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Juvenile Court in Connecticut
Often Asked Questions

A Guide for Children and Families in the Juvenile Justice System
January, 2011

This was prepared to assistance children and families who are involved in the juvenile justice system in Connecticut. It is not intended to substitute for the advice of a lawyer and should not be relied on every bit legal advice. Children who are accused of a crime and their families should seek legal counsel as before long as possible and they should not brand any decisions without talking to an attorney. The Connecticut Segmentation of Public Defender Services, Part of the Manager for Juvenile Delinquency Defense is responsible for the contents of this guide.

Who goes to juvenile court? How old practice I take to exist to get arrested?
In Connecticut, Juvenile Courts handle cases for children nether the historic period of seventeen who have been charged with a crime. In that location is no minimum historic period to be sent to juvenile court if yous are charged with a criminal offense. Children equally young every bit vi years sometime accept been sent to juvenile court and accused of being a delinquent. Runaway is what the courts call a kid who has been defendant or convicted of a crime in juvenile courtroom.

As of Jan 1, 2010, the Raise the Age law changed who goes to juvenile court to include anyone nether the age of 17. In July, 2012, juvenile court in Connecticut will include 17 year olds who are charged with a crime. If you are 16 (or 17 after July 1, 2012) and charged with a motor vehicle law-breaking, your example will exist heard in adult court. Most of the time this is ok, because the punishment is usually merely a fine and a conviction does not create a permanent criminal record. If there is a chance that a motor vehicle case could result in jail time, you or your lawyer can ask the approximate to movement the motor vehicle case to juvenile court. This will let children who make mistakes to become treatment and services in juvenile courtroom, instead of punishment and a permanent criminal tape in adult courtroom.

What is a status offense? Can I go to jail for that?
Sometimes, children are sent to juvenile court for behavior that is not criminal. Condition offenses or Family with Service Needs cases involve behavior like truancy ("skipping school,") running abroad and beingness beyond the control of your parents. Your school, your parents, DCF or the Police can file a Family with Service Needs (FWSN) petition to the courtroom and ask that the courtroom work to make you change your behavior. If a Family unit with Service Needs (FWSN) petition is filed, you and your family will be asked to come to the juvenile court and run into with a probation officer. The officer could refer you for counseling or other services in your customs. He or she could also send you to a Family unit Support Heart where you lot could get help with your issues all in ane place. If y'all do not cooperate with the services, you could be brought to the juvenile court to come across a gauge. The estimate could place you nether courtroom orders to cooperate. If y'all do non follow the orders, you could eventually be committed to the Department of Children and Families and sent to a residential handling program. Virtually children do well in the customs-based services and very few cases e'er get to court.

What should I practise if the police stop me or call back I have committed a crime?
Don't run!
Running from the police is a criminal offence called Interfering with the Police. If you run yous will get charged with this criminal offence even if yous did nothing else wrong.

Be respectful!
Calling the police names or acting rude or confusing will only get you charged with more than crimes. You demand to give the police your correct proper noun and historic period or they can also charge you lot with Interfering with the Police force.

Be Silent!
Other than your name, accost and historic period, you do not take to answer any other questions. Y'all have the right to take your parent or guardian and your attorney with you if you are beingness questioned past the police. If the law have probable cause to arrest yous they will, no matter what you say. Nearly of the time talking volition not assist you. Stay silent and let your lawyer decide when you should talk.

I've been arrested now what?
When the police determine there is cause to file charges against a juvenile, they have several choices. The catamenia chart at the cease of this Guidebook outlines their options.

The Law Officeholder could decide non to send your example to court. Depending on the circumstances, y'all could be referred to a youth services bureau or a juvenile review board if your town has one. You and your parent or guardian will have to bear witness up to a meeting and be willing to admit that y'all did something wrong. The lath would recommend that you get a result or some kind of handling. If yous cooperate, your charges never get to court. If you lot do not cooperate, your case volition be sent to court.

Connecticut constabulary allows the police force to photograph and fingerprint children accused of crimes, merely that volition not always happen. Most of the time the police will event a summons, which looks similar a ticket with a court date on it. This all the same counts equally beingness arrested, even if yous were not fingerprinted, taken into custody or advised of your rights. The police need to advise you of your rights earlier they enquire you questions, [but] non if they are just releasing you lot without taking a statement.

