SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE SPECIAl REPORt

Arrested development

DEVELOPMENT

ARRESTED

November 2011

Juveniles in adult jails

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About Arrested Development

Jan. 11, 2012 County jails are intended to keep dangerous adult suspects safely off the streets. But they have come to harbor a different population, too: juveniles, who are held sometimes for months or years as they await trial. To crack down on an epidemic of teen violence in the early 1990s, states expanded opportunities for the criminal justice system to treat adolescents as adults. Teen crime rates have since plummeted but state laws and local practices havent kept pace. Caught in the crossfire are the 7,500 youths held at any one time in the nations adult jails, where they face elevated risks of sexual and physical abuse, and where theyre less likely to get the education, health care and other age-appropriate supports that are standard in juvenile detention centers. Scripps Howard News Service reporter Isaac Wolf found through dozens of interviews and by tapping into a government-funded database of nearly a quarter-million cases that although a federal law aims to separate juveniles from adults, a loophole permits jails to house them in the same facility, sometimes even in close quarters. Driving this practice are tough-on-crime policies and the higher costs of secure youth detention centers. Judges have the authority to transfer youths suspected of the most dangerous crimes into the adult justice system, opening the jailhouse door. In theory, such transfers are reserved for youths accused of violent crimes such as assault, rape and murder. In practice, only two of five transferred youths stand accused of violence against another person, Scripps found. Responding to the analysis, Judge Kevin Burke, president of the American Judges Association, called on his organizations 3,000 members to be more selective in transferring youths. But the issue is far from settled. Growing budgetary pressures are pushing minors accused of lesser crimes into adult lockups, even as their cases remain in the juvenile justice system. As long as youths are placed in harms way, Scripps will continue to cover this story. Sincerely, David Nielsen Deputy bureau chief and managing editor

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At the Baltimore City Detention Center, the juvenile wing shows wear and tear.

SHNS photo by Kristin Volk

Youths in adult jail face higher risk, longer wait for trial

Contents

For thousands of teens accused of crimes, punishment precedes any court judgment. Awaiting trial and ostensibly presumed innocent, they can be held for months or even years in county jails for and sometimes with adult suspects.

Contributors
Reporter Isaac Wolf Editorial writer Dale McFeatters

teen awaiting trial learns hard lessons in 3 adult jails

Owen Welty was 13 when he entered Missouris justice system, spending all but one of 27 months moving among three adult jails, housed with adult inmates and deprived of education.

Lead editor Carol Guensburg Editors Peter Copeland Lisa Hoffman Bob Jones David Nielsen Photo editor Sheila Person Multimedia editor Danielle Alberti Multimedia reporter Kristin Volk

Baltimores proposed juvenile jail stirs up controversy Jurisdictional differences can create uncertainty

Maryland officials want to build a new jail for juveniles, but some community groups say the state instead should fix a broken system. Even when local jail authorities say theyre upholding a federal rule to keep juveniles safe from adult inmates, federal authorities cant always verify their claims.

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Volume of youth transfers to adult jail questioned

Only two of five minors transferred into adult court stand accused of a violent crime against another person, according to an SHNS analysis of nearly 230,000 cases.

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Contact
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202-408-1484 or stories@shns.com. Our website www.scrippsnews.com
Scripps Howard News Service is part of the E.W. Scripps Co.

Making news across America

One measure of a society is its criminal justice system, and ours falls short when it comes to juveniles routed into adult jails.

EDitoriAl: Jailing minors with adults adds to problems

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Locked up in Limbo
Youths in adult jail face higher risk, longer wait for trial
By Isaac Wolf Scripps Howard News Service

For thousands of teens accused of crimes, punishment precedes any conviction in court. While awaiting trial and ostensibly presumed innocent, they can be held for months or even years in county jails for and sometimes with adult suspects. Federal law aims to shield youths from extended detention and from physical or psychological abuse by adult inmates. But the protection does not apply to suspects 17 and younger sent to adult court to be tried for serious offenses such as assault, rape or murder. Youth advocates say this exemption amounts to a major loophole. Such suspects roughly 5,600 at any given time in 2010, federal Bureau of Justice Statistics data show lack that sight and sound protection. Approximately 1,900

other youths charged with less-serious property or drug crimes technically are covered because their cases remain in the juvenile justice system. But they, too, sit in jail, sometimes because its cheaper for cash-strapped counties to keep them there than in juvenile facilities geared toward development and rehabilitation, a Scripps Howard News Service investigation finds. In jails intended for adults, young suspects face an elevated risk of physical attacks, including sexual assault, research shows. Juvenile inmates are 36 times more likely to commit suicide in adult jails than in youth detention centers, according to data included in a 2007 federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention task force report. Theyre also less likely to get the supportive therapy,

