As I’m writing this, there’s a twelve year old in Cook County Juvenile Detention Center on the charge of 1st degree murder. He isn’t the first and he won’t be the last. Technically, he isn’t the youngest person ever charged for 1st degree murder–that goes to the kids falsely accused of killing Ryan Harris. To be fair, this isn’t even the most disturbing thing I’ve heard since I started working in the Juvenile Court–and a 12 year old accused of murder is pretty damn disturbing.

Here’s what I can tell you what happened this week:
The kid was arraigned–which means they described what the charges were for the client and the family. He was also, probably, held in custody until his trial date. There is a chance that he was released on home confinement/Electronic monitoring (house arrest and wearing a bracelet); although, given the level of attention this case is going to get, I doubt that option was exercised.

A hearing date was also, probably set. At this point, Probation’s role is at a minimum. The POs in the unit, including the supervisor, are waiting for the case to be assigned for a social investigation-this is a court document that is designed to evaluate the child’s environment, school records and create a treatment plan to rehabilitate the client.

I also know that it isn’t the judge I thought it was going to be. But the entire department is watching this closely; so should the rest of the city.

There is something fundamentally wrong in a society when children are even accused of committing such violent acts. Before we say that this kid is guilty, and before we fault the system, we–as a city–need to look to the reasons why this event happened.

Technorati Tags: Chicago, Justice, Juvenile Justice, Law