NCJ Number
168770
Journal
The Advocate Volume: 18 Issue: 1 Dated: (January 1996) Pages: 69-71
Date Published
1996
Length
3 pages
Annotation
Kentucky's Juvenile Code contains inequities related to defending and obtaining treatment for juvenile drug offenders, particularly with respect to children's right to bail, lengthy pretrial detention, and available types of treatment.
Abstract
The Juvenile Code limits the purposes for holding a child in custody but states a child has the right to treatment reasonably calculated to improve his or her condition. What is not readily apparent in the Juvenile Code, however, is the fact that once a detention hearing is held and the court orders further detention of the child, that child may endure pretrial detention for several months prior to trial in a secure facility, without the right to bail and without the benefit of treatment. Lengthy pretrial detention of a juvenile with no treatment or support system wears the child down. This gives the prosecution leverage to effectively coerce the child to turn state's evidence against codefendants, especially adult codefendants, even where no state's evidence previously existed or would not have existed without testimony of the child. The fact that juveniles may be transported to various detention centers throughout Kentucky and often without notice to defense counsel further compounds the problem. Even if the accused juvenile does not experience lengthy pretrial detention, he or she may be committed or committed with order for placement to the Cabinet for Human Resources (CHR) as a disposition on a charge other than the drug-related charge. Prosecutors often refer to commitment to CHR as the "kiss of death" because commitment indicates "last chance" in the juvenile court system. On the other hand, CHR may be the only means by which substantial drug treatment for the juvenile is obtained. The case of juveniles who are detained prior to 18 years of age but who turn 18 prior to trial is discussed.