Release
The police can release you to your parent or guardian or can allow you go on your own if they think yous will stay out of trouble and testify up for court. You lot need to appear in court for the date on the ticket. If you exercise not bear witness upwards in court on that engagement you can be charged with another crime called Failure to Appear.

What is not judicial treatment?
Before your courtroom date, the police will send your case to juvenile court where a probation officeholder will review information technology. If you lot have been charged with a minor criminal offense that did not involve injury or property damage and you lot accept not been sent to court earlier, the probation officeholder can recommend that your instance be handled not judicially. This means that you will not take a formal hearing in forepart of a guess. You volition accept a coming together with a probation officer to run into if your case can be handled informally. The probation officer will talk to you and your family and will want you to sign a form admitting that yous did something incorrect. Y'all may go a consequence similar community service or counseling. Admitting a accuse non judicially does not count every bit a conviction but there will be a record that you were in court, so they will know nearly it if you arrive trouble again.

Where will my instance be heard?
Juvenile delinquency cases are typically sent to the juvenile court assigned to the town where the arrested kid lives, not where the alleged crime happened. If the town where you alive does not go to the Hartford, New Haven or Bridgeport juvenile courts and yous are being held in detention, you may have your start hearing in forepart of a judge in the town where you are being held. If you are not released, yous volition be taken to your regular courtroom on the next court engagement.

Detention

If you are charged with a serious juvenile crime (SJO), the police tin can bring yous to i of the three Juvenile Detention Centers. They are located in Hartford, New Oasis or Bridgeport. If you are charged with a less serious criminal offense but the police still feel there is a reason to keep y'all detained, they tin can observe a judge and ask for an Order to Detain. If they can convince the approximate that your situation falls under certain categories, you can exist held in detention.

I have been put in the detention center. What happens next?
You will be searched, take a shower and be given a uniform to wear. The uniform is mandatory! Detention staff will ask you questions well-nigh how you are feeling and nigh any drug and alcohol use. They want to figure out if you could injure yourself or someone else. Be true simply do not exaggerate anything, since the detention heart will give a study to the estimate that could recommend counseling or mental wellness evaluations.

The detention staff may ask if you are involved in a gang or accept done things that could be crimes. You should not respond any questions well-nigh criminal activity and you should never talk nigh the incident or behavior that brought you to the detention center. Exercise non sign anything until y'all have a hazard to talk to your lawyer. If you lot want to know more nigh your rights while you are in juvenile detention, the Center For Children'southward Advocacy has a booklet chosen What Are My Rights? Know your Legal Rights in Detention. You can look at that on their website at http://www.kidscounsel.org

How can I become released from detention?
In one case yous get admitted to a detention center, you cannot be released until your example is heard in front of a judge. That usually happens the next day. If you become arrested over the weekend, you will go to courtroom and come across a judge on the next court 24-hour interval -- usually Monday. You cannot be bonded out on a juvenile charge until after you run across a judge. Bond is rare in juvenile court since virtually of the time children can be released under some type of courtroom order.

What if I am charged with something really serious? Can I be sent to adult court?
If a child is 14 years or older and are charged with an offense that is a felony, you could be transferred to the adult court.
Transfer tin happen two ways.

A. Automated

If a child is fourteen or older and charged with an A or B felony, the example will be automatically transferred to the developed court. A and B felonies include Murder, many Sexual Assaults and offenses like Robbery and Assault in the First Caste. Earlier a example is transferred, the child will see a juvenile court judge and exist advised of their Ramble rights. There volition not be any arguments allowed on whether the case should be transferred. That might happen in adult court. If the developed courtroom accepts the transfer, the child volition exist held in an adult correctional facility. The Connecticut Department of Corrections houses most inmates under the age of twenty at the Manson Youth Institution in Cheshire.

B. Discretionary

For all other felonies, C.Thousand.S. §46b-127(b) gives the juvenile prosecutor discretion to transfer cases after an ex parte finding of probable cause to maintain the charges. This means the juvenile prosecutor tin determine if he or she wants to try to transfer a case to the adult courtroom once a judge has found that there was a reason to arrest yous. One time the case gets to developed court, a child will have a hearing to determine where the case should be heard. At the hearing a lawyer will argue why the case should stay in juvenile court. The defendant child will be held in a juvenile detention facility until a judge decides where the case volition be heard. If the judge decides that the example should exist handled by the developed criminal court, the child will be moved to the Manson Youth Institution.

