A timeline tracking major events in Wyoming juvenile justice history.
This statute would be applied to “any minor child”, whose parent(s) had been convicted of violence against them, or in the case of abandonment and would make them eligible for adoption by “any proper and fit person”
This strict statute required “not less than ten persons who are heads of families” to support a verified petition claiming the child was abandoned, poor, or under the care of “vicious or immoral” parents or guardians. If it were discovered to be in the best interests of the child, they would be placed within any organization which worked to find homes for orphaned (abandoned, ect.) children.
The first juvenile court was established in Cook County, Illinois.
The previous statute is amended to reduce the number of petitioners from 10 to 1
Delinquent children under the age of 14 would be placed with Wyoming organizations to be put into “family homes” until 18 – at which point (if the family home was unsuccessful), there could be a rehearing and the child could be sent to “reform school”. It was decided the state would not pay for private placement. This law also created special parole & pardon statues for youth committed to out-of-state institutions, where the governor was granted the power of pardon & parole for certain children.
By 1910, 32 States established special courts for juveniles.
These definitions remain unchanged to this day, except that the delinquency age limit was raised to 21 years in 1919
This statute requires all juvenile delinquents under 21 to have a mental examination prior to the commitment of a state institution, permanent or temporary.
The next quarter century saw states develop specialized juvenile court systems with exclusive jurisdiction over minors. Exclusive jurisdiction means that a particular court has sole responsibility for handling particular types of cases (in this case, those involving minors). The juvenile court must provide permission for any other court to try a minor. By 1925 all states, with the exception of Maine and Wyoming, had separately functioning juvenile courts.
WY Legislature broadens the scope of the offense lined out in 1921 to include persons who encourage or cause a child under 18 “to violate any laws of the state” and imposes a more stringent penalty. “This amendment is not only a legislative confirmation of the social fact that children should not be held to the same degree of accountability for their acts as are adults but evinces a desire to fix responsibility upon the real wrongdoer in certain cases of juvenile offences: the adult who deliberately misleads a child.” -Brooke Wunnicke, The 1951 Juvenile Court Law of Wyoming, 8 WYO. L.J. 173 (1954) pg. 180. Available at: https://scholarship.law.uwyo.edu/wlj/vol8/iss3/3
This amended the language used when processing juvenile offenders – it repealed language pertaining to criminal law – i.e. the State against a child – and exchanged it for “in the interests of the child”. This permitted informal and private hearings & gave the child the right to counsel
Senate Resolution authorized the legislature to create an amendment to establish juvenile courts be submitted to electors, and the amendment was ratified by a vote on Nov. 2 1948. 65,651 AYE 16,001 NAY
This council was responsible for studying current laws pertaining to juvenile delinquents and recommending necessary revisions.
Two-year term with an annual salary of $2,500.00, whose duties encompassed the enforcement of the “laws for the prevention of wrongs to children”. This law is repealed in 1929 and the duties are assigned to the State Board of Charities and Reform and the State Veterinarian. The delinquency age limit is raised to 21.
A report by the Governor’s Planning Committee on Criminal Administration – its purpose was to analyze existing resources, to identify the in adequacies and the needs of the current juvenile justice system. "The problem of prevention and control of juvenile delinquency has been cited the most critical problem facing all agencies of the Criminal Justice System and as the highest priority for improvement in the Wyoming Criminal Justice System."
The Act established a system of concurrent jurisdiction wherein only a small percentage of juveniles charged with an offense actually go to a juvenile court. According to an article by Professor John M. Burman, titled, Juvenile Injustice in Wyoming published in the Wyoming Law Review in 2004, "The Act has four significant loopholes."