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academics and social experiences that adolescents need to become healthy, educated, productive members of society. Owen Welty, for instance, was 13 when he was arrested in the shooting death of his Of the 47 states that allow suspects age 17 and younger to be held in adult jails, 29 do not require them to be segregated from neighbor in rural southeastern Missouri. older inmates. The 18 remaining states exceed federal standards He spent 26 months in several jails, usually for safeguarding the youths. housed with adult suspects. He was targeted Youths may be held in adult jail and not segregated for physical attacks, including sexual as Youths must be segregated from adult inmates sault, he said, and often went without formal Youths may not be held in adult jail education, psychological counseling and peer interactions. A St. Louis jury acquitted Owen in February 2009, at age 15. While incarcerated, he fell three grades behind classmates. Now 18 and a high school senior in Clay County, Ark., he has struggled to catch up academically and to overcome flashbacks. (See accompanying story.) Its definitely not fair to anyone educationally, socially, psychologically to put a 13- or 14-year-old with grown men, said D.C. Phyllis Morgan, Owens high school counselor. The SHNS investigation reveals widely uneven treatment and oversight of adolescents in adult jails. Among the findings: All but three states North Carolina, Source: O ce of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Trying Juveniles as Adults: An Analysis of State Transfer Laws and Reporting West Virginia and Wyoming permit juveniles to be housed in adult jails, the federal Florida Sheriffs Association, whose members helped draft Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention the legislation. reported in September. Twenty-nine of these states exploit Detaining an inmate in one of the states 26 juvenile the loophole in the 1974 Juvenile Justice and Delinquency facilities costs counties roughly $280 a day, Casey said, Prevention Act, allowing juveniles to mix with grownup while a jail stay costs $80. Expenses vary by state. In Pierce suspects instead of segregating them by sight and sound. County, Wash., juvenile detention costs have risen more The remaining 18 states rules for segregating juveniles than fivefold since 2000, from $85 a day per resident to exceed the federal protections. $455, a September audit found. Budget pressures are pushing some minors accused Although federal rules permit only brief jail stays for of lesser crimes into adult lockups even while their cases youth offenders in the juvenile justice system, regulations remain in the juvenile justice system. Their numbers have allow them to be held longer in youth-only facilities located doubled in recent years, from 1,009 in 2005 to 1,912 in at adult jails, said John Wilson. He wrote the U.S. Justice 2010, the Bureau of Justice Statistics reports. Department regulations on locked-up juveniles, and has Florida passed a law in May enabling counties to send since left for a position at the nonpartisan Tallahassee, Fla.teenagers accused of less-serious crimes in juvenile court based Institute for Intergovernmental Research. to jails instead of youth detention facilities. Costs drove Deciding a young suspects fate takes far longer in the change, said Steve Casey, the executive director of the the criminal justice system. A case that would take 15 days

STATES THAT ALLOW YOUTH SUSPECTS IN ADULT JAILS

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in juvenile court easily could take over a year in criminal court, said Ned Loughran, executive director of the Council of Juvenile Correctional Administrators, a nonprofit in Braintree, Mass. Insufficient data make it unclear how many jailed juveniles get convicted or get released. The Justice Department reported in a September bulletin how little is known about these youths: To date, only 13 states publicly report the total number of their transfers, and even fewer report offense profiles, demographic characteristics or details regarding processing and sentencing. The Justice Departments report noted that one in four youngsters in Californias adult courts is acquitted or the charges are dropped. The National Council on Crime and Delinquency, a nonprofit research group in Oakland, Calif., reported in May that about two of three juveniles leave the Baltimore City Detention Center without a conviction in adult court. Jeff Slowikowski, acting administrator of the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, said hes concerned about any amount of time that a juvenile is in an adult facility, not getting the adequate services, away from education, not being able to get back within their own community especially if that juvenile is found not guilty. Arguably, an adult jail can keep a juvenile closer to home, because there are fewer youth detention centers than county lockups. Judges who send youths to jail sometimes reason that young defendants pose a threat to public safety and cannot be rehabilitated. In his decision to move Owen Weltys murder case to adult court, Judge Joe Satterfield wrote that protection of the community requires the 13-year-old to be prosecuted under general law. But one of Slowikowskis predecessors, Shay Bilchik, contends that jailing a juvenile before trial contradicts a principle of American jurisprudence by presuming guilt, not innocence. This is a basic philosophical question: When we have juvenile courts, why would we hold juveniles pending determination of guilt in an adult facility? asked Bilchik, who headed OJJDP in the Clinton administration and now runs Georgetown Universitys Center for Juvenile Justice Reform. Tough-on-crime measures arose after teen crime surged in the early 1990s. It peaked at over 500 violentcrime arrests per 100,000 juveniles in 1994 and plunged to under 300 in 2008, OJJDP reports. But while the incidence of crime has fallen, the number of juveniles in adult jails has held steady. Since 2005, Colorado, Maine, Virginia and Pennsylvania have made it more difficult to place youths in adult jails, said the Campaign for Youth Justice, a Washingtonbased group that advocates keeping juveniles out of adult facilities. Before Colorado passed such a law in 2009, the states

JAILS VS. JUVENILE DETENTION CENTERS: COMPARING CONDITIONS

Jails and juvenile detention facilities tend to provide drastically di erent resources for inmates 17 and younger, though conditions vary widely among states, counties and individual facilities. Below is a sample of conditions found in juvenile facilities and jails. Per-inmate cost to taxpayers: Food: Medical care: Mental health care: Education: Activities: Access to parent/guardian: Exposure to adult inmates: Armed sta : JUVENILE FACILITY $190 to $275 a day 3 meals a day, extra helpings and snacks Complete physical upon entrance, and continued close medical attention On-call psychologists, psychiatrists and therapists to support rehabilitation Full-time classes, with teachers Structured programs, including vocational training, resume writing, GED prep classes Visitation available several times a week None None JAIL $55 to $80 a day 3 meals a day; option to buy snacks weekly at commissary Nurse access daily; parent/guardian can arrange other care paid out of pocket Can see jail psychologist or select specialist, paid out of pocket Possible tutor or GED preparatory class Mostly in cell, with up to an hour in exercise area; youths may have access to rec room with TV and books Weekly visitation and phone privileges; limited communication between jail and parents / guardians. Possible O cers can carry pepper spray and other weapons

Sources: O ce of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Florida Departments of Corrections and Juvenile Justice, Stoddard County (Mo.) Juvenile Detention Center

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YOUTHS PATHS TO ADULT JAILS

States di er in whether or when to send a juvenile to adult jail, typically the county lockup. Suspects 17 and younger get sent to jail either at the time of arrest or after detention in a juvenile facility. ARREST Police can hold a young suspect in jail for questioning. CHARGING An adolescent charged with a serious crime can be transferred from the juvenile justice system to the adult or criminal justice system at a judges discretion. In most states, that sets the stage for detention in a county jail. CASE OUTCOME Young suspects can spend a few hours or months or even years in adult jails. Length of stay and conditions of con nement depend on the particular case, the jail and state law. Youths may be released on bail.
Sources: Open Society Institute - Baltimore, Campaign for Youth Justice; Center for Juvenile Justice Reform.

