OPINION - Editorial

Probation system a mess

So tell us something we didn’t know

The headline on Page 1 of Arkansas' Newspaper on Sunday told it all: Probation often hurts kids instead of helping them.

Although this report, complete with its conclusion, was finished more than a year ago, it was never released by the state's Administrative Office of the Courts, which commissioned it at a cost of $53,000. Most of that came in the form of federal grants. So what th' heck, it was only federal money and doesn't count, right? Wrong. Because the people of Arkansas are also federal citizens and every dollar should be accounted for, and every public document made public.

This big batch of paperwork came courtesy of the Robert F. Kennedy National Resource Center for Juvenile Justice in Boston. And it came complete with the kind of advice that is just plain common sense, for which there is no charge. Such as:

• Let staffers know what is expected of them.

• Improve oversight of the probation program.

• Update the training program for probation officers from time to time.

• Keep better records on kids who are placed on probation.

Ya think? Naturally enough, good managers within the system have already thought of such obvious steps, while bad managers we will always have with us. And like the kids good and bad in the system, its managers need to be sorted out, and many straightened out--or failing that, they need to find another line of work.

By their language ye shall know them, and too many judges, probation officers and various straw bosses in the system seem to speak only bureaucratese. Lest we forget, probation is just one aspect of this state's system of juvenile justice, and much of it is mired in similar problems. Bloated, inflated language is a telltale sign of a system in trouble. It's not an easy job, dealing with an even supposedly normal teenager, as any mom and dad with one well knows.

One 16-year-old who was stopped during a routine traffic check told the cop quizzing her that she was 2 feet tall and weighed 2 pounds. Miss two-by-two said she figured she had nothing to lose by cracking wise because her foster parents wouldn't want her any more since she'd got in trouble. The cop accused her of obstruction of justice, though her real crime seemed to have been sarcasm.

Once upon a time her behavior might have been considered mouthing off and she would have been grounded for it. Instead she's liable to be jailed in an age when some folks seem determined to make a federal case of anything.

There's a lot more to note in this report on juvenile justice if you have the patience to wade through it. The one thing Gentle Reader can be certain of is that similar reports will be submitted in the future. For this state's probation system may be in a state of chronic crisis interrupted only by occasional acute spasms.

Bless all those doing their best to work with kids, whether their own or those of other folks--and there seem to be many a probation officer and judge who are doing their ever-loving best, emphasis on loving. Let's wish them all good luck, for they'll surely need it.

But these reports about how Arkansas handles too many of our kids in the juvee system are getting too frequent (when they're released at all), and many of these children in the system aren't much more than truants. We the People don't seem to be teaching them anything good about how the law treats the least among these. Or about life. We refuse to change, and improve, at our own peril. And at the peril of the future of our kids.

But do we repeat ourselves?

Editorial on 03/07/2018

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