids up
to committing crimes because they think that they aren't gonna
be in jail, and like I said, some of them
can get charge as an adult, so they can be
(09:07):
looking at life in prison.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
You are the second person who has said that recently
that what they're seeing. I believe a local sheriff or
a murder homicide detective recently said the same thing, that
they're seeing more adults pulling kids into crime for the
reason that they're usually not going to spend the rest
(09:30):
of their lives behind bars, and that their rap sheets
are sealed.
Speaker 4 (09:33):
Yep. Well, and I will say this, Our new governor
has put some stuff into place. So now there's crimes
of violence. I think there's sixty plus crimes of violence,
and there's a database now, so if you get charged
with a crime of violence, you get put in this database,
even if you're a child. So our children need to
watch what they're doing.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
But is this database open to the public.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
My understanding is yes.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
Okay, So okay, when would you say you started seeing
the shift of younger kids committing more of the heinous crimes.
And when I say heinous, I'm gonna go ahead and
say the murders, I.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
Would say probably after twenty sixteen, twenty seventeen, maybe, So
it's been a little while and it's not a ton
of them, but one murder is a lot, it is,
so it is.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
I still have a hard time wrapping my head around
how a fifteen year old can pick up a gun
and take a life.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Well, and where are they getting these guns too?
Speaker 3 (10:33):
Is the question.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
So I'm about second a memory rights, but I also
think we need to be responsible gun owners. So we
shouldn't just have our gun in our car and it
not locked up like. We need to be responsible because people,
these children are getting into cars and getting guns out
of cars. And then my thing I like to I
hear all the time in court, which I'll never understand,
(10:55):
apparently that there's this magical.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Ditch where these guns come out of.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
Too.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
I'm like, you just did not find a gun in
a ditch. So but the kids will tell us that
that they found the gun in a ditch, which they're stolen, right, right,
But the crimes start with the smaller, petty crime, right, stealing.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
Something out of it, maybe a convenience store or a
piece of clothing, to cars to an argument.
Speaker 4 (11:21):
Times they like that feeling and they want to they
want to feel that again, so then they go to
the bigger crime to get It's like a drug feeling.
The more you do I guess the cortisol and everything
comes into your your brain and your body, and they
like the feeling.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
So now, now, being on the judge side, would you
say juvenile crime comparing it to twenty sixteen when you're
saying you kind of really started seeing the trends change,
where do you see it now nearly nine years later?
It seems like it's just gotten worse.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
It has it definitely has. I mean, let's see.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
So if to Joey Dominic, our director of Florida Parish
Juvenile Detention Center, and he has numbers since twenty twenty,
and he says, since twenty twenty, placements and our Juvenile
Detention Center have risen approximately thirty percent. And when we're placing,
it's not just for little crime. So we get six twenty,
(12:20):
six hundred and twenty and seven hundred and twenty kids
per year and a majority of these are violent or
serious offenders the detention We have a detention screening instrument
and they have to they have to score a ten
before we can even place unless they call a judge
for an override. So if they don't score a ten,
they don't go into the detention center for placement.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
What does that mean in normal people language? I don't
know what that means.
Speaker 4 (12:43):
So there's going to be certain crimes on this sheet,
and you get a score for each of these crimes,
or if you've been on probation before and they know that,
it'll be another number. Or like gun charges is an
automatic ten, so you're going if you have a gun charge,
but that it was just a misdemeanor.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Or maybe are.
Speaker 4 (13:05):
You punch somebody or something not that severe, You're usually
not going to the detention center for that. You're gonna
get sighted and then just come in front of the
judge after the DA builds it.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Okay. So the more serious of a crimerime is what.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Is going to be placed in the detention center unless
you're back.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
So if you have had a felony in the last
six months, you're gonna get extra points.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
And so there's other stuff, But like if you get called.
Speaker 4 (13:29):
If the Sheriff's department gets called three or four times
out in that weekend and we can't get this child
under control, then they're going to call the judge for
an override and we'll place them then.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
So basically, the more serious offenders, the repeat.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Offenders, are going to be in the detention center.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
And that's who you're saying between six hundred and twenty
to seven hundred and twenty kids a year.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
Yeah, because our the DSi Detention Screening instrument is going
to prevent low risk offenders from entering.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
And this is the River Perishes to ten center.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
You said Florida parishes, So it's going to be Livingston,
tangiba Ho, Saint Helena, Saint Tammany in Washington.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
Okay, Okay, those died. Where would you say? You're seeing
some of the highest numbers of sidding all crimes though.