Upon arrest, the suspect gets taken to a juvenile facility.

In 14 states, youths charged with serious crimes such as assault, rape or murder automatically get sent to jail.

Other states let prosecutors decide whether to charge young suspects as adults, sending them to the criminal justice system.

SHNS graphic by John Bruce

system was pretty barbaric in allowing excessive transfers, said Rep. Claire Levy, a Democrat and the legislations sponsor. Florida has gone the other way. It now allows counties to house juveniles charged with relatively minor offenses in adult jails whose staff members are equipped with Tasers and pepper spray, items forbidden in juvenile facilities. Opponents of Floridas new law say adult jails are inherently more dangerous, even if juvenile inmates are physically segregated from adults. Youths in adult jails and prisons are probably at the highest risk of all for sexual abuse, the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission reported in 2009. Without adequate schooling and therapy, arrested teens are far less likely to grow into productive adults, said Marty Beyer, a clinical psychologist in Eugene, Ore., who has assessed hundreds of young suspects. Beyer said those resources, cornerstones of juvenile detention programs, typically arent available in adult jails. Moving a juvenile into the adult criminal justice system the precursor to a jail stay also makes the

youngster more likely to reoffend, contends Donna Bishop, a criminal justice professor at Northeastern University in Boston. Transfer is more likely to aggravate recidivism than to stem it, according to a 2002 report Bishop co-authored, Juvenile Transfers to Criminal Court Study. Youngsters traditionally reach adult jail after a judge or district attorney decides to prosecute in adult court. But thats changing. In 2010, a fourth of all youths in adult jails at a given time were held on juvenile jurisdiction offenses, which tend to involve stolen property or illegal drugs. Far too many juveniles are in the adult system, federal official Slowikowski said in an interview. States need to address protecting the kids that are within their care, he said. Ronnie Welty, Owens dad, agrees. Hes still trying to understand how his young son could have spent years locked up with adults. We are supposed to be the greatest country in the world, he said. How can this happen to me and my family and my boy? It doesnt make any sense.

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in 3 adult jails, teen awaiting trial learns hard lessons

By Isaac Wolf Scripps Howard News Service

n his 14th birthday, Owen Welty got an unexpected gift: a half-pint carton of milk and chocolate sheet cake for 40 enough to share with all his fellow inmates and the guards at a Missouri jail.
Already confined eight months while awaiting trial on first-degree murder charges, Owen savored his drink and his cake. On the inside, mundane items become luxuries, metal and glass containers can be weaponized, and jailhouse noise can keep sleep at bay, leaving plenty of time for contemplation. Id sit down and just start thinking, recalls Owen, now 18. Back then, he fixated on being charged in the death of his 64-year-old neighbor, and the possibility of 30 years in prison. Cravings for Big Macs and clean clothes. Fears about fighting off older inmates who targeted him for attacks. Boredom from being kept in isolation for weeks at a time. Costly legal efforts that burdened his family. Owen was a baby-faced 13-year-old when he entered Missouris justice system in November 2006, spending all but one of the next 27 months moving among three adult jails. He was finally tried, acquitted and released in February 2009. Now a high school student with long, thick sideburns, hes been out of jail slightly longer than he was in. Its taking time to recover from the experience, Owen says while sitting at the kitchen table one sweltering August evening and in subsequent interviews. He cites daily flashbacks and a regular tendency to look over his shoulder in the school cafeteria. The setting reminds him of other institutions.

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SHNS photo by Mark Weber / The Commercial Appeal

In jail, inmates would mess with me because of how young I was, says Owen, who has since grown to roughly 6 feet tall and more than 200 pounds. They would knock the crap out of me. It was like a little game to them. But I finally got to where I guess you could say I fight good. The jails administrators confirm that Owen mingled at least occasionally with adult inmates, though they dispute the fighting and maintain the boy was kept safe. That he was incarcerated for so long didnt make the sheriffs jobs easier. Its difficult to put Owens case in context among those of other juveniles held in adult jails while awaiting trial 7,500 at any given time, the U.S. Justice Department says. No national data track the amount of time they spend in jail, the conditions they experience or their case outcomes. Rural jails, like two in which Owen was held, may not have the same level of resources found in those in more populous areas, said Ned Loughran, executive director of the Council of Juvenile Correctional Administrators. Its members come from all 50 states.

Owen Welty, charged with murder at age 13, alleges he suffered injuries such as a gashed nose while in adult jails in Missouri. After his acquittal and release, he moved with his family to Arkansas. Now 18, he helps with chores.
Courtesy of Ronnie Welty

Why was Owen placed in adult jails instead of in an age-appropriate youth facility? Retracing Owens saga through dozens of interviews and an extensive review of court materials, police reports, jail records and a review

