COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Franklin County Juvenile Court is adjusting its point system to hold youth accused of crimes in the Juvenile Intervention Center.
In the last couple of years, CrimeTracker 10 has reported multiple times about juveniles stealing vehicles, mostly Hyundais and Kias. Those makes are notorious for how easy they are to steal because some models lack an immobilizer.
According to Franklin County juvenile court records, there were 956 youth with stolen vehicle cases between January and April of this year. About 35% of juveniles had multiple cases.
“I can tell you when I look at a case, whether it is now as a judge or when I was a magistrate who would hear these types of cases, I would look at what has happened, their history. Not just their recent history, but their entire history,” said Franklin County Juvenile Court Administrative Judge Lasheyl Stroud.
Stroud says juveniles need to be treated as such and should be placed in a program instead of being held, when possible.
“Our role as a court is to not treat juveniles as adults. It's not the purpose of our system. It is a completely different mission,” Stroud said.
According to the Franklin County Juvenile Courts, about 63% of those juveniles brought in for car theft related cases from January to April this year were held at the juvenile intervention detention center.
“We all know the detrimental affects of holding youth in the juvenile intervention center when they should not be there. Just one night in the juvenile intervention center will decrease their chances of graduating high school by 50%,” Stroud said.
But what about public safety?
“All of those questions should go towards risk and if there's a threat to the public safety,” Stroud said.
There was a 93% increase in stolen case filings in Franklin County Juvenile court from 2019 to 2022.
The good news is that number has decreased 22% so far in 2023.
“Since the issues with the Hyundais and Kias came up, we felt like we were making a point to be flexible and being responsive to the issue because there was the need,” Stroud argued.
Whether or not to hold a youth is based on a point-system.
During the pandemic, that point system was changed so fewer youth were held.
In recent weeks, the juvenile court has reverted back to pre-pandemic screening.
The scoring sheet asks questions about what serious offenses the juvenile is facing and the level of violence, other cases, if weapons were used or if the child is currently on an electronic monitoring device.
Stroud also says the court is placing more juveniles accused of stealing cars on GPS ankle monitors, something they wouldn't have considered just a few years ago.
She says the court is working on other ways to address the growing problem.
“Those are some of the things we did initially to say, yes there is a problem, yes we want to be responsive to it,” Stroud explained.