Juenile Son on Probation

Juvenile Court in Connecticut
Oftentimes Asked Questions

A Guide for Children and Families in the Juvenile Justice System
January, 2011

This was prepared to help children and families who are involved in the juvenile justice system in Connecticut. It is not intended to substitute for the advice of a lawyer and should not exist relied on equally legal advice. Children who are accused of a crime and their families should seek legal counsel as soon as possible and they should not brand any decisions without talking to an attorney. The Connecticut Division of Public Defender Services, Part of the Director for Juvenile Malversation Defense is responsible for the contents of this guide.

Who goes to juvenile court? How one-time exercise I have to be to get arrested?
In Connecticut, Juvenile Courts handle cases for children under the age of seventeen who have been charged with a criminal offense. There is no minimum age to be sent to juvenile courtroom if you lot are charged with a crime. Children as immature as half-dozen years one-time have been sent to juvenile court and defendant of being a delinquent. Delinquent is what the courts phone call a child who has been defendant or convicted of a law-breaking in juvenile court.

As of January 1, 2010, the Raise the Age police changed who goes to juvenile court to include anyone under the historic period of 17. In July, 2012, juvenile courtroom in Connecticut will include 17 year olds who are charged with a criminal offence. If yous are sixteen (or 17 after July 1, 2012) and charged with a motor vehicle offense, your case will exist heard in developed courtroom. Virtually of the fourth dimension this is ok, because the punishment is ordinarily merely a fine and a conviction does not create a permanent criminal record. If in that location is a chance that a motor vehicle case could result in jail time, y'all or your lawyer can enquire the estimate to movement the motor vehicle case to juvenile courtroom. This volition let children who make mistakes to get treatment and services in juvenile court, instead of punishment and a permanent criminal record in adult court.

What is a status offense? Can I get to jail for that?
Sometimes, children are sent to juvenile court for behavior that is not criminal. Status offenses or Family with Service Needs cases involve behavior like truancy ("skipping school,") running away and being beyond the command of your parents. Your school, your parents, DCF or the Constabulary can file a Family with Service Needs (FWSN) petition to the court and ask that the court work to make you modify your behavior. If a Family with Service Needs (FWSN) petition is filed, you lot and your family unit will be asked to come up to the juvenile courtroom and meet with a probation officer. The officeholder could refer you for counseling or other services in your customs. He or she could besides transport you to a Family unit Support Center where you could go assistance with your issues all in ane identify. If you exercise not cooperate with the services, you could be brought to the juvenile courtroom to see a judge. The guess could place you nether court orders to cooperate. If you exercise not follow the orders, you could eventually exist committed to the Department of Children and Families and sent to a residential handling program. Virtually children do well in the community-based services and very few cases ever get to court.

What should I exercise if the police cease me or retrieve I have committed a crime?
Don't run!
Running from the police is a crime chosen Interfering with the Constabulary. If you run you will get charged with this law-breaking even if y'all did nothing else wrong.

Be respectful!
Calling the police names or acting rude or confusing will only get you charged with more crimes. Y'all need to requite the police your right name and age or they tin can besides charge you lot with Interfering with the Police.

Be Silent!
Other than your name, address and historic period, you do not have to reply any other questions. You have the right to have your parent or guardian and your attorney with you lot if you are being questioned by the police. If the police accept likely cause to arrest you lot they volition, no matter what you say. Most of the time talking will not assistance you. Stay silent and let your lawyer decide when you should talk.

I've been arrested now what?
When the police determine there is cause to file charges against a juvenile, they have several choices. The period chart at the end of this Guidebook outlines their options.

The Police Officer could decide not to send your case to court. Depending on the circumstances, you could be referred to a youth services agency or a juvenile review board if your town has one. You lot and your parent or guardian will accept to testify up to a meeting and exist willing to acknowledge that you did something wrong. The board would recommend that you get a consequence or some kind of handling. If you lot cooperate, your charges never go to court. If you lot do non cooperate, your case will be sent to court.

Connecticut law allows the police to photograph and fingerprint children accused of crimes, but that will not always happen. Most of the time the police will issue a summons, which looks like a ticket with a court engagement on it. This still counts as being arrested, even if yous were not fingerprinted, taken into custody or advised of your rights. The police need to suggest you of your rights before they enquire you questions, [but] non if they are just releasing you lot without taking a statement.

