You Can Be Guilty of Attempt Even if You Dont Know What Youre Trying to Do Is Illegal

Juvenile Courtroom in Connecticut
Frequently Asked Questions

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

This was prepared to assist 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 as legal communication. Children who are accused of a crime and their families should seek legal counsel as soon as possible and they should non make any decisions without talking to an chaser. The Connecticut Division of Public Defender Services, Office of the Director for Juvenile Malversation Defense is responsible for the contents of this guide.

Who goes to juvenile court? How old do I have to be to become arrested?
In Connecticut, Juvenile Courts handle cases for children nether the age of seventeen who take been charged with a criminal offence. There is no minimum age to be sent to juvenile court if you are charged with a criminal offence. Children equally young equally 6 years old have been sent to juvenile court and accused of beingness a delinquent. Runaway is what the courts call a kid who has been defendant or convicted of a crime in juvenile court.

As of January 1, 2010, the Raise the Age police force changed who goes to juvenile courtroom to include anyone under the age of 17. In July, 2012, juvenile court in Connecticut will include 17 year olds who are charged with a offense. If yous are 16 (or 17 later on July i, 2012) and charged with a motor vehicle offense, your case will be heard in adult court. Virtually of the time this is ok, considering the punishment is usually merely a fine and a conviction does not create a permanent criminal record. If at that place is a gamble that a motor vehicle case could result in jail time, you lot or your lawyer can ask the judge to move the motor vehicle case to juvenile court. This will let children who make mistakes to get treatment and services in juvenile court, instead of punishment and a permanent criminal record in adult courtroom.

What is a status criminal offence? Tin can I get to jail for that?
Sometimes, children are sent to juvenile courtroom for behavior that is not criminal. Condition offenses or Family with Service Needs cases involve behavior similar truancy ("skipping school,") running away and being beyond the command of your parents. Your school, your parents, DCF or the Police can file a Family with Service Needs (FWSN) petition to the court and inquire that the court work to make you change your beliefs. If a Family unit with Service Needs (FWSN) petition is filed, y'all and your family unit will be asked to come up to the juvenile court and see with a probation officer. The officeholder could refer you for counseling or other services in your customs. He or she could also transport you lot to a Family Support Eye where you could get help with your issues all in i place. If you do not cooperate with the services, you could be brought to the juvenile courtroom to encounter a judge. The estimate could place you nether court orders to cooperate. If y'all do not follow the orders, you lot could eventually be committed to the Department of Children and Families and sent to a residential treatment program. Most children do well in the community-based services and very few cases ever get to court.

What should I exercise if the constabulary stop me or recall I have committed a criminal offence?
Don't run!
Running from the police is a crime called Interfering with the Police force. If you lot run y'all will become charged with this criminal offence even if you did nada else incorrect.

Be respectful!
Calling the police names or interim rude or disruptive volition only get you charged with more than crimes. You need to give the police your right name and age or they tin can also charge yous with Interfering with the Police.

Exist Silent!
Other than your name, accost and historic period, you lot do not have to answer whatever other questions. You accept the correct to accept your parent or guardian and your attorney with you if you lot are beingness questioned past the police. If the police have probable cause to arrest y'all they will, no thing what you say. Virtually of the fourth dimension talking volition not assistance you. Stay silent and permit your lawyer decide when you lot should talk.

I've been arrested at present what?
When the police force determine there is cause to file charges confronting a juvenile, they take several choices. The flow nautical chart at the end of this Guidebook outlines their options.

The Law Officer could make up one's mind non to transport your instance to court. Depending on the circumstances, you could be referred to a youth services agency or a juvenile review lath if your boondocks has ane. You lot and your parent or guardian will have to bear witness up to a meeting and exist willing to admit that you lot did something wrong. The board would recommend that you get a consequence or some kind of handling. If y'all cooperate, your charges never go to court. If you do not cooperate, your case will exist sent to court.

Connecticut constabulary allows the law to photo and fingerprint children accused of crimes, but that will not always happen. Most of the time the police will issue a summons, which looks like a ticket with a courtroom engagement on information technology. This withal counts as being arrested, even if y'all were not fingerprinted, taken into custody or brash of your rights. The constabulary demand to advise you of your rights before they ask yous questions, [but] not if they are just releasing you without taking a statement.