Speaker 4 (14:14):
He's his numbers are saying that Saint Tammany has had
the largest number of placements with eight hundred and eighty
seven since twenty twenty, and Tangibahoe was going to be
a close second with eight hundred and fourteen since twenty twenty.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
And then that in that same period the average length
of stay is thirty six point five days. So our
detention center is going to be a pre adjudication program,
so before kids go to trial, they're going to be
in there. Or if they're on probation and they are
not following the rules of their probation and they're held
in contempt, they get so many days for being held
(14:48):
in contempt and they will serve their contempt days there.
We do have twelve long term bets, so if I
feel that a kid needs to be in a long
term placement, I can ask them to be evaluated for
our Florida Parish's long term Florida Parish is also now
has twelve Office of Juvenile Justice beds, So if I
(15:09):
put them in the custody of OJJ, then the Office
of Juvenile Justice could also ask for their placement in
Florida Parish's Juvenile Detention Center as a long term post
adjudication program.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
What constitutes a client's not the right word a child.
I'm going to go in and say a child to
be in the long term program.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
So these are going to be the kids that are
not sentenced and put on probation. They're sentenced to two
years secure or two years in a facility.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
So basically they just served their time. Correct.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Okay, okay, yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
That makes sense. So they but that's only if you're
charged as an actual juvenile juvenile.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Correct, This is the juvenile detention center.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
Because the juveniles who do get charged as as an adult.
The difference is you're now facing charges as an adult
and you're going there to adult jail.
Speaker 4 (16:06):
Yep, sentencing as an adult and going to adult jail.
So sometimes they'll let the children stay if their charge
as an adult in the detention center until they turn
to eighteen. But the code provides that the DA can
ask them to be moved into the adult facility.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
But then we're talking about Preya and all of those other.
Speaker 4 (16:28):
Things where and anybody under the age of eighteen has
to be pretty much housed by themselves. And I think
that they can only put four seventeen in under and
a cell together, and they can't see the adult prisoners.
So it puts a burden on the adult system too
when we're housing juvenile juveniles in an adult facility.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
The Florida Parish is Juvenile Center. They have really revamped
o the way they're doing things, So we're the.
Speaker 4 (16:59):
Only sinner in the state that provides a post adjudication
program like I was talking about earlier, where the courts
can commit the kids into Florida Parish's custody. So we're
the only one in the state. We're the largest one
in the state housing up to one hundred and twenty
one kids serving the five parishes that I talked to,
thirty seven hundred square miles and six hundred and fifty
(17:20):
thousand citizens.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Is what we serve with Florida Parishes.
Speaker 4 (17:25):
And then if you're in the long term program, we're
looking at these kids getting OSHA.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Certified, PPE certified. They have a Driver's ED program in there.
Speaker 4 (17:36):
They have the only robotics instruction nationwide, and the Driver's
ED program is the only one nationwide, and treatment planning.
They're going to get all of their mental health services
in there. So the only thing I feel like we're
not doing is mentoring them more on the way out
to place them in a better environment or find them
(17:56):
jobs and that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
That's what I was going to ask, Well, I guess
let's back up a little bit, okay, to recidivism. How
important Number one for people who don't know it, What.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
Is that it's the likelihood of you going back into
a jail or committing another crime.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
So how what all are you doing? And what all
is the Florida Parish's Juvenile Center doing to try to
prevent kids from coming back?
Speaker 4 (18:24):
Education, education, education, setting them up for success, giving them
the tools they need to survive in the real world.
So they're not going to survive if we just give
them mental health services. They need a job when they
get out, they need a place to stay, So that's
what we're looking at. Florida Parishes is looking at a
Fenn's house, which is like a family in needs of
(18:44):
Services house too, which would be more of a step
down in a group home. And I think that they
would also look to taking some of these kids when
they finish the long term program and putting them in
this step down house or a group home and maybe
even be able to take them to work until they
can or find them other jobs until they can go
out in the community on their own and make a living.
(19:05):
So that's another thing we're looking at right now.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
Are you seeing success when it comes.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
To your long term program?
Speaker 3 (19:12):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Yes, any numbers there, I don't.
