If You Get Locked Up as Juvinelle What Is the Probaility That You Will Get Locked Up Again

Juvenile Courtroom in Connecticut
Often Asked Questions

A Guide for Children and Families in the Juvenile Justice Organization
January, 2011

This was prepared to assistance children and families who are involved in the juvenile justice system in Connecticut. It is non intended to substitute for the advice of a lawyer and should not be relied on as legal advice. Children who are accused of a criminal offense and their families should seek legal counsel equally soon as possible and they should not make any decisions without talking to an attorney. The Connecticut Sectionalization of Public Defender Services, Function of the Director for Juvenile Delinquency Defense is responsible for the contents of this guide.

Who goes to juvenile court? How old do I have to exist to go arrested?
In Connecticut, Juvenile Courts handle cases for children under the age of seventeen who have been charged with a law-breaking. In that location is no minimum age to exist sent to juvenile courtroom if you are charged with a crime. Children equally young as half-dozen years quondam have been sent to juvenile courtroom and defendant of existence a delinquent. Delinquent is what the courts call a child who has been defendant or convicted of a crime in juvenile courtroom.

Every bit of January 1, 2010, the Enhance the Historic period police force changed who goes to juvenile court to include anyone under the age of 17. In July, 2012, juvenile court in Connecticut will include 17 year olds who are charged with a crime. If you are 16 (or 17 afterwards July 1, 2012) and charged with a motor vehicle offense, your case will be heard in adult courtroom. Most of the fourth dimension this is ok, because the punishment is usually simply a fine and a conviction does not create a permanent criminal record. If there is a chance that a motor vehicle example could consequence in jail fourth dimension, you or your lawyer can ask the guess to move the motor vehicle case to juvenile court. This will let children who make mistakes to get treatment and services in juvenile court, instead of penalisation and a permanent criminal tape in developed court.

What is a status offense? Can I go to jail for that?
Sometimes, children are sent to juvenile court for behavior that is non criminal. Condition offenses or Family with Service Needs cases involve behavior similar truancy ("skipping school,") running away and being across the control of your parents. Your school, your parents, DCF or the Police can file a Family with Service Needs (FWSN) petition to the court and ask that the court work to make y'all change your beliefs. If a Family with Service Needs (FWSN) petition is filed, you and your family will exist asked to come up to the juvenile courtroom and encounter with a probation officer. The officer could refer you for counseling or other services in your community. He or she could besides ship you to a Family Support Center where you could become help with your problems all in 1 place. If you do not cooperate with the services, you could be brought to the juvenile court to encounter a judge. The judge could place y'all under courtroom orders to cooperate. If you lot do not follow the orders, you could eventually exist committed to the Section of Children and Families and sent to a residential treatment program. Most children do well in the community-based services and very few cases ever get to court.

What should I do if the constabulary stop me or think I have committed a crime?
Don't run!
Running from the police is a law-breaking called Interfering with the Police. If you run you will go charged with this law-breaking even if you did nothing else wrong.

Be respectful!
Calling the law names or acting rude or confusing will just get yous charged with more than crimes. You need to give the police force your correct proper name and age or they tin can too charge you lot with Interfering with the Law.

Be Silent!
Other than your name, address and age, you do non accept to answer whatsoever other questions. You have the right to take your parent or guardian and your attorney with you if y'all are beingness questioned by the police. If the police take likely crusade to arrest you lot they will, no matter what you say. Nigh of the fourth dimension talking volition non assistance you lot. Stay silent and permit your lawyer decide when you should talk.

I've been arrested now what?
When the police determine there is crusade to file charges against a juvenile, they take several choices. The flow chart at the end of this Guidebook outlines their options.

The Constabulary Officer could determine not to ship your case to court. Depending on the circumstances, yous could be referred to a youth services bureau or a juvenile review board if your boondocks has ane. Yous and your parent or guardian will have to show up to a meeting and exist willing to acknowledge that you lot did something wrong. The board would recommend that you get a consequence or some kind of treatment. If you cooperate, your charges never go to courtroom. If you lot do non cooperate, your example will exist sent to court.

Connecticut law allows the police to photograph and fingerprint children accused of crimes, just that volition not always happen. Most of the fourth dimension the police will issue a summons, which looks like a ticket with a court engagement on information technology. This still counts as existence arrested, even if you were not fingerprinted, taken into custody or advised of your rights. The police need to advise y'all of your rights before they ask you questions, [only] non if they are just releasing you without taking a statement.