Release
The constabulary can release you to your parent or guardian or can let yous go along your own if they think you will stay out of problem and show up for court. Y'all demand to appear in court for the date on the ticket. If you do not testify upward in court on that date you tin can exist charged with some other law-breaking called Failure to Appear.

What is not judicial handling?
Earlier your court date, the law will send your case to juvenile courtroom where a probation officer will review it. If you have been charged with a minor criminal offence that did non involve injury or belongings damage and you have not been sent to court before, the probation officer can recommend that your case be handled non judicially. This means that yous volition non have a formal hearing in front of a judge. You will accept a meeting with a probation officer to see if your case can be handled informally. The probation officer volition talk to you and your family and volition desire you to sign a class albeit that you did something wrong. You may go a consequence similar community service or counseling. Albeit a charge non judicially does not count as a conviction but in that location volition be a tape that you were in court, so they will know about it if y'all get in 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 child lives, not where the alleged offense happened. If the boondocks where you alive does not go to the Hartford, New Haven or Bridgeport juvenile courts and you lot are beingness held in detention, you may have your first hearing in front of a gauge in the town where yous are being held. If you are not released, you will exist taken to your regular court on the next court appointment.

Detention

If you are charged with a serious juvenile offense (SJO), the constabulary can bring you to one of the three Juvenile Detention Centers. They are located in Hartford, New Oasis or Bridgeport. If you are charged with a less serious offense only the police force still feel there is a reason to go along y'all detained, they can find a judge and inquire for an Order to Detain. If they can convince the judge that your state of affairs falls under certain categories, y'all can be held in detention.

I take been put in the detention middle. What happens next?
You lot volition be searched, take a shower and exist given a uniform to wear. The uniform is mandatory! Detention staff volition inquire y'all questions about how you are feeling and about whatsoever drug and booze use. They want to figure out if you could hurt yourself or someone else. Be truthful merely exercise non exaggerate anything, since the detention center volition give a report to the gauge that could recommend counseling or mental health evaluations.

The detention staff may ask if you are involved in a gang or have done things that could be crimes. You should not reply whatsoever questions most criminal activity and yous should never talk about the incident or behavior that brought y'all to the detention centre. Practice non sign anything until you lot have a hazard to talk to your lawyer. If you want to know more about your rights while you are in juvenile detention, the Center For Children's Advocacy has a booklet called What Are My Rights? Know your Legal Rights in Detention. Y'all can look at that on their website at http://world wide web.kidscounsel.org

How tin can I become released from detention?
Once you get admitted to a detention center, you cannot exist released until your case is heard in front end of a guess. That usually happens the next mean solar day. If you go arrested over the weekend, you will go to court and see a judge on the next court solar day -- usually Monday. Y'all cannot be bonded out on a juvenile charge until later on you lot see a gauge. Bail is rare in juvenile court since most of the time children can exist released under some type of courtroom society.

What if I am charged with something really serious? Can I exist sent to adult court?
If a kid is 14 years or older and are charged with an law-breaking that is a felony, yous could be transferred to the adult courtroom.
Transfer can happen two means.

A. Automatic

If a child is xiv or older and charged with an A or B felony, the case volition exist automatically transferred to the adult court. A and B felonies include Murder, many Sexual Assaults and offenses like Robbery and Assault in the Get-go Degree. Before a case is transferred, the kid volition encounter a juvenile court estimate and exist advised of their Constitutional rights. In that location will not exist whatsoever arguments allowed on whether the case should be transferred. That might happen in developed court. If the developed court accepts the transfer, the kid will be held in an adult correctional facility. The Connecticut Department of Corrections houses nearly inmates nether the age of twenty at the Manson Youth Institution in Cheshire.

B. Discretionary

For all other felonies, C.Grand.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 decide 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 you lot. Once the example gets to adult court, a child will have a hearing to determine where the example should exist heard. At the hearing a lawyer will argue why the instance should stay in juvenile courtroom. The defendant kid will exist held in a juvenile detention facility until a judge decides where the example will exist heard. If the judge decides that the case should be handled by the adult criminal court, the kid will be moved to the Manson Youth Institution.