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of applicable laws reveals the simple answer: because federal and Missouri laws allow it. TUESDAY, NOV. 14, 2006 Darkness had fallen when the Welty family parents Ronnie and Lori, Owen and his younger sister Veronica drove the few miles back to their Bloomfieldarea home from a visit and apple pie with Loris mom. Someone spotted a light on at their neighbors farm strange for about 8:30 p.m. Don McCollough, a construction foreman who lived in the nearby city of Dexter, Mo., often stopped by his farm and its SHNS photo by Mark Weber / The Commercial Appeal workshop but usually left before Ronnie Welty, left, says he wants compensation for son Owens jail experience. dark. Ronnie Welty pulled into Hefner hed confronted the Weltys and was concerned McColloughs driveway, and his wife climbed out of the that Owen might be dangerous, according to the sheriffs car to check on their neighbor. Moments later, her family report. heard her scream. Later that night, authorities asked to interview Owen Owen ran to his mom outside the workshop, where alone and to have him take a polygraph. His father refused. he saw McCollough lying motionless on the ground, dead At 2:17 a.m., the interview ended and the family went from a wound to the head. His thick white Santa beard home. source of his nickname Fuzzy was matted with blood. At 3:55 p.m. that Wednesday, a sheriffs deputy and Ronnie Welty raced to the home of another neighbor, juvenile officer knocked on the familys front door with a who phoned for help. Six minutes later, at 8:52 p.m., a warrant for the arrest of Owen Austin Welty. Stoddard County sheriffs deputy arrived. Owen was escorted out in handcuffs, bawling my With no eyewitnesses, the investigation quickly turned eyes out, he remembers. to the Welty family. By 11:10 p.m., a juvenile officer and state highway patrol detective were questioning Owen, WEDNESDAY, NOV. 15, 2006 with his father present, at county offices. A few miles away at the 25-bed Stoddard County JuveOwen acknowledged hed spent the afternoon huntnile Detention Center in Bloomfield, Owen got a physical, ing on another neighbors property, about 100 yards from an orange uniform and a one-person cell. where McColloughs body was found. Owen said hed The center provided structure seven hours of fired a single shot at a turkey, though out of season classroom instruction on school days, group discussions down a ravine and in the opposite direction from McColand recreation along with crisis intervention, substanceloughs workshop. abuse services and access to a licensed counselor, psycholoOwen and his parents insisted he hadnt shot at Mcgist or psychiatrist. Collough. But they faced skepticism. Early that afternoon, Inmates got three unlimited meals a day with fare McCollough had met with Stoddard County Sheriff like meat loaf and mashed potatoes plus ice cream and Carl Hefner to say he suspected that Owen had shot and other bedtime snacks. Owen said he never went hungry. killed his bull a couple of months earlier. McCollough told But, except for frequent visits with his parents, he went

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without much social interaction during his monthlong stay. Owen didnt participate in classes or other activities he said he wasnt aware of them. When he wasnt in his cell, Owen said he sat at a common-area table and shuffled a deck of cards. Owen caused problems (by) banging on walls/sink where other detainees cant sleep, according to psychologist Patricia Carter, who reviewed his records for a courtmandated psychological assessment. Carters written report detailed a long history of psychological difficulties. He was prescribed Strattera and Trazodone, drugs usually used to treat hyperactivity and depression. Juvenile officer Mike Davis declined to talk about Owens time in the youth facility, saying that as long as the teen was in the juvenile justice system, he retained a right to privacy. A day after Owens arrest, Sheriff Hefner and Davis announced in a press release that the 13-year-old was being charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action. It noted Davis request for a hearing to consider prosecuting Owen as an adult which almost inevitably would mean transfer to an adult jail and, if convicted, a harsher sentence. Bail was set at $250,000, cash only 10 times what Ronnie Welty made in an average year as a truck driver. Lori Welty is a homemaker. We are poor people, Ronnie Welty said. Meantime, investigators were building a case. An autopsy ruled McColloughs death a homicide, noting that a bullet had entered McColloughs jaw on the left, traveled through his neck and to his right shoulder. A ballistics test on a bullet fragment found at the crime scene initially ruled out Owens .243-caliber Rossi singleshot rifle. But Kathleen Green, the Missouri State Highway Patrols crime lab expert, decided to repeat her test a month later and overturned the finding, ruling that his gun could have shot the bullet. He was a juvenile and that bothered me. I just wanted to make sure I did everything possible in this case one way or another, Green said in an August phone interview. ... I just felt like I missed something. TUESDAY, DEC. 19, 2006 At the hearing a month after Owens arrest, Davis recommended to the youth court that the teens case be transferred to the adult criminal justice system. The judge presiding over the case, in the juvenile division of the Circuit Court of Stoddard County, agreed. It is not possible to devise a treatment or rehabilitative program in the juvenile justice system, Judge Joe Satterfield wrote in his decision a week later. He also noted that Owen who at 13 weighed about 200 pounds, according to medical records might be a threat. The protection of the community requires that the juvenile be transferred to the court of general jurisdiction, he wrote. Satterfield declined interview requests. That day, Owen was moved a few doors down to the county jail a 32-bed adult facility in a low-slung concrete-and-brick building. Owen had an observation cell, a tiny space with room for little more than a bed. A small window in the door broke the monotony of cinder-block walls. Owen spent 23 hours there each day, with a break for recreation. I couldnt do anything, Owen recalls. It was like sitting in juvenile (detention) ... and not being fed all the time. Food took on increased prominence. Sometimes, jailers would forget to feed me. I dont want to sound like a violent person but Id start kicking the door and raising hell, Owen says, a claim Hefner contests. Unlike the juvenile centers menus designed for growing youths, a typical jail lunch might be a hot dog or bologna sandwich served with orange Kool-Aid, though dinner would be more substantial, Hefner says. For recreation, Owen was taken outside to a narrow, grassy yard, its fence topped with coiled barbed wire. His rec time initially coincided with that of female inmates, then with male inmates, he claims. Owen says he spent the time walking in circles and talking with other inmates. Hefner says Owen sat by himself, was supervised constantly and never was in physical danger. The rest of the time, Owen did pushups or read James Patterson crime thrillers or Louis LAmour Westerns he found on a jail bookshelf. Hefner says Owen frequently disobeyed orders, shouting and chipping at a crack in the concrete floor so he could communicate with and pour water on an inmate in a basement cell below. I dont think he was crazy. I think he was just mis-