Release
The police tin release you to your parent or guardian or can permit you lot keep your ain if they think y'all will stay out of trouble and show upwards for court. You need to appear in court for the date on the ticket. If you do not show upwards in court on that engagement you tin can be charged with another crime called Failure to Appear.

What is non judicial handling?
Earlier your court date, the police will send your case to juvenile court where a probation officer will review it. If you have been charged with a pocket-size offense that did not involve injury or belongings damage and you have not been sent to court before, the probation officeholder tin can recommend that your example exist handled not judicially. This means that you will not have a formal hearing in front of a judge. You volition accept a meeting with a probation officer to run into if your case can be handled informally. The probation officer volition talk to you and your family unit and will want you lot to sign a form albeit that you did something incorrect. You may get a result like customs service or counseling. Albeit a accuse non judicially does not count as a conviction but there will be a record that yous were in court, so they volition know virtually it if you make it trouble again.

Where volition my example be heard?
Juvenile delinquency cases are typically sent to the juvenile court assigned to the town where the arrested kid lives, not where the declared offense happened. If the boondocks where y'all live does not get to the Hartford, New Haven or Bridgeport juvenile courts and you are existence held in detention, y'all may take your commencement hearing in front of a approximate in the boondocks where you are being held. If yous are not released, you will be taken to your regular court on the next court date.

Detention

If you are charged with a serious juvenile crime (SJO), the law can bring you to one of the 3 Juvenile Detention Centers. They are located in Hartford, New Haven or Bridgeport. If you are charged with a less serious offense but the police nevertheless feel there is a reason to keep you lot detained, they can find a judge and inquire for an Order to Detain. If they can convince the judge that your state of affairs falls under certain categories, you can be held in detention.

I have been put in the detention center. What happens next?
You lot will exist searched, take a shower and be given a uniform to wear. The uniform is mandatory! Detention staff volition ask you questions about how you are feeling and about whatsoever drug and booze utilize. They want to effigy out if you could hurt yourself or someone else. Be true only do not exaggerate anything, since the detention eye will give a study to the guess that could recommend counseling or mental wellness evaluations.

The detention staff may ask if you are involved in a gang or have done things that could exist crimes. You should not answer any questions about criminal action and you should never talk about the incident or behavior that brought you to the detention center. Do not sign anything until yous have a run a risk to talk to your lawyer. If y'all want to know more about your rights while yous are in juvenile detention, the Centre For Children's Advocacy has a booklet called What Are My Rights? Know your Legal Rights in Detention. You tin wait at that on their website at http://www.kidscounsel.org

How tin can I get released from detention?
Once you get admitted to a detention center, you cannot be released until your case is heard in forepart of a judge. That normally happens the next day. If yous get arrested over the weekend, you volition go to court and see a judge on the next court day -- unremarkably Monday. You cannot exist bonded out on a juvenile accuse until later you lot see a guess. Bond is rare in juvenile courtroom since well-nigh of the fourth dimension children can exist released under some type of courtroom order.

What if I am charged with something really serious? Tin can I exist sent to adult court?
If a child is xiv years or older and are charged with an offense that is a felony, you could exist transferred to the adult court.
Transfer tin can happen two means.

A. Automatic

If a child is fourteen or older and charged with an A or B felony, the case will exist automatically transferred to the developed court. A and B felonies include Murder, many Sexual Assaults and offenses like Robbery and Assail in the Get-go Degree. Before a case is transferred, the kid will encounter a juvenile courtroom judge and be advised of their Ramble rights. At that place will not be whatsoever arguments allowed on whether the case should be transferred. That might happen in adult courtroom. If the adult court accepts the transfer, the kid will be held in an adult correctional facility. The Connecticut Department of Corrections houses virtually inmates under the age of twenty at the Manson Youth Institution in Cheshire.

B. Discretionary

For all other felonies, C.G.S. §46b-127(b) gives the juvenile prosecutor discretion to transfer cases after an ex parte finding of likely cause to maintain the charges. This means the juvenile prosecutor can decide if he or she wants to try to transfer a example to the adult courtroom one time a judge has constitute that there was a reason to abort you. Once the case gets to adult court, a kid will take a hearing to determine where the case should be heard. At the hearing a lawyer will argue why the instance should stay in juvenile court. The defendant child will be held in a juvenile detention facility until a judge decides where the case will exist heard. If the gauge decides that the case should be handled by the developed criminal courtroom, the kid will be moved to the Manson Youth Institution.