The police told me the case was no big deal. Do I demand a lawyer?
You should always have a lawyer with you lot if you are going to court, even if the constabulary told yous the instance was no big deal. If you are hiring a lawyer, yous should bring them to court with you. If yous cannot afford to rent a lawyer you tin can use for a Public Defender when you become to court. If you qualify, the estimate will requite you a lawyer at no cost to your family unit. The lawyer is there to fence for you and what you desire to see happen with your case. You tin can talk to the lawyer with your parents or guardian nowadays or alone. It is up to you. The lawyer volition keep annihilation you say private unless you give them permission to tell.

Rules for your Court Engagement!

You have to exist there. If you lot miss a court date, yous could get arrested for declining to appear. That is a new crime! If you accept to miss considering of an emergency, phone call your lawyer If you forget court and realize information technology after, hurry! Call your lawyer and your lawyer will advise yous what to do.

Exist on time. You have to be in that location at 9 a.m. Bank check in with your lawyer or get to the public defender'southward office to employ for a lawyer. Make sure y'all check in with probation or the Judicial Marshall who is in charge of calling cases. This makes certain that people know you are there. Be patient, and don't always leave the courthouse without telling your lawyer.

Wear nice clothes. Exit your hats, large jewelry, and chewing glue at abode. Have your hair smashing and dress clean.

My example is staying in juvenile court. What will happen when I get at that place?
The legal term for your first court appearance is arraignment. It is where y'all are formally charged with a crime and read your rights. If you take practical for the Public Defender and y'all qualify, they will exist appointed at your arraignment. Your lawyer will enter a not guilty plea for yous. This is called a pro forma denial. 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 contend to have you lot released from detention if you lot are locked upwardly, or where the prosecutor might inquire for the judge to give you some rules to follow.

Sometimes the prosecutor volition inquire the Judge to place you in detention, even if the police force did not bring you to detention when they arrested you. The judge will listen to arguments from the prosecutor and your lawyer. The judge can decline to do anything, lodge that y'all get domicile merely follow rules ready by the court or the judge could put you lot in detention. If you go to detention, your example will be heard again within 15 days. At that time, the judge volition determine if he or she should permit you go dwelling or send y'all dorsum to detention until your next court appointment. The approximate tin can detain you if he or she thinks that yous might commit another crime, not evidence up for your next court date or if your beliefs makes the approximate call back you lot or others could exist in danger if you practise non go to detention.

After you are arraigned, the example will exist scheduled for a pretrial conference. This is where your lawyer talks to the prosecutor near your case. Your lawyer should talk to you and to your family unit earlier talking to the prosecutor. If you have witnesses or information that volition help your lawyer argue the case you need to share information technology with him or her before the pretrial, then they can investigate and set up to talk to the prosecutor. The prosecutor might make an offer to dispose of your instance.

If the prosecutor agrees to drop the charges your case tin be either nolled or dismissed. A nolle means that the state is not prosecuting merely could reopen the example within 13 months if something changes, like you get in trouble again. Later on thirteen months, the case is dismissed and can't be reopened. If a instance is dismissed, information technology is over and no one is supposed to go access to any record that you were ever in courtroom.

If you agree to plead guilty to a charge, yous and your family unit will meet with a probation officer who conducts a predispositional study. During this predispositional study, the probation officer will ask virtually your family unit history, school performance, community programs and criminal history. You, your family and your lawyer should make sure that the probation officer has any data that might be helpful. The probation officer might ask you to have a mental wellness assessment or a court ordered psychological evaluation to see if counseling would help you stay out of trouble. Yous should talk to your lawyer before agreeing to do any type of evaluations. A law change in 2008 makes your juvenile court records available to the Departments of Adult Probation and Parole. You need to make sure that the information in your predisposition written report is correct and equally helpful to you as possible, so it does not go used against you later if you go far trouble as an adult.

