Power County working to lower number of juveniles in court
Power County is trying to lower the number of juveniles that come through its court system.
The county’s magistrate judge, Paul Laggis, is leading an effort to better develop the local youth diversion program. The program involves working with law enforcement, the court system, county commissioners, probation, the school district and more. The goal of a youth diversion program is prevention to help kids before they face a judge.
Laggis said he sees his fair share of juvenile cases in the county. He attended a recent training which he said shed light on some things that local community leaders can do to lower the number of juvenile cases.
“One of the ideas that has been tossed around is the use of a diversion court to deal with first-time offenders and status offenders,” Laggis said. “Status offenders are kids who have truancies, runaways or curfew violations.”
Laggis said these offenders are usually very low-risk. With the diversion court, there would be a screening process to see which kids need services and what kind of services would be most helpful to them. Services like counseling, etc. The focus would be on getting low-risk juveniles the help they need with less court intervention.
Laggis said the rule of juvenile court is “do no harm.” So giving too many services can do more harm than good. By being able to best determine what kids need, and keep a lot of court interference out of it, the better for the juvenile.
“It’d be really nice because we’ll be able to discuss kids early on, kids that we may be seeing having some problems and see what help we can give them,” said Randy Jensen, new superintendent for the American Falls School District.
By helping kids earlier in the process, it will hopefully lower the number of juveniles cases, but also the number of juveniles who become repeat offenders down the road.
“Catch them early, deal with them at a very basic intermediate level, resolve the problem with the child and also in the home possibly, and often times, you won’t see them again,” Laggis said. “Often times it’s the ones that don’t receive any attention that often times develop into the more serious cases that I see later on.”
Laggis said the key to the whole thing is enhancing communication between all organizations involved.
“I think that’s really what we bring to the table, is we have the most knowledge of those students because we’ve worked with them for five, six, seven years and so really the knowledge we have – if we can communicate that well with the other entities and then work together to provide assistance, I think we’ll have a lot of success,” Jensen said.
Another specific being looked at is bringing back a school resource officer. Laggis said due to lack of funding, the district hasn’t had one for several years. Both Laggis and the school feel having a resource officer could help make a difference too.
Laggis said it’s still in the very early stages. They are just starting to get everyone organized. But he said all organizations involved are supportive and onboard.
“I’m definitely excited about it,” Laggis said. “Just the level of participation and interest that was around the table was a good indicator of what we’re going to get out of it. At the end of the day, you want to do something that’s good for the kids.”
Laggis said a few possible cases for a diversion court have already been mentioned. So he expects the program could hit the ground running very soon.