The police told me the case was no big deal. Do I need a lawyer?
You should always accept a lawyer with you lot if you lot are going to court, even if the police told yous the case was no big bargain. If you are hiring a lawyer, y'all should bring them to courtroom with you. If yous cannot afford to hire a lawyer you can utilise for a Public Defender when you get to courtroom. If you qualify, the judge volition give you a lawyer at no price to your family. The lawyer is there to fence for you and what you want to see happen with your instance. You can talk to the lawyer with your parents or guardian present or solitary. It is upwardly to you. The lawyer will keep anything you say private unless you give them permission to tell.

Rules for your Courtroom Appointment!

You have to be there. If you miss a courtroom date, you could go arrested for failing to appear. That is a new crime! If you accept to miss because of an emergency, telephone call your lawyer If you forget court and realize it later, hurry! Call your lawyer and your lawyer will propose you lot what to do.

Be on time. Yous have to exist there at 9 a.m. Check in with your lawyer or get to the public defender's role to apply for a lawyer. Brand sure you lot check in with probation or the Judicial Marshall who is in charge of calling cases. This makes sure that people know you are at that place. Exist patient, and don't always leave the courthouse without telling your lawyer.

Wear dainty clothes. Leave your hats, large jewelry, and chewing glue at dwelling house. Accept your pilus neat and clothes clean.

My case is staying in juvenile court. What will happen when I get there?
The legal term for your offset court appearance is arraignment. Information technology is where you lot are formally charged with a criminal offense and read your rights. If you take practical for the Public Defender and you lot qualify, they will be appointed at your arraignment. Your lawyer will enter a not guilty plea for you. This is chosen a pro forma deprival. This is a formality and lets the case motility on for a discussion of what might happen next in your case. The arraignment is where your lawyer can debate to have you released from detention if you are locked upward, or where the prosecutor might ask for the judge to give you some rules to follow.

Sometimes the prosecutor will ask the Judge to place you in detention, fifty-fifty if the police force did not bring yous to detention when they arrested you. The gauge will listen to arguments from the prosecutor and your lawyer. The judge can refuse to do anything, order that you become dwelling but follow rules set by the court or the judge could put you lot in detention. If you go to detention, your case will be heard again inside 15 days. At that time, the judge will determine if he or she should let yous get home or send you lot dorsum to detention until your next court date. The judge can detain you if he or she thinks that you lot might commit another crime, not show up for your next court appointment or if your behavior makes the guess think you or others could exist in danger if yous do not become to detention.

After you are arraigned, the case volition be scheduled for a pretrial conference. This is where your lawyer talks to the prosecutor about your case. Your lawyer should talk to you lot and to your family before talking to the prosecutor. If yous accept witnesses or data that will help your lawyer debate the case you need to share information technology with him or her before the pretrial, so they can investigate and set up to talk to the prosecutor. The prosecutor might make an offer to dispose of your case.

If the prosecutor agrees to driblet the charges your case can be either nolled or dismissed. A nolle means that the state is non prosecuting but could reopen the case inside thirteen months if something changes, like y'all get in trouble again. After 13 months, the case is dismissed and can't exist reopened. If a case is dismissed, it is over and no 1 is supposed to get access to any record that yous were always in court.

If y'all concord to plead guilty to a charge, you lot and your family will meet with a probation officeholder who conducts a predispositional written report. During this predispositional study, the probation officeholder will ask about your family history, school operation, community programs and criminal history. Yous, your family and your lawyer should make sure that the probation officer has whatsoever data that might be helpful. The probation officeholder might inquire y'all to have a mental wellness cess or a court ordered psychological evaluation to run into if counseling would help yous stay out of problem. You should talk to your lawyer before like-minded to exercise any blazon of evaluations. A constabulary change in 2008 makes your juvenile court records bachelor to the Departments of Adult Probation and Parole. You need to make sure that the data in your predisposition study is correct and as helpful to you equally possible, so information technology does not get used against you after if y'all make it trouble equally an developed.