Speaker 4 (19:15):
Have them in front of me, no, but I know
that my kids that have gone through the program have
done well.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
And you're not seeing them again.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
No, not necessarily. So there's a couple, but of course.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
They're always going to be a couple. But the majority
of them are staying away. But again, how much of
this comes down to you, guys? And I want to
say you guys, I mean all officials in the juvenile
detention center or in juvenile crime. You can provide so much,
but if there isn't the will.
Speaker 4 (19:48):
They have to want to change, yes, and we can't
make them change.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
That's what I was going to ask. I guess from
a judge's perspective, do you see a lot of that that, Hey,
we've done everything that we possibly.
Speaker 4 (19:59):
There are cases like that And you hate to say
that because again we're talking about children, so you want
them to succeed, But yeah, there are cases like that
that the children they're just in a bad environment. They
can't make their way out of the bad environment, or
they think something's promised to them and they just don't
want to make the change.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
So are you give if you can give me a
breakdown on age, it feels like it was eighteen year
olds committing the murders. Then it became seventeen. But now
we're seeing fourteen and fifteen year olds.
Speaker 4 (20:32):
I would probably say some of them are fifteen and sixteen,
fifteen and sixteen, but I also say I have twelve
and thirteen year olds testing positive for fentannel how exposure
being around people smoking out of apes or marijuana vpes
that they don't know that it's least so I had
(20:53):
I had a kid in our drug court because we
also have a drug court in Tangebahoe in Luvingson Parish.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
So those are the kids that we.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
Will meet with on a weekly basis. Like I will
see on a weekly basis, but my team will see
them probably two or three.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
Times a week.
Speaker 4 (21:08):
And I had a couple of kids that were addicted
to fentanyl and they will go out and buy fentanyl.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
But when you're set up at that early in age.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
It's hard.
Speaker 4 (21:21):
Hard, it's hard to make a change when you are
thirteen fourteen years old because.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
Your mind is in one hundred percent developed.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
It's not it's not.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
That's terio.
Speaker 4 (21:32):
So and a lot of these kids we got to
think about this too. They're self medicating what happened to
them before they were twelve and thirteen. What have they
witnessed since they were born? Were they a drug affected newborn?
Was their brain chemistry change because there were a drug
affected newborn?
Speaker 2 (21:49):
So it's a lot to think about.
Speaker 4 (21:51):
But I want to get all the training I can,
so we're a trauma informed court too. So there's something
called Trauma Based Relationship Intervention and it's out of TCU
University and they have a practitioner school and me and
Judge Belzer, who hears twenty percent of the juvenile cases
in the twenty first we're going in November to be
(22:14):
tbr I practitioners. Will never be a practitioner, but it'll
help us see a different side of this on the
bench too, to see what we can do to help
these kids.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
Is there anything that you've seen or learned that you
maybe didn't know prior to becoming judge.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
No, I wouldn't say that, just because I had been
in the system for so long before then.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
So I was there once a.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
Week on Tuesdays because I was a juvenile public defender
even before that, I said, I clerk for the judge,
so I was in her court all the time, and
even just seeing the juvenile delinquency.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Side of it.
Speaker 4 (22:49):
I was still there for the Department and Children Family
side of it, and all of these cases, a lot
of them are intertwined. Some of these delinquent kids probably
should have been in the Department of Children and Family
Services a long time ago. So when you have a
mom or kids that are ten years old missing thirty
and forty days at school, that's not really their fault,
(23:11):
or even younger than that.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
So these and that's what I was talking.
Speaker 4 (23:15):
About earlier, where we need to look at it on
the front end and get involved in the front end
and see is this mom does she just not have
a car? Why are they missing the bus? Is the
parents on drugs? Do they not have food?
Speaker 3 (23:28):
Like?
Speaker 2 (23:28):
There's a lot of stuff.
Speaker 4 (23:30):
Going on to why these children aren't in school, But
if we can figure it out and put the services
in place, or is it a mental health issue? I mean,
we have a whole bunch of mental health issues around
the state, and there's no beds for that either, So
we just need to see what's going on to try
to catch it.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
On the front end.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
We all sit here and we read the headlines. We
as a media company, we report the headlines, but we're
human as well, and that when we see a fourteen
year old, a fifteen year old, or a repeat offender
who's now said seen but has been doing things since
they were fourteen, what can we as humans even do.
We're watching it, but we can't go tell somebody how
(24:11):
to be a parent. It's kind of almost this. We
want to help, but you can't tell somebody how to
live their life.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
No, and they want We just talked about that too.
