More placement options needed for youngest juvenile offenders

Opinion editor’s note: Star Tribune Voices publishes a mix of commentary online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

•••

Ten days ago, children between the ages of 11 and 13 were shot in north Minneapolis while riding in a stolen Kia. Their assailants, also believed to be juveniles driving a stolen dark-colored sedan, drove by and fired dozens of rounds at the vehicle, injuring four of the five kids inside. Minneapolis police officers reported recovering about 30 shell casings from the scene.

The shooters have not yet been apprehended by police. But in too many situations when preteens are picked up by officers, they’re taken to juvenile detention briefly, then released. In fact, according to Minneapolis police, at least a couple of those who were shot last week had been picked up and let go earlier this summer in connection with another car theft.

While shocking, crime involving kids so young once again highlights the vexing question of what to do with very young children involved in auto thefts that morph into more serious violent crimes. Part of the answer lies in providing more safe, secure and well-resourced places for them to be held immediately after being picked up by cops.

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara has called several violent crimes involving those 14 and under this summer “brazen and “outrageous.” He said during an interview that he agrees that effective prevention efforts are important, but so is increasing the number of safe, secure facilities.

O’Hara noted that car thefts overall are down but that there’s been a small increase in the number of stolen Kias and Hyundais in the past month. Still, the crimes by younger juveniles in relation to the thefts has become more violent — including more aggravated assaults, robberies, hit-and-run crashes and gun-related crimes.

He said there is an alarming overlap between the stolen vehicles and violent acts from the small group of younger juveniles. He added that he’s all for diversion programs that can help some young people when appropriate. But the small group of young people who are repeatedly arrested learn from the system that there will be no immediate consequences.

“We keep sending them back out there — in some cases to die,” O’Hara said. “I have had parents of some of these kids beg me to arrest and hold them because they don’t know what to do with them.”

The MPD also reports that victims of violent crimes are getting younger: In 2023, a total of 29 kids ages 11 to 15 were killed or injured by gunfire; so far this year, that number is 13. That’s compared to 2019, when there were four.

During a news conference last week, the chief said the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office should do more to charge and allow younger juveniles to be held. He added that the number of the more active, repeat offenders isn’t high, but it has grown over the years.

But County Attorney Mary Moriarty pointed out that there are legal limitations on what can be done with those 14 and under who are not considered competent enough to understand what is happening to them. And it is difficult for officers to compile the appropriate evidence to send to her office to make it possible to charge the youth.

Meanwhile, Moriarty’s office says its Youth Auto Theft Intervention Initiative has produced results since it launched last summer. Moriarty and Sarah Davis, director of the county attorney’s Children and Family Division, said that of the young people referred to the program and who worked with a social worker, 81% had no new charges.

Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt was one of about a half dozen metro area police officials who met recently to discuss the issues. She said they agreed that more secure facilities are needed not just to punish young people but to get them the immediate help that they need.

“The facilities we have now were there for the kinds of issues we’re seeing now. It’s not just about stealing bikes and candy bars,” she said. “We have to protect these kids from themselves and each other — and we must protect society from them,” because increasingly younger kids commit acts that terrorize and cause fear in communities. She added that victims of the crimes — those who vehicles are stolen and damaged, and neighborhoods affected by the gunfire — must also be considered.

While there may be some differences between them, the various arms of the local juvenile justice system agree that there need to be more safe, secure place for young people to be held, places where they can be taken out of the environment that foster the crimes. As was noted in an October 2022 Star Tribune investigative news series, when counties and other local government shifted away from operating youth detention centers, those centers were not replaced with other secure facilities.

In 2023, the Legislature approved a major public safety bill that included a new, statewide office to encourage alternative restorative justice approaches for juveniles. It also allocated millions for important local youth intervention programs designed to steer children away from the criminal justice system.

Still, lawmakers, local government and nonprofits must work with youth must also increase the number of placement options for the active, repeat younger offenders when they are arrested. Immediate intervention/consequences for them matters. Lives and futures can depend on it.