Release
The police can release y'all to your parent or guardian or can let you go on your own if they think you will stay out of trouble and bear witness up for courtroom. Yous need to appear in court for the date on the ticket. If y'all do not show up in courtroom on that date yous tin be charged with another crime called Failure to Appear.

What is non judicial handling?
Before your court date, the law volition send your case to juvenile court where a probation officeholder will review it. If yous have been charged with a minor criminal offence that did not involve injury or property harm and you have not been sent to court earlier, the probation officeholder can recommend that your case be handled not judicially. This means that you will not take a formal hearing in front of a judge. You will have a coming together with a probation officeholder to meet if your instance can exist handled informally. The probation officer volition talk to y'all and your family and will want yous to sign a course admitting that you did something wrong. You lot may become a upshot like community service or counseling. Admitting a accuse non judicially does not count as a conviction merely in that location will be a tape that you lot were in courtroom, so they volition know about it if yous get in problem again.

Where will my example be heard?
Juvenile malversation cases are typically sent to the juvenile court assigned to the town where the arrested child lives, not where the declared crime happened. If the town where you lot live does non go to the Hartford, New Haven or Bridgeport juvenile courts and you are being held in detention, you may have your get-go hearing in front of a judge in the town where you are being held. If you are not released, you will be taken to your regular court on the next courtroom appointment.

Detention

If you are charged with a serious juvenile offense (SJO), the police can bring y'all to one of the three Juvenile Detention Centers. They are located in Hartford, New Haven or Bridgeport. If you are charged with a less serious offense but the constabulary still experience there is a reason to go along you detained, they can observe a judge and inquire for an Order to Detain. If they can convince the judge that your situation falls under certain categories, you lot can be held in detention.

I take been put in the detention center. What happens next?
You will be searched, accept a shower and be given a uniform to article of clothing. The compatible is mandatory! Detention staff volition ask you questions about how y'all are feeling and about whatsoever drug and alcohol use. They want to figure out if you could hurt yourself or someone else. Exist truthful but practice not exaggerate annihilation, since the detention center will give a report to the guess that could recommend counseling or mental health evaluations.

The detention staff may ask if you are involved in a gang or have done things that could be crimes. You should not answer any questions well-nigh criminal activity and you should never talk about the incident or behavior that brought yous to the detention center. Do not sign anything until you take a take chances to talk to your lawyer. If you want to know more about your rights while you lot are in juvenile detention, the Centre For Children's Advocacy has a booklet chosen What Are My Rights? Know your Legal Rights in Detention. Yous can expect at that on their website at http://www.kidscounsel.org

How can I get released from detention?
Once y'all go admitted to a detention center, you cannot be released until your case is heard in front of a approximate. That unremarkably happens the next day. If you go arrested over the weekend, you will become to court and see a guess on the next courtroom twenty-four hours -- normally Monday. You lot cannot be bonded out on a juvenile charge until subsequently you lot meet a judge. Bail is rare in juvenile courtroom since virtually of the time children can be released under some blazon of courtroom order.

What if I am charged with something really serious? Can I exist sent to adult court?
If a child is fourteen years or older and are charged with an offense that is a felony, you could exist transferred to the adult court.
Transfer can happen ii ways.

A. Automatic

If a child is 14 or older and charged with an A or B felony, the example will be automatically transferred to the adult courtroom. A and B felonies include Murder, many Sexual Assaults and offenses like Robbery and Set on in the First Caste. Earlier a case is transferred, the kid will come across a juvenile court judge and be advised of their Constitutional rights. There will non be any arguments allowed on whether the case should be transferred. That might happen in adult court. If the adult court accepts the transfer, the child will be held in an adult correctional facility. The Connecticut Department of Corrections houses near inmates nether the historic period of 20 at the Manson Youth Institution in Cheshire.

B. Discretionary

For all other felonies, C.One thousand.S. §46b-127(b) gives the juvenile prosecutor discretion to transfer cases later on an ex parte finding of probable cause to maintain the charges. This means the juvenile prosecutor can determine if he or she wants to attempt to transfer a case to the adult court once a approximate has found that at that place was a reason to arrest y'all. One time the case gets to adult court, a child will accept a hearing to determine where the case should exist heard. At the hearing a lawyer will fence why the case should stay in juvenile court. The accused child will exist held in a juvenile detention facility until a estimate decides where the case volition be heard. If the judge decides that the case should be handled by the adult criminal courtroom, the kid volition be moved to the Manson Youth Institution.

