Shelby Co. DA, juvenile court judge to ask state to back experimental program

Two recently elected criminal justice officials in Shelby County are asking the state to permit a blended sentencing program to be piloted in Memphis.

Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy and Juvenile Court Judge Tarik Sugarmon said blended sentencing acts as a "middle ground approach," according to Mulroy, where repeat offenders are not shipped off to adult prison.

The program would allow Sugarmon to keep some of these youths in the juvenile system after turning 19, when the juvenile court system loses jurisdiction.

"One thing that came out of our session is that, if we do this at all, it has to be done very carefully in a way that it doesn't widen the net — it doesn't increase the number of people under the age of 18 who are being shipped off to adult prison," Mulroy said. "One approach that state Representative GA Hardaway has been pursuing is the idea of starting out as a Shelby County pilot program."

Mulroy and Sugarmon hosted representatives from a number of groups at the Urban Child Institute at Crosstown Concourse.

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The nearly three-and-a-half-hour meeting Thursday was a joint effort of the two officials' plan to restructure the juvenile justice system in a way they say is most likely to curb the rise in violent youth crime and slash the number of repeat offenders.

"Study after study after study shows that, for the vast majority of young people, contact with the criminal justice system can actually sometimes hurt more than it does help," Mulroy told a group of reporters from the fourth floor of the building. "It makes some young people more likely to reoffend, to get back into the system. As a result, our overall goal should be to minimize contact with the criminal justice system for...as many young people as possible."

The opening remarks came as Mulroy and Sugarmon detailed some of what they had learned from the meeting, which was closed to the public. Some of their remarks echoed their campaign calls for preparing young Memphians for re-entry as an alternative to punishing them to the fullest extent of the law.

The pilot program, according to Sugarmon, would need to be coupled with a reform strategy, which he said will help young Memphians have an easier time with re-entry into the community.

"As youth come out of the juvenile court system and mature, we want to have youth re-entry programs," Sugarmon said. "They get job training, skills training and further education. Not every child will necessarily go on to college, but every person deserves to have a good, working wage. We want to have those resources available not only at the detention center, but also as children enter the school system to make sure they have counseling, the rehabilitative services and mentoring they need."

Mulroy emphasized that this program would not mean every person entering the juvenile court system would be back in the community eventually, nor that it would prevent every minor from being charged as an adult, but said focusing on the group that could be rehabilitated would allow the system to focus on the most violent young offenders.

"What we are saying right now is not saying that there are not those youthful offenders who are repeat violent offenders and who do in fact pose a public danger," Mulroy said. "We're not saying that those offenders don't need to be punished and sent to prison. What we're saying is, for a large portion of those [nonviolent young offenders] there are alternatives to incarceration that will allow us to focus more on that minority group, that smaller group that do pose a public danger."

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The program would take funding, although no dollar amount was named, but Sugarmon said he is meeting with various groups to talk about where the money can come from, and spoke about the need for a holistic approach with support from the state.

"...This has to be a holistic approach and it's going to take some money," he said. "But I think with the combination of the district attorney's office and the juvenile court working together collaboratively, I think the dollars will be there. It is going to take some resources, but we have to make sure that not only do we ask for the dollars we need, but we will have to use them effectively."

Lucas Finton is a news reporter for The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached by email at Lucas.Finton@CommercialAppeal.com and followed on Twitter @LucasFinton.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Newly-elected officials seek experimental program to fight youth crime