Lora Fowler had an idea what to expect. After all, she had lived in Frayser long before she became a prosecutor with the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office.

So, when she returned to that area more than two years ago to work as a “community prosecutor” with a permanent office in a Memphis Police precinct, she understood that some residents would be welcoming, others suspicious.

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“There were a few kind of giving me the side eye, like, `What are you really here to do?’” she said. “It was a hard sell to get some people to see we are here to do good and provide some guidance to young people.”

District Attorney General Amy Weirich has stressed that she wants the Community Prosecutor Program to keep questionable cases from coming through the court system. That emphasis is heightened in juvenile cases that are absent violence.

“Perhaps a low-level vandalism case, nobody is physically hurt, low level property damage,” Weirich said. “Instead of asking that juvenile to come downtown to court and that parent to take off time from work, that case is now being handled out in the precinct with the juvenile court (liaison).

“We’re not ignoring it,” she added, “we’re holding them accountable. But we’re doing it in a different way. Perhaps making them do some community service. Perhaps working with them in a mentor relationship, getting them back on that right track.”

The Public Safety Institute (PSI) at the University of Memphis performed an evaluation of the Community Prosecutor Program last spring. The report from PSI stated that program could be “an incredibly valuable tool” for Memphis and Shelby County in the fight against crime, but added that the program still needed more awareness among law enforcement personnel.

Specifically, PSI Executive Director and Crime Commission President Bill Gibbons said that too many uniformed patrol officers were not aware of the program, and thus the resources available to them.

“I do think it’s a step in the right direction,” Gibbons told The Daily Memphian. 

The ‘devil’s workshop’

In 2019, pre-COVID-19 pandemic, Shelby County Juvenile Court recorded 6,060 “delinquent” charges – or in other words, adult offenses committed by a minor.

The numbers fell 26.4% in 2020 (4,460) and ticked back up slightly in 2021 (4,739).

Unfortunately, several violent crime statistics spiked.

While juvenile aggravated assault arrests showed only a marginal increase from 2020 to 2021, carjackings soared.

Juveniles were arrested for 50 carjackings in 2019, and 94 in 2020 for an 88% increase.

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Carjacking arrests of juveniles surged to 172 in 2021. That marked an 83% escalation from 2020 and a 244% leap from 2019.

The problem took center stage in the public conscience in 2020 when a citizen shot and killed a 16-year-old attempting to carjack his SUV on a Monday afternoon at an East Memphis Kroger gas station.

The pandemic, Fowler believes, has its fingerprints all over juvenile crime. For instance, there were 524 burglaries of a vehicle in 2021, a 36.1% increase from the 385 cases in 2019.

And, she adds, when students are not in school, or are suspended from school, that just creates more opportunity to find trouble.

“Like they say, idle hands and mind are the devil’s workshop,” she said.

Still, Fowler and the other community prosecutors stop and inquire as to what’s behind a young person’s arrest.

What’s the rest of the story?

In 2021, there were 1,554 total juvenile summons issued. Of those, 945 went through the Summons Review Program (SRP) and those minors were diverted from having an official record with the court. Another 609 summons were issued in which the minors were not eligible for SRP.

Shelby County’s Juvenile Ceasefire Gun Safety initiative is one of those diversion programs and is an option for minors charged with unlawful possession of a weapon.

“A lot of times when these kids are young, their behavior issues are stemming from outside influences and what they’ve been exposed to, situations they’ve been allowed to see,” said Fowler, who works out of MPD’s Austin Peay Station covering Frayser/Raleigh.

“A lot of times these kids have seen loved ones get killed, get shot. A lot of times, they’ve been molested by family members or people that aren’t in the family.”

Debbie Holdman, a Juvenile Court liaison working out of the Tillman Station where Michael McCusker is a community prosecutor, says being on the front lines is invaluable when gathering the most telling information.

“At Juvenile Court, all you have is an arrest report or summons to go on,” Holdman said. “Out here, I see where you live, I see how many kids are in the house, and if the lights are on.

“I see the poverty, abuse up close, and hear all the cussing.

“I see what Mom’s really like when she’s not dressed up coming to court.”

Taking a closer look

At the Austin Peay precinct, Fowler works with juvenile liaison Anthony Clear.

“We think alike,” Fowler said. “It’s important to look around and see what the surrounding circumstances are, so you get the child the help that they need. Because these kids, let’s face it, even when they’re caught with guns, these kids aren’t buying these guns themselves.

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“They don’t have a job. They don’t have money. They’re being given these things by adults.”

Said Clear: “You do so many of them, you do start to see the factors and the indicators in those summonses that wrap around what a family is going through. It just becomes second nature. I am so glad the attorney general’s office is here within the building because it brings a little more clarity when a child is faced with a report or an incident and we can get down to the bottom and say, `Hey, let’s go another route, let’s do this.’”

Of course, every juvenile case is different.

It’s why Fowler, McCusker and Tracye Jones, who is the community prosecutor at the Mt. Moriah precinct, view that arrest ticket or summons as a mere starting point.

“I am so glad the attorney general’s office is here within the building because it brings a little more clarity when a child is faced with a report or an incident and we can get down to the bottom and say, `Hey, let’s go another route, let’s do this.’”

 Anthony Clear
Juvenile liaison

“I’ve had cases,” Jones said, “where I didn’t think how the case was charged was fair to this young person.”

Here’s her prime example:

“A young man, 18 and in high school, and a girl walked by, and he touched her on her bottom,” Jones said. “She handled it herself a little bit and slapped him and then reported him to the school.

“And the school, because he was 18, didn’t handle it as a disciplinary situation. They called the police. This kid was charged with assault. The case got indicted and was in criminal court.”