I do not want to plead guilty to any charges. What are my options?
You have the right to have a trial in juvenile court. Your trial will be held in front of a gauge simply. Juvenile Courts in Connecticut exercise non have jury trials. At the trial, the prosecutor volition accept to bring in witnesses and evidence to try and show that y'all broke the constabulary and are guilty of the charges beyond a reasonable uncertainty. Your lawyer volition be able to inquire the witnesses questions to try and show that the prosecutor's witnesses are incorrect. Your lawyer tin can as well object to whatsoever of the prosecutor'southward prove. You and your lawyer can also bring in witnesses and evidence that will help you tell the estimate your side and bear witness that you are not guilty or that the land does non have enough testify to detect yous guilty. Yous tin can talk or testify at your trial like any other witness but only if you lot want to! You lot cannot be forced to talk at your trial, since you nonetheless accept the right to remain silent. Yous volition demand to talk to your lawyer before deciding what to practice. If the judge finds that you are not guilty, the case is over and you cannot be prosecuted on those charges again.

What happens if I am found guilty? Does it matter if I plead guilty or am found guilty after a trial?
If y'all are found guilty, the judge will determine what your sentence should be. It should non matter if yous plead guilty or had a trial but sometimes a judges' judgement is more harsh if y'all are plant guilty after a trial. The victim of your law-breaking volition have a chance to tell the guess what they want to see happen with your case. They can tell the probation officer, send a letter or come to court and talk. The judge will listen to the victim, the prosecutor, the probation officer and your lawyer and then decide what the correct sentence is.

The approximate has a lot of options when deciding your judgement.
The court can warn you not to get in problem again and let you lot go. They could ask you to perform a certain number of hours of community service. They could identify you on probation. This is very common. Terms of probation generally range from 3 months to two years. If the court puts you on probation, you tin can be ordered to pay restitution complete customs service, participate in counseling, attend school every twenty-four hour period on fourth dimension and obey business firm rules. You tin also be ordered to cooperate with a mental health test. The court can also social club y'all to exist involved in fun afterschool activities and so that you stay decorated and do not become into any more problem. Many judges order graduated sanctions. This allows a probation officer to change the conditions of probation if yous start to accept bug and violate your probation without having to get back in front end of a estimate.

My lawyer says that the judge wants to commit me equally a delinquent. What does that mean?
If the gauge decides that it is not prophylactic for you to alive at home because probation services have not worked and you lot keep on getting in trouble, you could be committed as a delinquent. This means that the Department of Children and Families (DCF) volition take custody of you lot and you volition live and go to school away from habitation. If you are committed as a delinquent child, a judge can commit you for up to four years if the charge is a serious juvenile offense, SJO, or eighteen months for non-SJO offenses. Some kids who are committed runaway are sent to residential schoolhouse or treatment facilities. Residential Programs are not locked and you can earn visits home if yous accomplish certain goals. Sometimes the residential program recommended for you will be in another land. Boys tin can exist sent the Connecticut Juvenile Training School (CJTS) which is a secure, locked facility in Middletown. There 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 courtroom to extend the commitment of a delinquent kid beyond the initial sentence if they tin evidence it is in the best involvement of the child or the customs and the child needs more treatment. This means that they can ask to keep you lot longer than your sentence, even if you have not been charged with any new crimes. The judge who sentences you lot should talk to you lot about this at the time yous plead guilty.

Children who are serving a malversation commitment might need a lawyer to aid them with bug that come up during their sentence. In Connecticut, the lawyer who represented you at your sentencing in required to keep helping you until your sentence is over. If you had a Public Defender, your case will be sent to the Post Conviction and Reentry Unit. Lawyers there specialize in helping kids who have been committed runaway.

What is an appeal?
If you are found guilty at your trial and yous think the judge made a mistake, you and your lawyer tin ask another ready of judges to review your instance. This is called an appeal. In Connecticut, we have two appeals courts, the Appellate Courtroom and the Supreme Court. Your lawyer can debate that the estimate made a legal mistake or that there was not enough evidence to prove you were guilty beyond a reasonable uncertainty. Appeals take a long time and sometimes your sentence will exist over by the time your example is heard!

If I have any more questions who tin can I call?
You tin telephone call your local juvenile public defender's function.

Click on the beneath Link to go to our Juvenile Role Directory

Division of Public Defender Services Juvenile Offices Link

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

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