Gibbons: Tackle crime by fixing what’s broken
The president of the Memphis Shelby Crime Commission says we need to change the juvenile justice system’s arbitrary 19th birthday cutoff and use public safety as the overriding factor in bail decisions.
There are 14 article(s) tagged juvenile crime:
The president of the Memphis Shelby Crime Commission says we need to change the juvenile justice system’s arbitrary 19th birthday cutoff and use public safety as the overriding factor in bail decisions.
“Even though the kids are being allegedly accused of things, the community should realize that they’re still kids and what we want to offer them is some type of stability and sense of safety.”
“With drag racing, carjackings, car thefts, armed robberies — some resulting in death of victims — murders, etc., being reported every day in our city, we are well past the time of ‘we need to rehabilitate our youth.’”
State Senator Brent Taylor discusses increasing penalties for certain violent crimes and proposed legislation that seeks to stem the rise in juvenile crime.
MPD brass told the Memphis City Council the department plans to take youth breaking curfew Downtown to the Greenlaw Community Center, which the city’s parks department is relinquishing to police.
A large part of the area’s current juvenile crime issue centers on car thefts and thefts of property from vehicles. Minor Offenders, Major Offenses No ‘more pressing’ issue in Memphis community than juvenile crimeRelated stories:
In the 1980s, juvenile offenses were mostly crimes like shoplifting, petty theft and auto thefts. Now, children currently held in detention are accused of first-degree murder, second-degree murder, carjacking, rape of a child and other crimes. Minor Offenders, Major Offenses: A series by The Daily MemphianRelated stories:
In the latest from our “Minor Offenders, Major Offenses” series on juvenile crime, criminalizing students for frequently missing school can actually make things worse: “You label a kid as delinquent, you actually create a future criminal.”
The Daily Memphian has been working to dive deeper into the pressing issue of juvenile crime. It’s complex and uncomfortable, with outsize effects on the city, its citizens and its very future.
In this installment of “Minor Offenders, Major Offenses,” we look at how lawmakers intend to build on the mandatory-minimum “truth in sentencing” law with bills that treat juveniles as adults in more circumstances. Many of the tough-on-crime proposals pivot from former Gov. Bill Haslam’s moderate juvenile justice reform effort in 2018.
A former MPD officer talks about his experiences on the police department’s Auto-Theft Task Force and the juveniles he encountered — repeatedly — during his time on the force.
In Memphis, leaders seem to agree that youth are able to get guns too easily and that they are seeing a trend of younger juvenile offenders and more violent offenses. But there are varying opinions on how to deal with those trends.
“It’s hard for me to go to the grocery store or a restaurant or church without somebody approaching me, expressing concern about juvenile crime,” said Bill Gibbons, president of the Crime Commission. “People are upset about it in this community.”
And, of all juvenile criminal cases, 40% involved juveniles who are considered repeat offenders.
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