They have to will help yeseah.
Speaker 4 (24:24):
So I mean I do think that we need more
community involvement, but in a mentor since also on the
foster parent side of it, we have one of the
biggest caseloads in the state with these kids that are
in foster care, but we don't have any beds or
homes for them foster homes, so we have been making
a big push for that and mentors anywhere I go
(24:45):
talk to those are the two things I'm like, we
need foster parents and we need mentors. If you don't
think that you can commit your life to being a
foster parent, which a lot of people can't, can you
do something else to help us?
Speaker 3 (24:56):
Okay, So let's talk about that. What all goes into
entering and fostering, How do people sign up? What does
it entail?
Speaker 4 (25:03):
So DCFS has the curriculum to become a foster parent,
and it's a pretty intense.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
I guess training to become a foster parent.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
And I will say I think Livingston has the most
kids in foster care with the least amount of beds
are foster homes available, So you'll go through an intense
training and then I think that one of the other
things that we need to remember too when you sign
up to be a foster parent. The law in Louisiana
is reunification. We're trying to get these parents to have
(25:35):
their kids back because we want a family unit. So
that's another thing that's hard to do. You are helping
raise this child and you want what's best for them,
but you also have to help this parent work their
case plan or do everything that they need to be
to get their child back, and it doesn't always happen.
(25:58):
But that was another big push from the state. It's
called Quality Parent Initiative and all of our foster parents
we want to be QPI so that they can help
the bio parents with I guess getting their children back
or if they need help, if they get their child back.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
It takes a village to raise a child. Oh yeah,
I need help.
Speaker 4 (26:21):
I have a lot of family and friends that can
help me, but some of these people don't. So that's
somebody that they can rely on, A farmer, foster parent
that may have had their kids to help them when
they need help.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
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one zero zero seven seven. What about mentoring is that
through DCFS, So we don't have a mentoring program setups.
Speaker 4 (28:00):
So I have been talking to churches who try to
get a church some churches involved in mentoring. So we
are working on that, actively working.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
On that right now.
Speaker 4 (28:10):
And we're also actively working on truancy right now. The
DOE in the Louisiana Supreme Court is doing a huge
push on truancy. And I don't think people realize when
you miss five days of school in a semester, that's
six absence you're considered truant, and over ten in a
year you're considered truant. So living Ston, Tangibra Hill, all
(28:32):
of them have to report to the DOE and when
those kids miss five days of school, they're coming straight
to our Family and Needs of Services program. At that time,
a sheriff's office share steputy is going to go out
to the home to see if they can lay eyes
on this child and see what's going on in the
home to see why they're missing school. And we're going
to get a FENDS referral at the same time. So
that's going to be at five apenss. So's it's going
(28:56):
to be intense this year from the DOE perspective, and I'm.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
Glad it happens after that.
Speaker 4 (29:01):
Then, so they will come in from FENDS and if
we'll try to get them to sign something called an
attendant's Improvement Plan, and if they are working the plan,
then they're fine. If they're not working the plan, they're
going to have to come see me, and at that
time I.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Can sanction them.
Speaker 4 (29:17):
I can put them in jail for not their kids
not going to school. I can find them. If it's
a older child, I can put the child in the
detention center because we know that they'll get educated at
the detention center.
Speaker 3 (29:29):
Okay, So, and so the parents can come before you
as well.
Speaker 4 (29:33):
Yep, And I can hold them in contempt and also
put them in jail to depending on why their children
aren't going to school.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
And you're saying that's going to really pick up stream
this year.
Speaker 4 (29:41):
It is why the department in the edits look they
are over all of the schools watching their numbers, so
the schools system actually has to meet with them depending
on what their numbers look like in the past and
how many referrals they were doing.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
Because this was always the law, just nobody.
Speaker 4 (29:57):
Was looking at it, okay, so they really are cracking
down on it this year.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
So do you see a difference though that in previous
you've been judged for.
Speaker 4 (30:08):
So Livingston, I will say, was always pretty on board
with doing what they needed to do education wise. Some
of the other parishes not so much. So I'm curious
to see. We just started school the first week of school,
so I'll be able to tell you more soon.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
But I think I think that there will be a
change this year.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
I guess it's kind of to me where my brain
is going right now, is that you have to have
that will to change. Ye, So you missed all this
school me. My mom and dad looked at me with
their eyes wide open. I was scared school me too, Yes,
I was so scared. So me going before a judge
and the potential of facing a detention center in jail.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
And that's not going to scare everybody.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
No, And that's what I was going to try to
ask that have you seen a little bit that wait
when this process what.