"Authorities in state government must take a leadership role to ensure that the serious problems identified here are now addressed." Findings: 1: "There is no uniform juvenile justice system presently operating in Wyoming. 2: "There are few formal standards, either in statute or policy, to guide the way juvenile justice decisions are made. 3: "About one of every ten juveniles (aged 6 to 18) come into contact with law enforcement officers each year. 4: "Large numbers of Wyoming juveniles are detained in adult jails. 5: "Courts of limited jurisdiction are often used for adjudication of cases involving juveniles. 6: "Many community resources are not effectively utilized. 7: "Relatively few juvenile offenders have multiple contacts with the justice system. 8: "About 20% to 30% of all cases have a second contact with the system, generally two to three months after release.
There is created within the office of the governor the state advisory council on juvenile justice. The advisory council shall consist of not less than fifteen (15) members appointed by the governor representing each judicial district. -The purpose is to support state and local delinquency prevention and intervention efforts and juvenile justice system improvements. These efforts can include compliance monitoring, disproportionate minority contact, juvenile justice issues for Native American Indian tribes, abuse and violence prevention and the improvement of juvenile justice operations, policies and procedures.
-This created a juvenile justice system database maintained by the Division of Criminal Investigation. It requires the recording of basic information regarding the juvenile and the offense, but does not require reporting of “social summaries, medical or psychological reports, educational records, multidisciplinary team minutes and records or transcripts of dispositional hearings.”
-The Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) requires that participating states adhere to four “core protections” pertaining to the treatment of young people involved in the system.
This dictates the requirements of states for the supervision and return of juveniles who “are on probation parole or other supervision, or have escaped to another state; have fun away from home and left their state of residence; have been accused of an offense in another state”.
"Wyo's juvenile justice system continues to suffer from the deficiencies identified in 1981." -Written by John Burman, Emeritus Carl M. Williams Professor of Law & Ethics at the University of Wyoming. This paper includes overviews of juvenile justice in general, the Wyoming juvenile justice system, and the juvenile justice systems of other states. It ends with realistic options for improving Wyoming’s Juvenile System.
This ACT raised the minimum age for the death penalty from 16 to 18.
-The amendment would define who would be on the council and expand their power and duties to include providing a uniform screening process. It also required them to work on strengthening “community mental health and substance abuse services, provide services and interventions to retain children in school and increase graduation rates, and ensure that services the community board participates in use best practices as defined.”
This ACT requires that a pre-dispositional study be completed by a multi-disciplinary team for a youth alleged delinquent. This study must include information about special education needs and appropriate services.
-This specifies that if a child qualifies for federal financial participation when being placed out-of-home the court will not choose a provider, instead the department of family services will plan and select a placement for the juvenile.
"Wyoming needs a juvenile justice system that is uniform and allows records to be easily transferred between courts, lawmakers were told."
-“Children who get into trouble and placed on probation are about a 50/50 bet to get into trouble again, but not in Albany County. The children on probation who are in the Progressive Youth Program have a recidivism rate of 9 percent.”
This creates a juvenile justice task force to examine the “jurisdiction and gatekeeping functions for juvenile justice prosecutions, the services received … while in the juvenile justice system, the length of time spent in the juvenile justice system before an offender is released, and the preferred outcomes for juvenile offenders” and required a full report with recommendations. It also dictated the members of the task force, which included a wide range of representative from the community (law enforcement, department heads/superintendents, juvenile service providers, SAJCC, etc.)
This ACT allows the Department of Family Services to contract with verified and approved organizations for juvenile shelter care
"The Council believes in promoting evidence based best practice programs, in holding those receiving funding accountable, and in improving our data collection so that we may clearly measure progression."
"Juvenile justice issues have been and continue to be significant in the state. Issues regarding the safe detention of juveniles and the appropriate care and treatment of juvenile offenders at all levels is of major importance."
-“Ric Paul, former Gillette police chief, said he became fed up with widespread unwillingness to change a system that doesn’t try to point juveniles on a better path, but prosecutes and punishes many of them as if they were adults.”