The constabulary told me the case was no big deal. Exercise I demand a lawyer?
You should ever take a lawyer with y'all if you are going to court, even if the police told you lot the case was no big deal. If you are hiring a lawyer, you lot should bring them to court with you. If y'all cannot beget to hire a lawyer y'all can utilise for a Public Defender when you get to court. If you authorize, the judge will give y'all a lawyer at no cost to your family. The lawyer is there to argue for you and what you want to see happen with your case. Y'all tin talk to the lawyer with your parents or guardian present or alone. Information technology is up to you lot. The lawyer will keep anything you say individual unless you give them permission to tell.

Rules for your Courtroom Appointment!

Y'all take to be there. If you miss a courtroom date, you lot could go arrested for failing to appear. That is a new offense! If yous have to miss because of an emergency, call your lawyer If y'all forget court and realize it later, hurry! Call your lawyer and your lawyer will advise you what to practice.

Exist on time. You accept to be at that place at 9 a.m. Check in with your lawyer or go to the public defender's role to apply for a lawyer. Make sure yous check in with probation or the Judicial Marshall who is in accuse of calling cases. This makes sure that people know you are there. Be patient, and don't ever exit the courthouse without telling your lawyer.

Clothing overnice clothes. Exit your hats, big jewelry, and chewing gum at home. Have your hair neat and wearing apparel clean.

My case is staying in juvenile court. What volition happen when I go there?
The legal term for your first court appearance is arraignment. It is where y'all are formally charged with a law-breaking and read your rights. If you have applied for the Public Defender and you qualify, they will be appointed at your arraignment. Your lawyer will enter a not guilty plea for y'all. This is called a pro forma denial. This is a formality and lets the case move on for a word of what might happen next in your example. The arraignment is where your lawyer tin argue to take you released from detention if yous are locked upward, or where the prosecutor might ask for the judge to give you lot some rules to follow.

Sometimes the prosecutor will ask the Estimate to place you in detention, fifty-fifty if the police force did not bring you to detention when they arrested you. The gauge volition mind to arguments from the prosecutor and your lawyer. The approximate can refuse to do anything, order that you go home but follow rules set by the court or the judge could put yous in detention. If you become to detention, your example volition exist heard again within 15 days. At that time, the judge will make up one's mind if he or she should let yous go domicile or send you back to detention until your next court date. The judge can detain you if he or she thinks that you lot might commit some other criminal offense, non show up for your next court date or if your behavior makes the guess recall you or others could be in danger if yous practise non go to detention.

Later you are arraigned, the case volition be scheduled for a pretrial conference. This is where your lawyer talks to the prosecutor nigh your case. Your lawyer should talk to yous and to your family before talking to the prosecutor. If you take witnesses or data that volition assist your lawyer fence the example you need to share it with him or her before the pretrial, so they tin can investigate and prepare to talk to the prosecutor. The prosecutor might make an offer to dispose of your case.

If the prosecutor agrees to drop the charges your case can be either nolled or dismissed. A nolle means that the country is not prosecuting but could reopen the instance within 13 months if something changes, similar y'all get in trouble again. After thirteen months, the case is dismissed and can't be reopened. If a case is dismissed, information technology is over and no one is supposed to become access to whatever record that yous were e'er in court.

If you agree to plead guilty to a accuse, you lot and your family will encounter with a probation officer who conducts a predispositional study. During this predispositional study, the probation officer volition enquire about your family history, schoolhouse performance, community programs and criminal history. You, your family and your lawyer should make sure that the probation officer has whatsoever information that might exist helpful. The probation officer might ask you to accept a mental health assessment or a courtroom ordered psychological evaluation to encounter if counseling would help you stay out of trouble. You should talk to your lawyer before agreeing to do any type of evaluations. A constabulary change in 2008 makes your juvenile court records bachelor to the Departments of Adult Probation and Parole. You need to make certain that the information in your predisposition study is correct and as helpful to y'all every bit possible, then it does non get used against you later if you get in trouble as an adult.