Jones saw it as an overreaction.

“I called the victim’s father and the victim’s father didn’t want to see a bad outcome” for this young man, Jones said. “So, he was OK with me handling it in a way that wouldn’t lead to a permanent conviction on his record.

“We actually got him in a program that helped him get a job.”

Fowler recalls a case where officers serving an arrest warrant at an apartment found a gun in a bathtub. A 15-year-old in the apartment said the gun was his. Fowler didn’t buy it based on evidence from the scene and believed an adult had put him up to confessing.

“That did not go down to juvenile court because it was ridiculous,” she said.

“That’s a good example,” Gibbons said. “My impression is the program is working well.”

Signals

Facts matter. So does the ability to read people. And following gut instincts.

But making a calculated prediction about a kid’s future behavior?

No one is 100%.

Holdman says when she and McCusker consider a case, they are looking for “green lights” – positive factors in the child’s life, such as a stable family environment and good grades. But also, they are on the lookout for “red lights” – negative influences, such as living in poverty, living with an abusive family member, the presence of drugs in a household or a pattern of previous, escalating juvenile offenses.

For example: A teenager with no prior record was arrested on multiple counts of theft from a vehicle. But then he got involved in Tillman Station’s summer camp and boxing program. He stayed out of trouble for two years, Holdman says, and he got a job.

He has made so much progress that Holdman expects that he will serve as a mentor to younger boys at this summer’s precinct camp. She argued for diversion and now the offenses have been expunged from his record.

That’s no small thing.

“It’s hard if you have something on your record to get a job or get in school or just be successful in life,” Fowler said. “I’m always gonna be on the side of doing all we can to keep that child out of the system.”

In another recent case that Holdman and McCusker reviewed, a teen had been charged with unlawful possession of a firearm after an off-duty cop saw he had a gun tucked in his waistband as he walked into Oak Court Mall.

At 17, this was his first experience with the Juvenile Court system. His parents were divorced, but they were both in his life and had good relationships with their son. Holdman says she and McCusker saw many “green lights,” adding that the teen was doing well in school.

“It’s hard if you have something on your record to get a job or get in school or just be successful in life. ”

Lora Fowler 
Community prosecutor, Austin Peay Station

So, he too was a good candidate for a diversion program.

Then, several days after a lesser charge was secured on the gun offense, he was arrested for attempted first-degree murder in Fayette County. Holdman couldn’t believe it. He came from relative privilege.

“His mom has a career, not a job,” Holdman said. “She makes like $70,000 a year and the dad makes a little more than that. He has a 3.5 grade average, his own car,” and he had no known gang ties or other worrisome connections.

“Did we miss something?” Holdman asked. “There were no red lights.

“Now he is facing adult time.”

Beyond the call of duty

The pandemic has made youth outreach more difficult, Clear says, but at the Austin Peay precinct they’ve had summer programs where they fed kids, held holiday giveaways and Saturday mentoring programming. Separate mentoring programs in the schools, he adds, will start soon.

Recently, Fowler was attending a community event when she was approached by a woman having trouble with her nephew. “Denise,” who asked that her full name not be used to protect her nephew’s privacy, was at a loss for where to turn.

The nephew was acting out at home and school, Denise said, and at one point he even punched an older family member. The family’s efforts to get counseling for him through various agencies were going nowhere – in part, Denise says, because there was a backlog due to the starts and stops of the pandemic.

Without help, she feared the worst might be yet to come.

“I didn’t know what it was going to lead to,” Denise said of her nephew’s behavior, “or what else to do.”

Enter Community Prosecutor Lora Fowler.

“She worked with me a whole Saturday, gave up her Saturday to work with us and I didn’t even know her,” Denise said. “She poured everything she had into helping us.”

Soon, Denise says they had multiple agencies responding to them and offering services, and her nephew was in counseling for his anger issues.

There is no point in wasting energy second-guessing yourself because a young person turned the wrong way, Holdman says, because there are so many other young people still standing at that fork in the road.

“You don’t get frustrated,” she said of the ones that make bad choices, “you just try to get it right the next time.

“Every kid’s not gonna do the right thing. Every family’s not gonna do the right thing.”

Still a chance

Clear cherishes those times when he is meeting one-on-one with a young person, and he can feel that shift in perspective – at least in the moment.

“They say,`Wow, I can think things differently now because you explained it to me this way,’” Clear said.

“The seed is planted,” added Fowler. “Even if they don’t immediately change.”

Yet for all the good work that the community prosecutors and juvenile court liaisons are trying to effect in young people’s lives, there are hardline doubters.

Giving teenagers a second chance is a great idea, but maybe doesn’t hit someone quite that way if they or someone they know was the victim of a carjacking or an armed robbery, a so-called kid pointing a gun at them.

In a 2020 interview with The Daily Memphian, assistant DA Chris West, who is a veteran at trying juvenile court cases, spoke to the competing viewpoints on addressing juvenile crime.

“Whatever your skew on this,” he said, “both sides want the best outcome we can have.

“Who doesn’t want less juvenile crime?”

As for those who still might doubt the worthiness of providing second chances, Fowler asked:

“What if this was your child? Or your niece or your nephew?”

For Denise, it is not a theoretical question.

Her nephew has been receiving counseling and that’s good, but she understands there is not a preordained cure for his behavior.

Rather, this is a process with no defined end.

“They haven’t gotten to the root of his outbursts,” she said.

But at least there is now a visible “green light.”

Her nephew is getting help, learning coping techniques, doing a little better.

No 100% predictions about what happens next, but …

“I’m more hopeful,” she said. “Because now I have someone that will advocate for us.”