I practise not desire to plead guilty to whatsoever charges. What are my options?
You have the right to have a trial in juvenile court. Your trial will be held in forepart of a judge only. Juvenile Courts in Connecticut do not have jury trials. At the trial, the prosecutor will have to bring in witnesses and evidence to endeavor and show that you lot broke the law and are guilty of the charges across a reasonable uncertainty. Your lawyer will be able to inquire the witnesses questions to try and show that the prosecutor'southward witnesses are incorrect. Your lawyer can besides object to any of the prosecutor's evidence. You lot and your lawyer tin can also bring in witnesses and evidence that will help you lot tell the judge your side and show that yous are non guilty or that the land does not have plenty evidence to find you guilty. You tin can talk or testify at your trial like any other witness merely but if yous want to! You cannot exist forced to talk at your trial, since you yet accept the right to remain silent. You will need to talk to your lawyer before deciding what to do. If the judge finds that y'all are non guilty, the case is over and you cannot exist prosecuted on those charges once more.

What happens if I am institute guilty? Does it matter if I plead guilty or am found guilty after a trial?
If you are institute guilty, the judge will decide what your judgement should be. It should not affair if you lot plead guilty or had a trial but sometimes a judges' sentence is more harsh if you lot are found guilty later a trial. The victim of your crime will have a run a risk to tell the judge what they want to run across happen with your example. They tin can tell the probation officer, send a alphabetic character or come up to court and talk. The judge volition listen to the victim, the prosecutor, the probation officer and your lawyer and then decide what the right judgement is.

The judge has a lot of options when deciding your sentence.
The court can warn you lot non to get in trouble again and allow you go. They could ask you to perform a certain number of hours of community service. They could place you on probation. This is very common. Terms of probation by and large range from three months to two years. If the court puts you on probation, you can be ordered to pay restitution consummate customs service, participate in counseling, nourish schoolhouse every day on time and obey business firm rules. Y'all can also be ordered to cooperate with a mental health examination. The court tin also order you to be involved in fun afterschool activities and so that you stay busy and do not get into any more trouble. Many judges society graduated sanctions. This allows a probation officeholder to modify the conditions of probation if you start to have problems and violate your probation without having to go back in front of a judge.

My lawyer says that the judge wants to commit me as a delinquent. What does that hateful?
If the guess decides that information technology is not safe for you to live at dwelling because probation services have non worked and yous keep on getting in trouble, you could be committed as a delinquent. This means that the Department of Children and Families (DCF) will take custody of y'all and you lot will live and go to school away from dwelling. If y'all are committed as a runaway child, a judge can commit y'all for up to 4 years if the charge is a serious juvenile offense, SJO, or 18 months for non-SJO offenses. Some kids who are committed runaway are sent to residential school or treatment facilities. Residential Programs are non locked and you tin earn visits home if yous reach certain goals. Sometimes the residential program recommended for y'all volition be in some other state. Boys can be sent the Connecticut Juvenile Training School (CJTS) which is a secure, locked facility in Middletown. In that location are no home passes from CJTS. Girls cannot be sent to CJTS.

C.G.S.§46b-141(b) gives DCF the right to ask the court to extend the delivery of a runaway kid beyond the initial sentence if they can prove it is in the best interest of the kid or the community and the child needs more treatment. This ways that they can ask to proceed yous longer than your sentence, even if y'all have not been charged with any new crimes. The estimate who sentences yous should talk to you well-nigh this at the time you plead guilty.

Children who are serving a delinquency commitment might demand a lawyer to help them with issues that come up during their judgement. In Connecticut, the lawyer who represented you at your sentencing in required to keep helping you until your judgement is over. If you had a Public Defender, your case will be sent to the Post Conviction and Reentry Unit. Lawyers in that location specialize in helping kids who have been committed delinquent.

What is an entreatment?
If you are constitute guilty at your trial and you recollect the gauge fabricated a mistake, you and your lawyer can ask another set of judges to review your instance. This is called an appeal. In Connecticut, nosotros accept 2 appeals courts, the Appellate Court and the Supreme Court. Your lawyer can argue that the estimate fabricated a legal mistake or that there was non enough show to prove yous were guilty beyond a reasonable dubiety. Appeals have a long time and sometimes your sentence will be over past the fourth dimension your example is heard!

If I take whatever more questions who can I telephone call?
Y'all can phone call your local juvenile public defender'due south office.

Click on the below Link to get to our Juvenile Role Directory

Partitioning of Public Defender Services Juvenile Offices Link

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Source: https://portal.ct.gov/OCPD/Juvenile/Juvenile/Juvenile-Frequently-Asked-Questions