New Canaan, Darien, Stamford and Greenwich parents of teenagers can breathe just a little bit easier. Last week, the State of Connecticut released statistics indicating that juvenile arrests were down 40% over the past 5 years.
Is this due to good parenting? Better prevention and education? Crowded courts and jail? Top Stamford Connecticut juvenile criminal lawyering?
Here’s your answer…
According to the State of Connecticut’s recent press release, between 2009 and 2013, arrests of juveniles in Connecticut dropped from 9600 to 5800—a 40 percent decline. Top juvenile crime lawyers and attorneys in Stamford, Darien, and Greenwich have attributed such drops to community police programs which offer teenagers an alternative to being arrested. For example, the New Canaan Police Department often gives teenagers who get into trouble the opportunity to come down to the station and talk honestly and openly about their mistakes and misconduct. New Canaan community relations officers and social workers are made available to them to address any concerns or needed services. What programs like these do is help rehabilitate a child rather than cause inconvenience and financial costs to their parents, who would otherwise be forced to take days off from work to shepherd their child through the Stamford juvenile court process.
For those who are not as lucky to benefit from such community programs, and are actually arrested as a juvenile offender in Fairfield County, they will be forced to report to Juvenile Criminal Court in Stamford or Bridgeport. The best Stamford juvenile court lawyers explain that when a juvenile arrest is made, it can proceed on one of two tracks: (1) a “non-judicial adjudication” where a Stamford juvenile probation officer manages your child’s case, or (2) the more formal and cumbersome “judicial” track where you and your child are required to appear before a Superior Court juvenile court judge, pleas are entered, and a State of Connecticut juvenile prosecutor controls the prosecution of your Darien or Greenwich juvenile arrest.
As the top Greenwich, Darien and Stamford juvenile court criminal lawyers and attorneys have observed, the designation of a juvenile court arrest in Stamford, Darien or Westport to the non-judicial track is done within the court system. Under certain circumstances, however, your top New Canaan or Darien criminal juvenile lawyer attorney can negotiate a non-judicial disposition with the prosecutor. You will then meet with a Stamford or Bridgeport juvenile probation officer who will possibly require your child to complete counseling, undergo drug testing, perform community service, and possibly write one or more essays for the Court. To learn how or whether your case can be eligible for a non-judicial disposition, contact a top Stamford juvenile criminal lawyer today.
No, unless the juvenile arrest is so serious that it must statutorily be transferred to the adult court because of the crime’s classification. For example, certain Class B Felonies such as CGS 53a-59 First Degree Assault, CGS 53a-196d First Degree Possession or Importation of Child Pornography, and CGS 53a-122 First Degree Larceny will automatically be transferred to adult court and will no longer be sealed. In these cases, your child’s arrest can come up on any background check, making it even more critical to hire a top Greenwich and Stamford criminal lawyer to fight for your child to have the case transferred back to Bridgeport or Stamford juvenile court.
Only three—in Bridgeport, Stamford and Danbury. Juvenile arrests in Darien, Stamford, Greenwich, Norwalk, Wilton, Westport and New Canaan are typically sent to Juvenile Court in Stamford. Juvenile arrests in Fairfield, Trumbull, Shelton, and Bridgeport are sent to Bridgeport. Ridgefield, Danbury and New Milford juvenile arrests are adjudicated in Danbury Juvenile Court. And if your child is required to be detained and is not released into a parent’s custody, they will be usually be held in the Bridgeport Detention Center until a more permanent custody order can be decided by the Juvenile Court Judge.
The top Greenwich, New Canaan and Darien juvenile criminal lawyers will likely agree that it would be a good idea to consult a lawyer before going into Bridgeport or Stamford juvenile court with your child. The Connecticut juvenile court process is very different from adult court, for better and for worse. While the records are sealed, the level of intervention and interference in your child’s life can sometimes be counterproductive. Under certain circumstances, the juvenile court probation officers will often try to contact your child’s public and private school teachers and counselors, often raising unnecessary questions about your child at their school, triggering rumors and tainting your child’s academic reputation for the duration of your child’s middle school and high school tenures. The last thing any hard-working parent wants for their child is a suspicious or biased guidance counselor going to bat for your child with colleges when these educators know there was a juvenile arrest in your child’s past. Many times a top Stamford juvenile criminal lawyer can keep the courts our of your child’s personal life and protect your child’s academic reputation. It just takes a strong, aggressive and top-tier Darien or Greenwich juvenile court criminal to stand up for you.
So if your child has been arrested in Stamford, Darien, New Canaan, Wilton, or Westport and has a juvenile court case, give any of the Juvenile Court lawyers are Mark Sherman Law today. We handle all Fairfield County Connecticut Juvenile Court cases—from the extremely serious cases to the minor brushes with the law. In every case, we will sit with you and your child to figure out the quickest and most cost-effective way to extricate your child from the Juvenile Court system, try to keep the case from going into the public record, protect your child’s reputation at his or her school, and work as best we can to get the charges dismissed, erased, and expunged. Call us today at (203) 358-4700.