Speaker 4 (30:55):
We have when we get into these homes, I do
think it makes a difference. But we weren't able to
get into some of the homes before. Why just because
there was no referral, Like we didn't know that they
were missing this much school and when we did find out,
it was like forty and fifty days of school, or
they may have come in for another issue, like a
delinquency issue. So now we're saying, well, why haven't you
(31:19):
been going to school all year? So it was too
late at that point, they were already committing crimes.
Speaker 3 (31:24):
Ok.
Speaker 4 (31:24):
But if we get it more towards the front end,
it may stop them or deter them from doing some
of the other things that they would be doing.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
Well to our listeners, if somebody knows that there is
a child who hasn't been going to school for two weeks.
Speaker 4 (31:38):
You can report it to our friends Family and Needs
of Services.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
So if you go to www.
Speaker 4 (31:44):
Twenty first JDC dot org, there will be a link
for our Family and Needs of Services program and you
can make a call and self report.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
Okay, let's switch gears and talk about juvenile crime. Okay,
what would you say you're seeing the most of when
it comes to we've been talking hat crimes are picking
up with juveniles, what would you say you're starting to
see the most of in the twenty first JD scene.
Speaker 4 (32:05):
And that's going to be depend on parish. So most
of your heinous crimes I think are going to come
more out of Tangiba Hope Parish and your gun charges.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Livingston is more drugs.
Speaker 4 (32:16):
Not to say that we don't have gun crimes or
murders and that kind of stuff, but they're more likely
going to happen in Tangeba Hoe Parish. And some of
those are really going to happen in the city limits
of Hammon and Ponchatoula is where you see a lot
of it and not always like they're all around. But
I won't see those cases because they're going to go
(32:38):
to the city court judge.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
Okay, okay, and then what about Saint Helena.
Speaker 4 (32:44):
Saint Helena doesn't have a very high population. I mean,
we have had issues, We're gonna have truancy issues there
and there have been shootings there for sure, young young kids,
but their population just isn't isn't as big as the
rest of them.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
Which that also plays into it. But then sant Alena's
education system is almost close to one of the worst
in the state.
Speaker 4 (33:06):
So hopefully our truancy and THEE will help with that
this year.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
Okay, let's talk repeat offenders. We're seeing more and more
and it's it is. As a reporter, we cover it
all the time. It gets to be where the child
is now seventeen, ye, that's considered an adult. But we're
able to find out. Okay, well, at sixteen they went
to court for a murder or an attempted murder, but
(33:35):
a bond was set, they were able to get out.
They're back out on the streets and now they've killed
another person. But because they were sixteen or fifteen, they
were charged as an adult. So we as the media
are able to get this the summary of what happened fifteen, sixteen, seventeen,
three different shootings, attempted murders or murders. But you keep
(33:55):
getting out why because how the.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
Law has written.
Speaker 4 (34:00):
Right now, their number one priority is rehabilitation, so they're
not going to go into a secure facility. For some
crimes you have a mandatory minimum even if you're tried
as a juvenile, but some of them it's not until
second offense. A second offense is committed where you have
to serve some time in a secure facility. So it's
(34:20):
just how some of the laws are written right now.
Speaker 3 (34:24):
But what about and again, excuse my ignorance, which is
why we wanted you on here, because you don't hear
often from a judge. But juvenile crime is picking up
so much. Why does a juvenile even get crime If
they were just picked up for their second offense and
it's a heinous.
Speaker 4 (34:39):
Crime, well, and they should be held, but not all
the judges around the state are going to do the
same thing. And that's why some of the legislation was
set forward. So I may hold them, but there may
be a judge in a different jurisdiction that's not going
to hold them.
Speaker 3 (34:54):
Can you hold them?
Speaker 4 (34:56):
I can hold them if it I mean, you're really
supposed to set a bond because they're entitled to one.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
Regardless if it's first degree murder.
Speaker 4 (35:04):
I mean, it's just like being an adult. They still
get bonds for a first degree murder, So not all
of them.
Speaker 3 (35:11):
No, yeah, but but what it be is that is
it similar to adult cases in a sense of the
DA has to come before you and say, hey, judge,
we believe this June and.
