Delinquent 17-year-olds tried in adult courts between July and November of last year should have their cases transferred back to Family Court, according to a ruling by Superior Court Judge Daniel Procaccini earlier this month.
Attempting to reduce the state's $450 million budget deficit, Gov. Donald Carcieri '65 passed a law last July to send 17-year-olds to adult prison instead of the Rhode Island Training School in Cranston, the state's juvenile detention facility.
State legislators thought the annual housing cost at the Adult Correctional Facility was $40,000 per person, compared to $98,000 per person at the Training School, said Joseph Cardin, deputy superintendent of the Training School. But they failed to realize that a prison inmate under 21 is required to be housed under maximum security, which costs $104,000.
The law was repealed in November. This created more than 500 "gap kids" who had been tried as adults between July and November, according to a Feb. 6 article in the Providence Journal. A judge ordered the misdemeanor cases back to Family Court, the Journal reported, but it is unclear if more than 100 youths who committed felonies in that period would also be sent down to the juvenile court.
Procaccini put his Feb. 5 ruling - clarifying what would happen to the gap kids - on hold for 20 days, allowing the attorney general to appeal to the state Supreme Court.
The ruling is an "important first step" in bringing the gap kids back to the juvenile court system, said Steven Brown, executive director of the Rhode Island affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Brown said Carcieri's law was "counterproductive" and risked exposing juveniles to "physical harm" in adult prison.
Darrell West, professor of political science, said it was "short-sighted" of the administration to pass the law in the without first assessing the cost of sending juveniles to adult prison.
He said overturning the legislation is "a good decision" since the law "created inequity in terms of how people were treated."
The stigma attached to being sentenced to adult prison threatens the juveniles' prospects in terms of getting student loans or getting jobs, said John Hardiman, the state's chief public defender, who is representing almost 200 juveniles in district and superior courts.
Hardiman said he is "happy" with the ruling and hopes it will be upheld by the Supreme Court.
"I'd like to see (the gap kids) at the Training School," he said.
Cardin said many offenders at the school commit serious crimes such as felony assaults, sexual assaults, child molestation and firearm possession.
"This is in essence a youthful offender prison," Cardin said. When "you take all the window-dressing away, all the euphemisms ... guys come here for serious things."
But he added that the school provides them with many resources for rehabilitation.
"We do provide the opportunity for kids who want to turn their lives around, for kids who haven't had good experiences in school or good experiences managing their behavior," he said.
Some juveniles at the Training School said they are thankful for the chance to reflect on and learn from their mistakes.
An 18-year-old youth at the school said that though this is his fourth time coming back to the school, he is not as "wild" as he used to be.
"I think a lot more," said the youth, who did not want to be named in this article. "(I've learned) people skills, how to respect another person."
But he said it's only a "possibility" that he will use the school's help to get a job in the future.
"Everything's not on a silver platter for me," he said. "If I don't do what I do (there's) the possibility of going hungry, not having a place to live."