The police told me the case was no large deal. Do I need a lawyer?
Y'all should always have a lawyer with you if you are going to court, even if the police told y'all the example was no big deal. If yous are hiring a lawyer, you lot should bring them to court with you. If you lot cannot afford to rent a lawyer you can utilize for a Public Defender when you become to court. If yous qualify, the judge will give you a lawyer at no cost to your family. The lawyer is in that location to debate for yous and what you want to see happen with your case. You can talk to the lawyer with your parents or guardian present or alone. It is up to you. The lawyer will keep anything you say private unless yous give them permission to tell.

Rules for your Court Engagement!

Y'all have to be there. If you miss a court appointment, you could get arrested for failing to appear. That is a new criminal offense! If you take to miss because of an emergency, call your lawyer If y'all forget court and realize it later, hurry! Call your lawyer and your lawyer volition propose you what to exercise.

Be on time. Y'all accept to be there at 9 a.m. Cheque in with your lawyer or go to the public defender's office to utilise for a lawyer. Make sure you check in with probation or the Judicial Marshall who is in charge of calling cases. This makes certain that people know you are there. Be patient, and don't ever exit the courthouse without telling your lawyer.

Wear overnice dress. Leave your hats, big jewelry, and chewing gum at home. Have your pilus not bad and clothes clean.

My case is staying in juvenile court. What will happen when I go in that location?
The legal term for your outset court appearance is arraignment. It is where you are formally charged with a crime and read your rights. If you lot have applied for the Public Defender and you qualify, they will be appointed at your arraignment. Your lawyer will enter a not guilty plea for you. This is chosen a pro forma denial. This is a formality and lets the case move on for a word of what might happen side by side in your example. The arraignment is where your lawyer can debate to have you released from detention if you lot are locked up, or where the prosecutor might ask for the judge to give yous some rules to follow.

Sometimes the prosecutor volition enquire the Judge to identify you in detention, even if the police did non bring you to detention when they arrested you. The estimate volition listen to arguments from the prosecutor and your lawyer. The judge can refuse to do anything, guild that you go home but follow rules set up by the court or the judge could put you lot in detention. If you become to detention, your case will be heard again within fifteen days. At that time, the judge volition decide if he or she should let you become home or send you back to detention until your next court date. The estimate can detain you if he or she thinks that you might commit some other crime, non show up for your next court date or if your behavior makes the estimate call back y'all or others could be in danger if you practice not get to detention.

After you are arraigned, the case volition be scheduled for a pretrial conference. This is where your lawyer talks to the prosecutor virtually your instance. Your lawyer should talk to you and to your family earlier talking to the prosecutor. If you accept witnesses or information that volition aid your lawyer contend the example yous need to share it with him or her earlier the pretrial, so they tin investigate and prepare to talk to the prosecutor. The prosecutor might make an offer to dispose of your case.

If the prosecutor agrees to drop the charges your example tin can be either nolled or dismissed. A nolle means that the state is not prosecuting but could reopen the case within 13 months if something changes, like you make it trouble again. After 13 months, the case is dismissed and tin't be reopened. If a case is dismissed, it is over and no one is supposed to get access to any tape that you were ever in court.

If you lot concord to plead guilty to a charge, you lot and your family will meet with a probation officer who conducts a predispositional written report. During this predispositional study, the probation officer will ask about your family history, schoolhouse performance, customs programs and criminal history. You, your family and your lawyer should make certain that the probation officer has whatever information that might be helpful. The probation officer might ask you to have a mental wellness assessment or a courtroom ordered psychological evaluation to run across if counseling would assist you stay out of trouble. You lot should talk to your lawyer earlier agreeing to practice any type of evaluations. A law change in 2008 makes your juvenile court records available to the Departments of Adult Probation and Parole. You need to make sure that the information in your predisposition study is correct and as helpful to you as possible, then it does not go used confronting yous later if you get in trouble as an developed.

