TRUANCY COURTS

Truancy Courts

Truancy Courts

Introduction

One dilemma that is an issue in our society is crime among our youths. Crime is everywhere that is caused by both adults and youth. Daily we hear of murders, robberies, and rapes that have been committed by juveniles. The Juvenile Court with Adult Court is different and similar in the criminal justice system.

A look at the juvenile history in 1643 a sixteen year old boy was put to death for sodomizing a cow. Today many states disagree in the execution of juveniles. In the present day the increasing violence, both juvenile and adult system has changed over the years (Simmons 2002).

The juvenile philosophy in juvenile courts was to offer the youth an individualized justice and treatment instead of imparting justice and punishment. The juvenile court is different then adult court and from earlier periods of American history was the idea of protecting the children.

The focus is treatment and the best interest of the child in the disposition.

Since the increase of serious violent crimes by juveniles policymakers have argued for tougher penalties are needed in deterring crime among juveniles. This caused an increase of juveniles in adult courts. It seems that tougher policies have not decrease or deter juveniles for committing serious crimes.

Purpose of Trunacy Courts

Has your child occasionally been absent from school due to medication adjustments or just because they were feeling really out of sorts because of their neurological conditions? Has your child not done their homework because, well, our kids just don't always do their homework and sometimes we're so tired that we can't make every night a battle? According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), if you're in Rhode Island, you and your child might be brought up before a truancy court and you might even lose custody of your children.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Rhode Island today filed a class-action lawsuit charging that the state's truancy court system is devoid of due process protections in violation of state and federal law.

Filed in the Rhode Island Superior Court against a number of state family court judges and officials of six school districts including Providence, the lawsuit charges that the truancy courts are frequently punitive in nature, and that truancy court magistrates threaten vulnerable children and their parents with baseless fines and imprisonment, remove children from the custody of their parents without legal justification and fail to keep adequate records of court hearings. The lawsuit also charges that the court system disproportionately impacts children who have difficulty attending school or doing their schoolwork because of special education or medical needs.

History of the court

"The truancy court system appears to have thrown the due process clause of the United States and Rhode Island Constitutions out the window and it is imperative that family court administrators and magistrates follow the law," said Robin L. Dahlberg, senior staff attorney with the ACLU. "Pushing kids into the juvenile justice system is not the way to help at-risk youth graduate from high school and in fact ...