Speaker 4 (35:21):
I would weigh it and then decide whether or not
I was going to set one or not.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
Okay, so I guess And this is not a youah no,
this is state wid Yeah.
Speaker 4 (35:30):
Everybody's going to be a little bit different because we're
human and we think we have different thought processes and
everybody around the state and the crimes that come across
around the state are going to be different too well.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
And it's one of those it's Monday morning quarterbacking. Be
it a domestic be it a child who keeps going
through the system. We on Monday morning can say, well,
the first time the judge set a bond of this one, yeah,
the second time they only set a judge I mean,
they only set a bond this much. So it's easy
to point the finger. This is the judge's fault.
Speaker 4 (36:05):
And there is a preset bond schedule in the twenty
first JDC, so some of those are preset. Like we'll
look at the bond schedule and that's what we're setting.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
Them at Okay, so what so then if there's a
preset what is that for?
Speaker 4 (36:21):
I wouldn't be I don't have the paper in front
of me. But yeah, there's a preset bond. So felonies
are going to be certain much and depending on how
heinous the felony, it could be more. But yeah, there's
a preset bond schedule.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
Do you see the juveniles getting more? Do you see
the juveniles getting braver? In what sense?
Speaker 4 (36:46):
Like I said earlier, I just don't think that they
have a real grasp on reality and what's what's really
going on in that if you shoot somebody or commit
these crimes, it's almost sometimes it's like a game to them.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
Some not all of them, but some of them.
Speaker 4 (37:01):
Some of them I feel like are put in a
bad position and that's what they do. But some of them,
I feel like they're doing these TikTok challenges or it's
what's that that card game that they all play, Grand
Theft Audio Auto, and I'm like, what are y'all doing?
I tell my kids all the time that they're I
(37:22):
have a four and a six year old. I'm like,
y'all aren't getting phones, y'all aren't on social media. I
don't let my kids play with my phone. They don't
have tablets. I'm like, y'all are getting a watch that
has you can call four people or a flip phone
because it's I'm telling you, it's changing their brain chemistry.
Speaker 3 (37:40):
Agreed. Agreed, judge, let's talk about social media. You just
said that how you're strict you are when it comes
to your own kids as a parent. In fact, I
can't think of the name of the documentary, but they
had a really good documentary that once you get on
your phone, there are algorithms to where you don't put
that phone down, and we're seeing it more and more.
(38:01):
You look up a vacation, you look up a flight
to I don't know.
Speaker 2 (38:05):
And they know what you're looking for. It just keeps
populating on your screen.
Speaker 3 (38:08):
But the next thing you know, you're gonna get ads
for flights to the same place you looked at or travel.
All of a sudden, everything changes. You go shopping for
I don't know, a bridal dress, everything changes to that.
So it's scary.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
How much your phone's Your phone knows a lot, yes, and.
Speaker 3 (38:26):
It like sucks you in. How big of a role
are you seeing social media playing when it comes to
juvenile crime, well, so there's.
Speaker 4 (38:33):
A lot of stuff we're talking about sexteing that can
happen over the phone. I just think that kids need
to be very careful about what they're putting in any
kind of platform and social media. These children that we
see a lot of times, or even we were talking
about bullying and maybe somebody that just keeps aggravating you
(38:56):
on the phone, which at that's like cyberstalking. It could
be a lot of stuff like that, but they need
to be watching what they're sending through social media. If
it's threats or if it's nude pictures, it doesn't go away.
People think that Snapchat just goes away, but you could
subpoena all those records so and it comes back up,
and you know, it's very scary. Is I was in
(39:18):
a conference last week with an FBI agent and what
they can do with AI and what they can make
with AI and how they can manipulate your phone to
thinking somebody else is sending something to you. It's just
insane to me. So you have to be very careful
about what you're sending, who you're sending stuff to.
Speaker 2 (39:39):
It all will come back.
Speaker 3 (39:41):
So but a lot of that responsibility, of feel falls
on a parent, A twelve year old who just got
a phone number one. I never had one till I
hit late high school, and that was so I could
call mom and dad, let know and finish.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
All this technology. No, it was a regular phone. We
could barely text on it.
Speaker 3 (39:58):
Yes, and now you can control or watch where you're
going location, and I get that, But a lot of
the responsibility, I feel like also falls on a parent.
Speaker 4 (40:08):
And I agree with that, but I will tell you this.