I practice non want to plead guilty to whatsoever charges. What are my options?
You have the right to have a trial in juvenile court. Your trial volition be held in front of a approximate only. Juvenile Courts in Connecticut practice not have jury trials. At the trial, the prosecutor will have to bring in witnesses and evidence to endeavour and show that you bankrupt the law and are guilty of the charges beyond a reasonable uncertainty. Your lawyer volition be able to ask the witnesses questions to try and testify that the prosecutor's witnesses are wrong. Your lawyer tin can also object to any of the prosecutor'south evidence. You and your lawyer can also bring in witnesses and evidence that volition help y'all tell the judge your side and testify that you are not guilty or that the state does not have enough evidence to observe you guilty. You can talk or testify at your trial like any other witness but just if you want to! Y'all cannot be forced to talk at your trial, since y'all still have the right to remain silent. You lot volition need to talk to your lawyer before deciding what to do. If the judge finds that yous are not guilty, the case is over and you lot cannot exist prosecuted on those charges again.

What happens if I am establish guilty? Does information technology matter if I plead guilty or am establish guilty after a trial?
If yous are found guilty, the estimate will decide what your judgement should be. It should non matter if you plead guilty or had a trial only sometimes a judges' judgement is more than harsh if you are found guilty later on a trial. The victim of your crime volition have a chance to tell the approximate what they want to run across happen with your case. They can tell the probation officeholder, send a alphabetic character or come to courtroom and talk. The judge will heed to the victim, the prosecutor, the probation officer and your lawyer and then make up one's mind what the right sentence is.

The guess has a lot of options when deciding your judgement.
The court can warn y'all not to get in problem once again and let you lot go. They could ask you to perform a certain number of hours of customs service. They could place you on probation. This is very common. Terms of probation generally range from 3 months to two years. If the courtroom puts you on probation, you tin can be ordered to pay restitution consummate community service, participate in counseling, attend school every day on time and obey house rules. You tin likewise be ordered to cooperate with a mental health examination. The court tin can also social club you to be involved in fun afterschool activities so that you stay decorated and do not get into any more problem. Many judges club graduated sanctions. This allows a probation officer to alter the conditions of probation if you start to have issues and violate your probation without having to go dorsum in front end of a estimate.

My lawyer says that the approximate wants to commit me as a delinquent. What does that mean?
If the guess decides that it is not safety for you lot to alive at dwelling because probation services take not worked and y'all keep on getting in trouble, you could be committed equally a delinquent. This means that the Section of Children and Families (DCF) will take custody of y'all and you will live and go to school away from home. If you are committed as a runaway kid, a estimate can commit you for up to iv years if the charge is a serious juvenile criminal offense, SJO, or 18 months for non-SJO offenses. Some kids who are committed delinquent are sent to residential school or treatment facilities. Residential Programs are not locked and you tin can earn visits home if you reach certain goals. Sometimes the residential program recommended for y'all volition be in some other state. Boys can be sent the Connecticut Juvenile Training Schoolhouse (CJTS) which is a secure, locked facility in Middletown. In that location are no home passes from CJTS. Girls cannot be sent to CJTS.

C.G.S.§46b-141(b) gives DCF the right to ask the court to extend the commitment of a runaway child beyond the initial sentence if they can testify it is in the best involvement of the child or the community and the child needs more treatment. This means that they can enquire to go along you longer than your sentence, even if you have not been charged with any new crimes. The guess who sentences y'all should talk to yous nigh this at the time y'all plead guilty.

Children who are serving a malversation commitment might need a lawyer to help them with issues that come upwards during their sentence. In Connecticut, the lawyer who represented you at your sentencing in required to keep helping you until your sentence is over. If you had a Public Defender, your case will be sent to the Postal service Conviction and Reentry Unit. Lawyers there specialize in helping kids who accept been committed runaway.

What is an appeal?
If you are found guilty at your trial and you think the judge fabricated a fault, you and your lawyer tin ask another prepare of judges to review your case. This is called an entreatment. In Connecticut, we accept 2 appeals courts, the Appellate Courtroom and the Supreme Courtroom. Your lawyer tin debate that the estimate made a legal fault or that there was non enough prove to prove you were guilty beyond a reasonable doubtfulness. Appeals take a long time and sometimes your sentence volition be over by the fourth dimension your example is heard!

If I have any more questions who can I telephone call?
You can telephone call your local juvenile public defender's office.

Click on the beneath Link to get to our Juvenile Function Directory

Division of Public Defender Services Juvenile Offices Link

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Source: https://portal.ct.gov/OCPD/Juvenile/Juvenile/Juvenile-Frequently-Asked-Questions

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