NCJ Number
118479
Date Published
1983
Length
16 pages
Annotation
The New York Family Court Act permits the detention of any juvenile accused of delinquency when the judge concludes without reference to any established specific criteria that there is a serious risk that the juvenile may commit a crime if released prior to trial.
Abstract
Preventive detention is allowed under this Act without a prompt prior determination of probable cause to believe that the child committed an offense, and without regard to the nature of the charge or the likelihood of incarceration following conviction, and without other substantive and procedural safeguards to restrict such detention to circumstances in which it is necessary to promote legitimate governmental interests. The absence of such safeguards and limitations has resulted in detention which the lower federal courts found to be arbitrary and capricious. The American Bar Association (ABA) argued that the pretrial detention of a juvenile constitutes a serious deprivation of liberty protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. Regarding this case, the Court must balance the private interests affected, the risk of erroneous deprivation of these interests through the procedures used, the probable value of alternative or additional procedures, and the governmental interest, as deemed in Mathews v. Eldridge, 424 U.S. 319, 335 (1976). The ABA filed this amicus curiae brief in support of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals holding the New York procedure unconstitutional.