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chievous, Hefner says of Owen. He was 13 years old. He was bored to death. Every time you would walk by, he would be looking out the door and yelling. Owen claims he had reasons to yell. One day while he was crouched in his cell, trying to talk through the doors open food slot, a jailer kicked it shut and the metal plate gashed his nose, Owen alleges. Weeks later, his parents photographed the scab using a cellphone smuggled into a visitation room. Hefner says he doesnt know what caused the injury You mean that little scratch on his nose? he asked or whether Owen received medical attention. Neither account could be verified; the sheriff didnt respond to an open-records request. Owen says there were other problems. Once, a jailer took him to the bathroom for a strip search and grabbed me in between my legs, he says. Another time, a jailer used a stun gun on him. Hefner disputes these allegations, saying the jailer my family & friends. One letter reached Tammi Simpson, a senior trial attorney in the Justice Departments Civil Rights Division. Simpson responded in a letter to the family that she could not help them. Ronnie Welty says he also emailed an FBI tipline. Simpson declined to speak with Scripps Howard, and an FBI spokeswoman said the agency had no record of contact with the Welty family. TUESDAY, SEPT. 25, 2007 Two months after Owens low-key 14th birthday celebration, his case was transferred to Cape Girardeau County, about 45 miles northeast of his familys home. At Cape County, as its commonly known, Owen was the only juvenile among 178 inmates. At first he was kept apart because of his age, though with the murder charge he should have been placed among other inmates accused of violent crimes, says Sheriff John Jordan, of Cape Girardeau County. We were trying our best to accommodate a fish out of water. Not long afterward, Owen said he got bored with his situation and asked to be housed with the general population. He was switched to a 32-bed housing pod, where he still had his own cell but more interaction. Jordan said Owen was in daily contact with adult inmates whose charges ranged from drunken driving and burglary to assault. Owen was in danger, jail records show. In a memo dated June 20, 2008, a jail official wrote: We where (sic) also informed by several inmates that if we didnt move Owen that he would most likely get hurt for throwing water on sleeping inmates. One night, six inmates tied the teen to his bunk with a sheet, Owen alleges. One got on top of him, and Owen says he stabbed him with the makeshift knife he slept with. I never got raped when I was in there, he says. That was the only encounter with that. The jail has no record of Owen stabbing anyone, though in December 2006 staff found a shank hed made from a plastic spork. Two months later, Owen told authorities that an inmate had slapped him on the buttocks, choked him and threatened more violence, records show. Jordan says there was no evidence that Owen ever had been physically harmed. Owen was a troublemaker and a

Im thirteen and its really hard to be in an adult jail. Only seeing my parents once a week. ... I just want to go home to my family & friends.
Owen Welty, in a letter to President George W. Bush

in question has a stellar reputation and that any incident would have been recorded on cameras around the jail. But Hefner admits that Owens cell did not have a camera during most of the nine months the teen spent in the Stoddard County jail. Owen has a history of making unsubstantiated sexual assault claims. In 2004, he accused a school official of fondling him but recanted in 2005 after he was caught telling another student to lie about it, Carter wrote in her psychological report. While he was in jail, Owen and his parents sought help from federal authorities. Owen wrote several letters that his parents mailed to the White House and U.S. Justice Department, including one dated March 29, 2007: Im 13 and its really hard to be in an adult jail. Only seeing my parents once a week. ... I just want to go home to

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liar, he adds: He would constantly stir up problems. Its unclear whether the presiding judge, William Syler, was aware of Owens allegations. He did not respond to an interview request. Owens day typically began at 5 a.m. with pushups. Between meals, he did more pushups, read and played hearts or spades with other inmates, he says. The day ended as it began, with more pushups. He wasnt focused on learning. Neither county jail at Cape Girardeau or Stoddard supplied teachers. Instead, Lori Welty brought her son math worksheets and science, SHNS photo courtesy Ronnie Welty social studies and math textbooks only soft-cover versions allowed. But An undated photo shows Owen Welty in the Stoddard County (Mo.) Jail, where he Owen didnt understand the material, was sent at age 13. His father took the cellphone photo through a glass partition. and his mothers pleas for a teacher went unheeded. the case moved once more to St. Louis County. The Hefner, the Stoddard County sheriff, said that, given teen was transferred to the Buzz Westfall Justice Center in the tiny jail, we had nowhere in our facility to put (Owen) the St. Louis suburb of Clayton, about 170 miles north of and allow a tutor to come in. Bloomfield. Jordan, the Cape Girardeau County sheriff, said his jail For his first week in the 1,232-bed facility, he was isowasnt required to provide a teacher. lated in medical observation. County mental health experts But with few exceptions, Missouri mandates that and the jails placement staff judged that Owen almost youngsters under age 17 receive a formal education. Its 15 could handle being housed with adult inmates. Compulsory Attendance Law obliges parents or guardians Owen was moved to Pod 4-B, a 64-bed wing for to ensure that the child is enrolled in and regularly attends inmates detained on suspicion of property crimes and other public, private, parochial school, home school or a combinonviolent offenses. nation for the full academic year. Its center is an attractive two-story atrium with natural Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary light, clusters of tables painted with checkerboards, and a Education officials did not return calls. television and bookshelves. Inmates come here for meals School districts and county jails have a joint obligation and medication dispensed by a nurse, and go to the adjointo educate youths in their care, says Peter Leone, a Univering gym and showers. sity of Maryland education professor who works extensively Two floors of cells encircle the open area. Owen spent with the federal Justice Department and states to monitor 16 hours a day in his: a Spartan, 84-square-foot space with detention facilities. a metal bed attached to a cinder-block wall, a toilet, a sink Told that the two counties didnt provide a teacher for and a small desk etched with graffiti. Owen, he responds: Thats outrageous. Owen says conditions there were markedly better than those in Stoddard and Cape counties especially in terms FRIDAY, JUNE 20, 2008 of schooling and psychological care. Owens parents and lawyers, concerned that he Herbert Bernsen, St. Louis Countys justice services wouldnt get a fair trial near his home, succeeded in getting director, says he considers it his responsibility to provide