Parents are trying to figure out what their children are
doing on social media, and then the children are trying
to block their parents from what they're actually doing on
social media. So I guess unless you take all those
apps away, which you probably should anyway, our kids don't
need to be on TikTok snapchat and I would oh,
(40:30):
And then you know what else was crazy that I
learned last week was the emojis and what these emojis
mean to different people, and stuff that you may send
out in an emoji has a whole different meaning in
the generation right now. So they will have whole conversations
and emojis and you have no idea what they're talking
(40:50):
about I would be so lost me I was lost.
So even if you're a parent checking on a phone,
how are you supposed to know what all emojis mean?
Speaker 3 (41:01):
Well, not only that, but if you erase a text message,
how does a parent go about finding that text?
Speaker 2 (41:06):
There's ways to get them back.
Speaker 4 (41:07):
I know that for law enforcements it's gonna be a
lot easier. But there's and I don't know if there's
a permanent delete, but there is a text message that
I accidentally deleted the other day that I needed to
go back, and you can just edit it and look
through your recently deleted text messages. But I'm sure children
also know how to get those off their phone too.
Speaker 3 (41:27):
But what about catfishing? We hear more and more children
falling prey to that, yes, victims and the people doing it,
but then AI.
Speaker 4 (41:39):
And then meeting up with these people and getting sex traffic.
That's realz too, especially in this I twelve Ian corridor
and suicides.
Speaker 3 (41:48):
Let's talk about all of that. You, as judge, are
you seeing any of that?
Speaker 4 (41:54):
I haven't seen it so much in our jurisdiction, but yes,
I have heard about it in other jurisdictions and in
other states. And it's very scary because you send out
something and even if it was to a these kids
go through girlfriends and boyfriends in a two week period.
You could be with somebody earlier that day, even hours,
and you'll send them something inappropriate, and later that day
(42:18):
you're broken up, and do you think that they're really
not going to send that to people? So and then
that's where that whole cat fishing comes in.
Speaker 3 (42:26):
Or and for people who know what is catfishing.
Speaker 4 (42:32):
I guess that's when you pretend to be somebody that
you aren't with and you could do a whole different
face and everything, and you can even be catfished by
an adult, like adults can be praying on children, and
we have seen that in our jurisdiction. We have so
but none of that comes before me. But it's very
scary and it the sheriff is doing a great job
(42:54):
cracking down on that, but it is very scary. The
amount of stuff and the people that these children trust
on social media and will go meet up with anybody.
It's just insane to me. So I guess I supervision
back to supervision talk.
Speaker 3 (43:12):
To the parents who were listening that what can they
do in these situations. You talked about falling victim to
sex trafficking, especially the E ten I twelve quarter. Unfortunately
that is very, very big here, drugs and suicide.
Speaker 2 (43:26):
You have to have your eyes on your children at
all times. And I mean I felt like I was.
You talked about it too. I was afraid of my mom.
My mom was not my good friend. Like my mom.
I had a curfew.
Speaker 4 (43:41):
Really, I wasn't allowed to go anywhere most of the time.
Speaker 3 (43:44):
Same.
Speaker 2 (43:45):
So people just.
Speaker 4 (43:47):
Need to be vigilant. They don't need to be living
through their children. They need to be parenting their children.
Speaker 3 (43:52):
And that's that's extremely important. We want to be liked, yeah,
you want to be liked by your parents, but there's
a fine line where but you want.
Speaker 2 (43:59):
To raise your children. Yes, safely.
Speaker 3 (44:02):
Yes, Especially in the day and age we're living in,
it's not as simple as it was when we were kids.
Speaker 2 (44:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (44:07):
No, there's way too much, I guess social media and
just everything that's going on with all of these children.
So there's more drugs, social media, all the stuff.
Speaker 3 (44:21):
AI.
Speaker 2 (44:22):
It's just insane, sad.
Speaker 4 (44:25):
It's sad that our children have to deal with all
of that, even though some of it, I guess is
for the better good. But and it may make our
lives easier, but it does not make our children's lives easier.
I don't think I feel like it makes them grow
up faster.
Speaker 3 (44:39):
It does. I agree with that. Let's talk. I know
you brought your own notes as well. Let's talk some
other statistics. You were telling me that you've got statistics
when it's close to Office.
Speaker 4 (44:50):
Of Juvenile Justice, so they will take care of our probation.
