Juvenile crimes have fallen in La Salle County

For the past nine years, Oglesby police have held a “Shop with a Cop” program at the holidays. Poor and disadvantaged youths get to enjoy lunch with police and then buy Christmas presents for their families with a man in blue at their side.

Has a Shop with a Cop kid ever gotten in serious trouble? Oglesby police chief Jim Knoblauch had to think a while before concluding the maybe Christmas program had been more successful than he realized. More than 100 children have participated in Shop with a Cop and Knoblauch could not recall one of those children cracking the police blotter for anything serious.

“I don’t see those kids coming through the system very often,” Knoblauch reflected. “I think all the programs we put out do help. They do deter kids from doing illegal things.”

Intervention and outreach programs like “Shop with a Cop” are being credited in part for a welcome trend at the courthouse: Juvenile detention cases have fallen off a cliff.

In the 2000s, La Salle County filed nearly 260 juvenile detention cases a year. In the past decade, however, the juvenile caseload has tumbled by nearly a quarter, sliding to an average 200 juvenile cases a year during the 2010s.

It’s not a statistical fluke, either. Last year there were just 128 juvenile offenders brought into court, which was half the yearly total in 2010. Similarly, the La Salle County Detention Home has locked up 20% fewer kids than five years ago.

“It’s definitely going down,” agreed Jacob Holland, director of the La Salle County Detention Home. Holland said that the average daily census of 11-12 juveniles has held steady, but admissions are down and kids are being housed for shorter stays.

Intervention and outreach programs such as Shop with a Cop don’t tell the whole story and the news isn’t all good. Prosecutors confirmed a downward trend in juvenile offenses happening not only locally but across the state and, yes, they regard this generally as good news — but there are contributing factors that aren’t necessarily cause for celebration.

Here’s why juvenile offenses are down.

Crime was falling, anyway

Crime has been trending down generally in La Salle County — last year marked historic or record lows in several categories, such as DUIs — and La Salle County state’s attorney Karen Donnelly is especially pleased that juvenile offenses have joined the downward trend.

“You have to look at any decline in a positive manner,” Donnelly allowed, “but you also have to be aware of the reasons behind the decline.

“And if it’s because you can’t charge certain offenses then the numbers could be skewed somewhat.”

Decriminalization of cannabis

Among the areas where juvenile statistics may be skewed are drug crimes.

Marijuana was decriminalized in 2016 and La Salle County’s adult misdemeanor caseload abruptly (and predictably) fell by a sharp precentage. That trend spilled into juvenile court, too; simple possession doesn’t carry the same consequences for young offenders as it did a decade ago and the caseload has fallen accordingly.

Parents shouldn’t think falling crime statistics means less drug abuse. Kids are increasingly smoking marijuana and eschewing alcohol, which is considered passé, and prosecutors know this because pot shows up in drug screenings when kids are taken into custody.

“The majority of kids are testing positive for cannabis,” said Ryan Cantlin, assistant La Salle County state’s attorney. “You do have some kids that will test positive for pills, heroin or cocaine, but the majority are smoking cannabis and that’s probably because it’s so accessible.”

Harder to lock kids up

The Illinois Department Juvenile Justice houses kids who’ve violated the law. Over the past few years the IDJJ has halted “commitments” — that is, placed into state lockup — for misdemeanors and low-level felonies such as criminal damage to property.

That’s good news and bad news for prosecutors. On the one hand, it has pushed down the yearly caseload and reduced the number of kids sent to state institutions.

On the other hand, the policy change makes the crime problem look better than it really is (statistically, at least) and it has limited the ability to house a young offender who hasn’t responded to drug treatment or other rehabilitative efforts.

“For a kid like that, then a commitment to the Illinois Department Juvenile Justice is definitely the correct thing to do,” explained Vicki Denny, assistant La Salle County state’s attorney. “Sometimes those kids just need to be taken off the street to protect the public and sometimes themselves, too.”

Intervention programs do help

Drugs and policy changes may be shifting the juvenile statistics, but Donnelly does think outreach efforts such as Shop with a Cop as well intervention programs such as peer juries are helping.

“I would love to get peer jury back over here in La Salle County,” she said. “I think it’s a tool that we can use and anything we can use, I would be all for it.”

Doug Bernabei is Peru’s police chief and his department launched a pair of youth intervention programs. His data suggests both have taken root.

One is administrative adjudication. Peru implemented a program where adults and juveniles can plead out to minor offenses in a civil venue, sparing families a trip to the courthouse and hastening dispositions that will take. It’s proven effective for young offenders as well as adults.

“Secondly when the Illinois Valley Peer Jury ceased to operate about four years ago the Peru Police Department created the PPD Youth Diversion Program, akin to a per jury/teen court,” he said. And that program is working, too.

Tom Collins can be reached at (815) 220-6930 or TCollins@shawmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @NT_Court.