I practise not want to plead guilty to any charges. What are my options?
You take the right to take a trial in juvenile court. Your trial will be held in front of a judge only. Juvenile Courts in Connecticut practise not have jury trials. At the trial, the prosecutor volition have to bring in witnesses and evidence to endeavor and bear witness that you broke the law and are guilty of the charges across a reasonable doubt. Your lawyer will be able to ask the witnesses questions to endeavor and show that the prosecutor'south witnesses are wrong. Your lawyer can also object to whatsoever of the prosecutor's prove. You and your lawyer can also bring in witnesses and evidence that volition assistance you lot tell the guess your side and show that yous are not guilty or that the state does not accept plenty evidence to find you guilty. You can talk or testify at your trial like any other witness but only if yous desire to! You lot cannot be forced to talk at your trial, since you still have the right to remain silent. You lot will demand to talk to your lawyer before deciding what to do. If the judge finds that yous are non guilty, the instance is over and you cannot be prosecuted on those charges once again.

What happens if I am found guilty? Does it matter if I plead guilty or am establish guilty after a trial?
If you lot are found guilty, the judge will make up one's mind what your sentence should be. It should not thing if y'all plead guilty or had a trial but sometimes a judges' sentence is more than harsh if you are found guilty after a trial. The victim of your crime will have a chance to tell the estimate what they want to see happen with your example. They tin can tell the probation officer, send a letter or come to courtroom and talk. The judge will listen to the victim, the prosecutor, the probation officeholder and your lawyer and so make up one's mind what the right sentence is.

The judge has a lot of options when deciding your sentence.
The courtroom can warn you non to become in trouble once again and let you lot go. They could ask yous to perform a certain number of hours of community service. They could place you lot on probation. This is very common. Terms of probation generally range from iii months to two years. If the courtroom puts you on probation, yous can be ordered to pay restitution complete community service, participate in counseling, attend school every mean solar day on time and obey house rules. Y'all tin also be ordered to cooperate with a mental health exam. The court tin too order you to be involved in fun afterschool activities so that yous stay busy and do non become into any more than problem. Many judges order graduated sanctions. This allows a probation officer to change the atmospheric condition of probation if you start to have bug and violate your probation without having to go dorsum in front end of a judge.

My lawyer says that the judge wants to commit me as a delinquent. What does that mean?
If the judge decides that information technology is not safe for you to live at home considering probation services have non worked and you proceed on getting in trouble, you could be committed as a delinquent. This means that the Department of Children and Families (DCF) will take custody of you and you will live and go to school away from home. If y'all are committed as a runaway kid, a guess can commit you for up to iv years if the charge is a serious juvenile offense, SJO, or 18 months for non-SJO offenses. Some kids who are committed delinquent are sent to residential schoolhouse or treatment facilities. Residential Programs are not locked and you can earn visits home if you achieve certain goals. Sometimes the residential program recommended for y'all will be in another state. Boys tin exist sent the Connecticut Juvenile Preparation Schoolhouse (CJTS) which is a secure, locked facility in Middletown. In that location are no abode passes from CJTS. Girls cannot be sent to CJTS.

C.G.S.§46b-141(b) gives DCF the right to enquire the court to extend the commitment of a delinquent child beyond the initial sentence if they can testify it is in the best involvement of the child or the customs and the child needs more treatment. This means that they can ask to go along you longer than your sentence, even if you have not been charged with any new crimes. The judge who sentences you should talk to you almost this at the fourth dimension you plead guilty.

Children who are serving a delinquency commitment might need a lawyer to help them with issues that come up during their sentence. In Connecticut, the lawyer who represented you lot at your sentencing in required to keep helping yous until your sentence is over. If you had a Public Defender, your case will be sent to the Mail service Conviction and Reentry Unit. Lawyers in that location specialize in helping kids who have been committed delinquent.

What is an appeal?
If yous are institute guilty at your trial and you think the guess made a error, y'all and your lawyer can ask some other prepare of judges to review your case. This is chosen an appeal. In Connecticut, we accept two appeals courts, the Appellate Court and the Supreme Courtroom. Your lawyer can argue that the judge made a legal mistake or that at that place was not enough evidence to prove you were guilty beyond a reasonable incertitude. Appeals take a long time and sometimes your sentence will be over by the time your case is heard!

If I have any more questions who tin can I call?
Y'all tin call your local juvenile public defender'southward function.

Click on the below Link to go to our Juvenile Function Directory

Division of Public Defender Services Juvenile Offices Link

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Source: https://portal.ct.gov/OCPD/Juvenile/Juvenile/Juvenile-Frequently-Asked-Questions

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