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an education to all inmates especially young ones: I know they need it. Owen signed up for math tutoring and took classes in GED test preparation, anger management and positive motivation. When he began his GED prep class, he scored at the sixth-grade level. By the time of his release seven months later, hed progressed to the 12th-grade level, his instructor told the jails volunteer coordinator, Richard Bruenderman. Owen was ready to take the GED exam but, because of his age, the Missouri Dept (sic) of Education would not let him take the test, Bruenderman wrote Scripps Howard in an email last August. Owen was a very good student who made great SHNS photo by Mark Weber / The Commercial Appeal progress. Owen Welty, 18, along with sister Veronica, 16 (right), and family friend Dakota At the same time, the teens behavior Williams, 14, look over their Facebook pages in his familys mobile home. had deteriorated. After months of minor infractions firm in Philadelphia. But as a practical matter, jailers run an unclean room, possible theft of office supplies Owen the kids life day to day. in late November 2008 mouthed off to a guard and then, Missouri agencies and jail and court officials said that days later, was found with six unidentified pills in his shoe. because Owen had been labeled an adult, they had no The jail put him in administrative segregation reason to extend the protections usually given to children. corrections-speak for solitary confinement from Dec. 1 The states Department of Social Services does not have until his release Feb. 13, 2009. any oversight of certified youth, spokesman Seth Bundy While housed with the general population, Owen says said. Its Department of Corrections spokesman, Chris he felt threatened. He was stabbed in the ribs and left arm Cline, said his agency does not provide advisory opinions in late summer 2008, he alleges, adding that staff banregarding legal matters. daged his wounds. Fox said he wasnt sure that Owen even needed a legal Owens inmate record doesnt indicate any physical guardian after his certification at age 13. For the purposes mistreatment. Bernsen says hes very confident that the of the justice system, he is an adult, Fox said. So I dont teen never was harmed. know if he maintains that need or not. Paul Fox, a spokesman for Missouris 21st Circuit Stoddard County officer Davis, who supervised Owen Court, says the court had no indication of any danger to for the first month after his arrest, said he had no idea Owen. A former public defender, Fox adds: Whenever I Owen later was housed with adult inmates risking represented a certified juvenile, I got nervous about them abuse and deprived of access to a teacher. Once Owen being in an adult jail because of safety concerns. was out of his jurisdiction, I wasnt concerned for his Amid the transfers from juvenile detention center to safety, he said. the three jails, a central question loomed: Who was responStoddard Countys Sheriff Hefner said Owens parents sible for Owens well-being? Who held guardianship: his retained guardianship: I dont think of myself as a parent parents or the court? in a jail setting. Parents technically retain responsibility over an incarBut his staff sometimes took away Owens weekly cerated child, said Bob Schwartz, executive director of the phone and visitation privileges for poor behavior, according Juvenile Law Center, a national nonprofit public-interest to Carters psychological report.

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The jail should not have kept Owens parents from seeing their son, Schwartz said: One isnt supposed to lose the right to see ones parents prior to being convicted. Ideally, Hefner said, juveniles certified as adults should be kept separate, and safe, from older inmates but tight finances often preclude that. Even though they are certified as adults, he said, they are still children. FEBRUARY 2009 Roughly 27 months after Owen was arrested, his case went to trial. Jury selection began on Feb. 9, 2009, a Monday. By Thursday, Owen was acquitted. He was released from jail that Friday, Feb. 13. In an interview, Briney Welborn, who prosecuted Owen, admitted that he had a weak, circumstantial case in the murder of Don McCollough. There were no eyewitnesses, and the ballistics report couldnt prove Owen fired the fatal bullet. Welborn was voted out of the prosecutors job last November. Owens case was not a factor in his defeat, he says. Now hes a private attorney handling criminal defense and family law, among other things. Welborn says hes conflicted about whether he thinks Owen killed McCollough: Its kind of a Catch-22. I believe in the system. They (jurors) acquitted him, so I believe hes innocent. But theres no other leads out there, no other suspects. The victims son is not sympathetic to Owens long detention and jail experiences. All that defendants have to do is make bail and theyre out, says Michael McCollough, 51, who lives near his late fathers home. And just because somebody dont get convicted dont mean theyre innocent, he continues in a brief phone conversation, declining to talk further. Right after his release, Owen, younger sister Veronica and mom Lori moved from Missouri to Clay County, Ark., where the family had relatives and hopes for a fresh start. Dad Ronnie stayed behind for a year until he found truck-driving work closer to their new place. A mobile home set in a wooded lot, it has a no trespassing sign affixed to its side. Owen immediately enrolled in Piggott High, a school with about 460 students. At first, other students taunted Owen and Veronica, school counselor Phyllis Morgan recalls in an August interview at her office. Youre going to have your older kids that want to be bullies and make comments. AUGUST 2011 Owen, now 18 and a senior, has made friends among his classmates and teachers. Last spring, he went to the prom, wearing a black tuxedo with a spiffy red vest, tie and kerchief. He spends free time with friends at parties, driving around town or lounging at home on Facebook. Piggott High helped him attain enough credits so that he should graduate this May. However, he took the ACT college entrance exam in March and scored in the sixth percentile. Morgan attributed that to so much missed schooling. She described Owen as hardworking and intelligent, with a strong interest in technical topics. Owen dreams of going to college or tech school, maybe becoming a master welder. I hope it turns out how I want it to turn out but... he says, his voice trailing off. Maybe it does. He wont be able to get much financial help from his family. His dad, Ronnie Welty, filed for bankruptcy in October 2010. Owens doing what he can to help. He spent the summer picking weeds in a cotton field; in fall, he worked for a pumpkin patch and haunted house. Hes also working on an anger problem, but its gotten a lot better, Owen says during a car ride one August afternoon. Owen says that, after he got out of jail, he had weekly sessions with a psychologist. He no longer sees anyone his parents dont think its necessary. But when they werent around, he confided he might still like someone to talk to. The family has several reasons for talking about Owens case. Ronnie Welty wants compensation maybe a scholarship to make up for lost education for what his son and family endured. Lori Welty wants Owens arrest record expunged, but the family cannot afford several thousand dollars for an attorney to take the case. For his part, Owen wants people to know what he experienced. Maybe another young teen wont have to go through what he did in terms of the conditions and duration of his jail time. It was bad. It was real bad. It took 2 1/2 years out of my life, out of my familys life. We fought, we spent our life savings on it, he said. Its terrible. I dont think juveniles should be transferred into the adult jails. You know what I mean?