-“Wyoming is unwilling to comply with the 1974 federal Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act, which governs how and when to lock up youth under 18. Some lawmakers seem to take pride in the fact Wyoming sacrifices funding rather than have the feds try to run our jails. However, that money could be used for juvenile treatment and rehabilitative services.”
The Wyoming legislature appropriates $2 million for the Community Juvenile Service Boards, effectively bringing them back to life. CJSB's are meant to provide and oversee programs and services provided to children at risk of coming under the jurisdiction of juvenile court. This act requires parent or guardian consent unless it is a part of a court order. The Departments of Family Services and Health and Education are responsible for a block grant program.
This amendment would modify the timelines for certain juvenile hearings, extending them to 120 days.
This amendment would repeal the requirement of a trial by jury for children and amends the maximum time in which a juvenile matter may be adjudicated.
"A company that owned a Montana juvenile facility investigated for possible abuse is taking over operations at two juvenile facilities in Wyoming, including one where the state removed youths last year out of concern for their safety."
“Juvenile court, which seeks to involve the family in the process, is more likely to keep adolescents out of jail and into diversionary programs, such as the successful Youth Alternatives program in Cheyenne. But some Wyoming communities are so small that there are no diversionary programs, and jail is the only option.”
This report covers the six key challenges to juvenile justice reform, key facts about youth crime and incarceration, what states are doing that is working and what should be done at the federal level.
“Wyoming has the nation's second-highest rate of children in custody, and nearly three quarters of those young people are being held for nonviolent offenses, according to figures released today. The 2008 Kids Count report shows Wyoming's rate of detained and committed youth in custody at 334 per 100,000 children. Nationally, that figure stood at 125. Only South Dakota had a higher rate of youth in custody.”
“The editorial stated the basic view that cases of juvenile offenders should not be heard in adult courts. They shouldn't and yet the majority of juvenile cases in Wyoming are processed through adult courts, more than 80 percent. The reason for this appalling state of affairs is the continuing inaction of the Wyoming State Legislature. The editorial states: ‘Wyoming officials looking at possible reform of the state's juvenile justice system should definitely review the latest Kids Count report.’ The reality is that Wyoming officials are not looking to do anything at all about the juvenile justice failure that exists in Wyoming.”
This article covers Wyoming’s Juvenile Justice Act and explores one case (D.D. v. City of Casper) that illuminates the failures, illegalities and inconsistencies of the act. It also briefly covers the evolution of juvenile justice and analyzes the various rights of the child that the Act (potentially) violates.
"People say it all the time. 'Wyoming is a great place to raise a family,' and they're right a lot of the time."
“To pretend that there is a system continues a fantasy that Wyoming is willing to perpetuate on its citizens and its youth. The majority (80 percent) of children in Wyoming go through the adult court system. The arresting officer or the prosecuting attorney makes a unilateral decision about what happens, and those juveniles have no access to any services, programming or evaluations. The adult system does not require parental involvement, nor does it provide any family or youth support.”
“The governor's office is leading the way, but this issue also needs legislative leadership. It may be difficult to reach a consensus about what needs to be done with the juvenile justice system, and not every stakeholder will likely be happy with the results. But it is far past time to move beyond the "study" phase and start taking meaningful action to provide a fair and uniform statewide system.”
"WY is the only state that does not comply with the JJDP Act. Compliance status not only has direct implications for grant eligibility, but also is reflective of how policy and practice in the field are with regard to the way juveniles are treated within law enforcement facilities and detention centers."
On July 1, 2008, the administration of the Guardians ad Litem Program (hereinafter =GAL Program?) was transferred from the Wyoming Supreme Court to the Wyoming Office of the Public Defender (hereinafter =PD Office?) pursuant to 2008 Wyo. Sess. Laws 316.
"The Natrona County Commission needs at least $7 million in addition to the $3 million it's already saved, to build a new juvenile detention center..."
"Wyoming needs a central data collection system for juveniles who run afoul of the law, Gov. Dave Freudenthal's special advisor on juvenile justice issues said Wednesday..."
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