Meet John Saccu, the Derby resident who tries to keep your kid out of a court, far away from lawyers and judges.
Saccu is the director of the Derby Youth Services Bureau. In the last four years, he and local leaders in the Valley have been organizing a Juvenile Review Board to help steer kids in trouble away from the juvenile justice system.
The review board launched last spring. When kids get into trouble — and the type of trouble varies — Saccu and about 10 others on the juvenile review board decide what to do with them.
The idea isn’t necessarily to punish the “offenders,” who range in age from 11 to 17 years old.
“There are consequences here, but we’re not going to send him out to just paint a fence,” Saccu said.
Rather, the idea is to get the kids on the right track so they won’t grow up to be criminals.
The local review board covers Ansonia, Derby and Seymour. Shelton already has a juvenile review board, but the two entities make referrals to each other, such as when a juvenile from Derby gets in trouble in Shelton.
Types Of Crimes
For any hardliners out there who want to see kids publicly flogged for committing criminal offenses, don’t worry — the review board isn’t reviewing cases from teen serial killers. The incidents they review are not violent or serious crimes.
Twenty-seven percent of the 17-year-olds who enter the juvenile justice system are there because of simple assault, meaning the victim was assaulted but not seriously injured. Seventeen percent are there for larceny. Another seventeen percent are there for disorderly conduct.
Philosophy
The philosophy behind Juvenile Review Boards has support from state government and the state’s judicial branch. In fact, the state designated local youth bureaus to be the focal group in efforts to establish juvenile review boards.
Kids who enter the juvenile justice system are seven times more likely to commit a crime again, according to the Connecticut Juvenile Justice Alliance (CTJJA), a group that has lobbied to change the way the state treats juvenile offenders.
CTCJA produced a widely seen documentary in 2011 called “Education vs. Incarceration: The Real Cost of Failing Our Kids.”
Among its talking points — in 2007, the Nutmeg State was one of five states in the U.S. that spent more on incarceration than education. While it takes on average about $13,000 to educate a child, it takes about $350,000 to educate the child within a juvenile detention center.
The new Juvenile Review Board has support from police departments in Ansonia, Derby, Seymour and Shelton — along with the mayors and First Selectmen from those municipalities.
“We’re reducing the workload for the courts. The kids aren’t traumatized by going through the stigma of the courts and we’re saving a significant amount of money,” Saccu said.
How It Works
There are a number of ways local young people can be referred to the local juvenile review board.
A police officer who encounters a young person can make the referral, Saccu said.
Or the court may decide to refer a young person directly to the review board.
It’s also possible for kids to come in contact with the review boards by referrals from schools or parents.
When police and courts are involved, the first step is for Saccu to arrange a meeting with the young person and his or her parents to explain the “process.” The proceedings are confidential.
“These are kids that are arrested for less serious crimes, not serious offenses — but they are serious enough for a juvenile summons to be created,” Saccu said.
Saccu tries to get information on the incident, the juvenile’s mindset toward what happened and a sense of the family.
The Review
Next, the young person and his parents appear in front of the juvenile review board. Those hearings have been happening in the lower level of Derby City Hall or in the Aldermanic Chambers at Ansonia City Hall.
By this point, the juvenile with his family must have acknowledged that the juvenile did something wrong. The hearing isn’t a trial with prosecutors and defense lawyers, Saccu said.
It’s more of fact-finding mission were the juvenile review board tries to get an idea as to how they can help the families.
“It can be intimidating, but that’s not the idea,” Saccu said.
The members of the review board will ask questions of both the family and the juvenile. A typical hearing could take 30 to 45 minutes. Then the juvenile and his or her family leave the room while the review board decides what to do.
The options for the review board vary.
The review board can mandate community service — but that doesn’t mean the kid is dumped on the side of Route 8 in an orange jumpsuit for an afternoon of collecting trash. Instead, Saccu said, the young person may be sent to do community service and the Boys and Girls Club in Ansonia — a place where people can have a positive influence on his or her life.
There’s a science to what the juvenile review board recommends — most kids get into trouble between 3 and 6 p.m., when they’re out of school but before parents get home from work, according to CTCJA. So community service at a place that hosts after-school programs makes sense.
In addition, the review board may mandate the juvenile receive help from the myriad of social service agencies in the Valley. Treatment could include anything from anger management counseling to substance abuse screening.
The review board may also recommend counseling for the parents. Saccu described one case where a single father was simply overwhelmed by his child’s behavior. The family was referred to an intensive counseling program for help, Saccu said.
“Some of these cases can get very emotional. A parent and a kid will come in, they’ll begin talking and some things come out that they’ve never said to each other before,” Saccu said.
Monetary restitution in certain cases and letters of apology can also be mandated.
If the juvenile complies with everything required by the review board, Saccu tells the court all is well.
“Essentially, if they have complied, the arrest goes away. There is no record, the summons is gone,” he said.
Saccu said the role parents play in the process cannot be underestimated.
So Far …
Since last spring, Saccu said eight juvenile cases have “successfully” made their way through the juvenile review process. Four cases are pending. Two families declined to partake in the process, which left Saccu shaking his head. Those two cases are referred back to juvenile court, with a note from Saccu explaining the juvenile refused to participate. Those families then have to spend money on lawyers and take their chances with a judge — and risk having a juvenile arrest record.
“In this process the parents can be the kid’s best advocate or his biggest barrier,” Saccu said.
Ansonia Police Chief Kevin Hale said police departments support the philosophy behind juvenile review boards.
It gives an officer another option to help a young person, Hale said, while reducing the caseload of the state’s courts.
“It’s a great thing because ultimately it benefits the juvenile,” the chief said.