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to build, or not to build?

By Isaac Wolf Scripps Howard News Service

Baltimores proposed juvenile jail stirs controversy

A plan to build a new jail in Baltimore just for youngsters has come under withering criticism from community groups who want criminal justice reform -- not a new facility. Maryland officials, long under federal pressure to improve conditions at the 90-bed Baltimore City Detention Center, are mulling whether to build a separate jail for suspects under age 18. Estimates for the proposed facility, which would house up to 230 inmates, are as high as $100 million. But opponents say the state instead should focus on reducing the need for more jail space. While almost every state allows the court some discretion in whether to move a juvenile to the adult criminal justice system, legal experts say Marylands law is extreme in requiring that 16- and 17-year-olds charged with any of 23 crimes from murder to transportation offenses be moved to the adult prison system.

The law should be changed so all youth are treated as youth, said Monique Dixon, deputy director of Open Society Institute-Baltimore, an advocacy group. There is already a system designed for young people charged with crimes. Its called the juvenile justice system. Compared with adult jails, juvenile detention facilities generally provide more extensive education and social services, shorten the time needed to resolve a case and reduce the likelihood of reoffending after release, some experts say. Baltimores jail could reduce the number of juvenile beds to as few as 44 if the state allowed more discretion in charging and processing young suspects, the National Council on Crime and Delinquency observed in a report last May. The Oakland, Calif., nonprofit noted a minor suspects average stay is four months. The report found that about 66 percent of all juveniles committed to the jail leave without conviction in adult court. Thirty-eight percent have their cases downgraded to youth court and 14 percent are acquitted or have charges dropped. The remaining 14 percent are released on bail, though some of these youths may be convicted later, the reports author told Scripps Howard News Service. The reports funding came from the state, Dixons group and the Baltimore-based Annie E. Casey Foundation, which advocates on behalf of disadvantaged children and families. The impetus for a new jail came from a U.S. Justice Department investigation launched in 2000. It found the Baltimore jail was deliberately indifferent to inmates needs, and it raised concerns about whether juveniles were kept apart from adult inmates, according to a 2009 analysis for state lawmakers. Rick Binetti, spokesman for Marylands SHNS photo by Kristin Volk Department of Public Safety and Correctional A sign at the Baltimore City Detention Center: admonishment or pledge?

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Services, denied that underage inmates were ever in proximity to adult inmates. In an email to Scripps Howard, he wrote that the facilities themselves do not provide proper separation. However, procedures are in place for staff to manage mass movement in such a way the two populations do not come into contact. Since April, young inmates have bunked in an annex segregated from the general population, though they exercise daily in the main buildings gym, said Mark Vernarelli, a corrections department spokesman. On a recent tour of the annex, two Scripps reporters found dim, fenced-in communal quarters that smelled faintly of urine and had obscenity-laced graffiti scrawled on the cinder-block walls. But double-decker bunk beds were neatly made, with threadbare, sometimes torn blankets tucked into plastic mattresses. Binetti didnt give a timetable for any decision. But, in an email Monday, he said he expected his department would support something likely in the ballpark with the councils recommendations.

Unclear oversight
By Isaac Wolf Scripps Howard News Service

Jurisdictional differences fuel uncertainty

federal, state and local governments. And it creates uncertainty about the care of youths in custody. The inspection request was pointless because city policy explicitly forbids holding juveniles in the city jail at any time, Andrea Taylor, a spokeswoman for Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, said in an email Sept. 6 to Scripps Howard. But in another email three days later, she wrote that the city holds juveniles there for short periods of time. Ryan Gies, the state youth services deputy director, said the impasse has been resolved. Ohio law has been changed to give his agency oversight and the Cleveland jail has provided inmate records. State auditors visited the facility Oct. 18 and found no violations. We have been working to improve our monitoring system ... and we will continue to do that, Gies said. Ohio receives $2 million a year in U.S. Justice Department funding for its juvenile justice programs. States that dont comply with federal rules risk losing such funds. But Jeff Slowikowski, the OJJDPs acting administrator, said he generally didnt want to withhold money because that might reduce compliance and jeopardize youths. The goal here is protecting kids, Slowikowski said. We want states to stay working with us.