There are probation officers, but they also have non secure homes,
which is or of like a group home setting, and
then they're going to have secure homes. So during the
first quarter of twenty twenty five, there were four hundred
and eighty youths served in a secure custody. That's around
(45:10):
the state legal status three hundred and ninety five nine
secure custody and thirty nine fens custody statewide. So our
fends that's really going to be a status offense. And
usually we don't place children for that, but I guess
if they need like a psychiatric resident treatment facilities, sometimes
we can place them through our fens adjudications into those beds.
Speaker 2 (45:35):
But yeah, I mean that's.
Speaker 4 (45:36):
A lot and I will say there's a wait list
to get into some of these secure beds. So if
I do sentence a kid to secure, I don't want
them waiting at the detention center. I want them getting
their services and doing what they need to do. So
I will usually order that they be moved within fourteen
(45:57):
days to where they need to be. Okay, And that
doesn't always happen because, like I said, there's a waiting list.
Speaker 3 (46:06):
Yeah, but it does sound like for the Florida Pearrish's
Juvenile Center, if you are in the long term process.
Speaker 4 (46:13):
That that program's amazing. So if they have beds there,
that's where I want my children at.
Speaker 3 (46:17):
But it almost sounds like you're in a better place
there if you don't have the proper guidance and parental guidance.
Speaker 2 (46:23):
No one d percent you are.
Speaker 4 (46:25):
And some of the kids that know that they're going
to be in a secure facility, like when I was
their attorney, they would say, can you see if I'm
appropriate for Florida pearrishes know or they'll ask their attorneys now.
But I will also say this, you have to have
in at least a year. You have to be backing
up a year, and then you have to be sixteen,
because most of these kids come out with their high
(46:47):
school diploma. So you don't want kids that are fourteen
and fifteen that may be backing up a year or
two coming through this program. And then what are they
doing when they already have their high school diploma and
some can't already get into the technical school.
Speaker 2 (46:59):
There's still too young to do that. So it's just
a fine line.
Speaker 4 (47:02):
We got to make sure that that's the right plane
for them.
Speaker 3 (47:06):
So let me ask this, and I want to be transparent.
This was eastpount Rouge, but recently we had law enforcement
come on from eastpount Rouge and what they told us
that when they're out on the streets and the young kids,
it's almost like a badge of honor that yeah, I
did this on the streets, I killed so and so and.
Speaker 4 (47:25):
And I can't speak for over there, but I can
say that sometimes these kids do wear it as a
badge of honor because some of them like having the
ankle monitor, and that's a badge of honor having an
ankle monitor.
Speaker 2 (47:37):
And it's not for all the kids, but some of
them do.
Speaker 3 (47:41):
So, Oh my god, I can only I keep saying
we're trying to get father.
Speaker 4 (47:47):
We're trying to get away from that because now they
have come out with watches that almost look like eye watches.
Instead of having ankle monitors, they're risk monitors because if
they place words. Of course, if we have a kid
on probation that may be a little bit of a
runner and needs more structure. They like having the ankle
(48:08):
monitor because it gives them something to hold over their head.
People know where they're at. But you also don't want
them playing football with a big ankle monitor on. But
you do want these kids involved in something to keep
them on course. So we will try to get them
risk monitors now, but some of them don't want that.
Speaker 3 (48:29):
Why did you run for juvenile judge.
Speaker 4 (48:31):
Because I felt like I was the most qualified and
best person in the race to make a difference in
our community. So when I graduated pretty high in my
class and I worked for some big law firms and
that did not it wasn't the fit for me. And
so when I clerked for Judge Edwards twelve years ago,
(48:53):
I fell in love with being in juvenile court, helping
the families and communities of juvenile court, and I never left.
Speaker 2 (48:58):
So that's that's why I want to help.
Speaker 3 (49:01):
And that's what I was gonna ask.
Speaker 2 (49:02):
These kids are our future and somebody needs to help them.
Speaker 3 (49:05):
So well, you answered my next question that are you
seeing that? Are you being able to do that?
Speaker 4 (49:10):
And little by little but an onion, just like you said,
it's gonna we're gonna have to pull it back one
later at a time, and there's not one answer for
juvenile crime.
Speaker 3 (49:20):
Well, judge for is there anything else you'd like to
add that I have not discussed, We discussed at all,
we did. I appreciate you so very much for coming
for I appreciate it absolutely. To our listeners, we thank
you for listening and as always, we will see you
on the next episode of Luisiana Unfiltered.
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