JUVENILE SANCTIONS

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The following was summarized from the Connecticut's Office of Policy and Management: Juvenile Justice & Youth Development and the National Center for Juvenile Justice.

WHAT ARE JUVENILE SANCTIONS?

The juvenile justice system has a wide variety of sentencing options other than incarceration to attempt to rehabilitate children found to be delinquent. Generally, the law defines a "delinquent" as a child under 16 years of age who has violated or attempted to violate any federal or state law, order of the Superior Court or local law or municipal ordinance. Juvenile court judges have broad authority regarding what they can order children found to be delinquent to do. The court may:

• place the delinquent child in the care of any institution or agency permitted by law to care for him;
• order the child to participate in an alternative incarceration program;
• order the child to participate in the wilderness school program operated by the Department of Children and Families;
• order the child to remain in his own house or in the custody of a relative or any other fit person subject to the supervision of a probation officer;
• order the child, as a condition of probation, to participate in a treatment program;
• order the child to work in public buildings or private property;
• order the child to make restitution to the victim of his offense in an amount he can afford to pay or provide in a suitable manner for the cost or damage he caused;
• commit the child to the Department of Children and Families if it finds that its own probation service or other services available to him are not adequate.

Most rehabilitative efforts in juvenile court are conditions of probation. Juvenile matters are unique in that probation officers have the authority to handle certain cases out of court and to dispose of these cases nonjudicially. A "delinquent" child may be placed under the supervision of a probation officer and be required to perform community service, make restitution to the victim, and attend counseling. However, if the child violates a condition of probation, the juvenile court judge has the option of having the child confined in the secure facility at the Connecticut Juvenile Training School.

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SOURCE: Connecticut's Office of Policy and Management: Juvenile Justice & Youth Development; National Center for Juvenile Justice
PREPARED BY: 211/kq
CONTENT LAST MODIFIED: February2013