Even when jails reportedly uphold a federal rule to keep juveniles safe from adult inmates, federal authorities cannot always verify their claims. Case in point: Clevelands Central Prison Unit. During a routine review of Ohios jails, youth detention centers, prisons and group homes in May 2010, two federal Justice Department auditors tried to inspect the jail. Among other things, the auditors wanted to make sure detainees 17 and younger were segregated from adult inmates by sight and sound, a provision of the 1974 Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act. No, a spokeswoman for the city said: No young suspects were detained there, and no, the city wouldnt grant the auditors access. The rebuffed auditors, from the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, complained that lack of access limited their oversight and their ability to ensure youths safety. The state must obtain monitoring authority, either through legislation or executive order, to monitor all facilities that might house juveniles, Carmen Santiago Roberts and Elissa Rumsey wrote about their attempted visit May 27, 2010. The incident exposes jurisdictional tensions among

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Volume of youth transfers to adult jail questioned

By Isaac Wolf Scripps Howard News Service

has served 27 years on the bench. Nine thousand times a year, U.S. judges Even a very young age doesnt exempt move the cases of juvenile suspects into defendants from transfer. The database shows criminal court, opening the door to a stay in some 1,528 suspects 12 or younger were adult jail. transferred, including 623 charged with vioWhile judges say these transfers are lent crimes. More 651 faced charges of meant for youths suspected of the most property crimes. dangerous offenses, only two out of five Those data may not reflect the scope of transferred youths stand accused of a violent the crimes, Burke said, explaining that some crime against another person, the Scripps juveniles who committed more serious crimes Howard News Service found in analyzing pleaded to lesser charges. Burke said he would data from almost a quarter-million cases. encourage his organizations 3,000 members Most youngsters moved to adult court are SHNS photo by Allen Brisson-Smith to reduce judicial transfers. charged with crimes involving drugs, weapKevin Burke, president The volume of transferred youths someons or property. of the American Judges what mirrors teen crime rates. A national teen A case transfer flags a suspect 17 or Association, contends crime wave in the early 1990s increased the younger as an adult. Forty-seven states allow too many minors get these certified juveniles to be held in adult transferred from juvenile to number of transfers, which crested at 13,710 in 1994, then declined and leveled off at about jail, the U.S. Justice Department says; 14 of adult court. 9,000 a year by 2000. them sometimes require it. Female offenders represent just 7 percent of the juveMost transferred juveniles face charges for crimes other nile cases transferred during the data-collection period, but than murder, rape, robbery or assault, National Center for their share is growing. In 1985, they constituted 5 percent Juvenile Justice data show. The Pittsburgh-based nonprofit of transfers (370 out of 7,212). By 2008, their share had publishes records covering 228,771 cases moved from swelled to nearly 9 percent (773 out of 8,898). youth court to the adult criminal justice system from 1985 Some judges and juvenile justice experts think fewer to 2008. youth suspects should be sent to adult court. Transfers to the adult system can negatively affect Invariably, its a mistake, said retired Massachusetts young suspects, reducing their access to social services, Judge Gordon Martin, who served as an associate justice of lengthening the time needed to resolve a case and increasthe Massachusetts Trial Court for 20 years and headed the ing the chances that the youths will reoffend, some reRoxbury District Court in Boston. He serves on a Justice searchers and youth advocates say. Department council overseeing juvenile justice. Judges transfer far too many juveniles, suggested Kevin Decades ago, transfer hearings took several days and Burke, president of the American Judges Association. the resulting decisions were among the most difficult a There are a fair number of not-very-serious offendjudge could make, Martin said. Now the transfer hearing ers who end up getting certified. I dont quite understand may only be a formality. that, to be honest with you, Burke said, responding to the Its an assembly line, Martin said. Scripps findings. The Minneapolis-area district court judge

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Editorial

Dont jail minors with adults

By Dale Mcfeatters Scripps Howard News Service

Common sense says that juvenile criminal suspects should not be housed with adults. There are the obvious dangers of beatings, sexual assault and informal but enforced slavery at the hands and fists of older inmates. But there is also the danger of juveniles 17 and younger psychologically susceptible despite their perhaps adult physical size coming to believe in might-makes-right as a social code. In many jurisdictions, jails lack educational facilities for youths who otherwise would be in high school or an alternative school specializing in dealing with troublemakers. Mixing youths with adults, especially without schooling and rehabilitation, can produce ill-educated, hardened criminals just waiting to happen. It leads to a documented cycle of recidivism, usually beginning soon after the youths release. Its best to head off that cycle when a youth first enters the system. Federal law aims to keep juveniles separated from adults, but an exception a loophole, if you will allows for juvenile offenders charged with serious offenses like murder, rape and assault to be sent to adult jails. The federal Bureau of Justice Statistics says roughly 5,600 were so incarcerated at any one time in 2010. Make no mistake: Many of these are dangerous thugs in the making. All but three states North Carolina, West Virginia and Wyoming permit these juveniles to be locked up in adult jails. Twenty-nine states exploit the exception for

serious crimes, and 18 states, to their credit, have rules exceeding the federal standards. Another 1,900 youths, charged in the juvenile justice system typically for less serious drug and property crimes, were in adult jails often simply because it was cheaper for cash-strapped jurisdictions to keep them there. This number has doubled since 2005. In a reporting package about juveniles held in adult jails, Scripps Howard News Services Isaac Wolf shows that their confinement in terms of conditions and duration vary widely by state. Much of the nation has a system of reform schools and juvenile detention centers. But they are expensive. In Florida, it costs $280 a day to house a youth compared to $80 a day for an adult. Just as with state mental asylums, reformers argued that the mentally ill and juvenile offenders could be better handled back in their own communities, but in both cases the needed support services were never provided. The problem was dumped in the laps of the police and the courts. Lumping juveniles in with adults only guarantees problems down the road. There is also the troubling constitutional-rights issue of holding juveniles, who have been charged but not tried, in adult facilities arguably cruel, unusual and unnecessary punishment absent a trial. One measure of a society is its criminal justice system. Ours is falling short with juveniles routed into adult jails.

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