“Delinquent: Our System, Our Kids” is a special series examining Cuyahoga County's juvenile justice system through the eyes of the kids who go through it. Today, you meet Deon, who entered the system at 12 and cycled until he raped a woman at age 17 and was bound over and sentenced to adult prison.
Delinquent : Some kids, like Deon, cycle through the system and are bound over as adults. That happens more in Cuyahoga than anywhere in the stateIf interventions fail to disrupt patterns of violence or address issues of neglect, trauma, abuse, mental health or childhood poverty, it can leave youth cycling through the juvenile justice system.CLEVELAND, Ohio – When Deon was 12, his bus driver caught him touching a girl’s buttocks.
The Cuyahoga Division of Children & Family Services took custody and sent him to foster homes in Canton and Akron. At 15, Deon assaulted a girl on the playground. A juvenile judge sentenced him to six months in a state lockup facility but suspended the term. Instead, he was sent to a treatment residence near Mansfield and ordered into sex-offender therapy. He wasn’t compliant with treatment.
In 2019, prosecutors charged Deon with attacking a woman in a downtown Cleveland parking garage elevator, raping her, forcing her into her car and causing her to crash into a wall. In a process known as bindover, a juvenile judge transferred his case to adult court, where he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 33 years in prison. Deon is one of more than 50 juvenile offenders – referred to by middle name or pseudonym – who spoke to The Plain Dealer/cleveland.
Many of the youths argue they didn’t receive true opportunities for rehabilitation, and intervention services failed to address the effects of trauma, abuse or childhood poverty, leaving them cycling in the system. Some court officials, however, argue that such youths wasted the opportunities afforded them.
A comparison of charging numbers across 10 serious felonies, including murder, aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary and rape, shows Cuyahoga files these charges nearly four times as often as Hamilton County and more than twice as often as Franklin County. For example, Hamilton County considered bindover in a similar number of cases as Cuyahoga, but in the end, far fewer of those were granted.
Then, when Deon was 13, his mother was arrested for murder. With no other guardian to care for him, he entered a four-year carousel of foster placements and detention. When Deon was 16, a Cuyahoga County psychologist said the most appropriate place for him was a youth prison or lockup facility. Instead, he was ferried to an unsecured Columbus youth shelter, from which he AWOLed and returned to Cleveland.
Cuyahoga County Juvenile Justice System Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O'malley Franklin County Hamilton County Mahoning County @Lll @Exmeter @Sub-Group-C @Sub-Group-B @Subscriberexclusive
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Shonen Jump's New Delinquent Manga Is Nothing Like Tokyo Revengers (& That's Great)Tokyo-Revengers-Astro-Royale
Read more »
Crunchyroll’s New Delinquent Anime Could Easily Be Spring 2024’s Best New SeriesCharacters from wind breaker anime stand on steps
Read more »
The strange and terrible saga of SF’s incredible shrinking ethics delinquent listNot for the first time, San Francisco governance has borrowed a line from the 1978 film “Animal House”: You fucked up! You trusted us!”
Read more »
Ralph Yarl's family files a lawsuit against homeowner in wrong-door shootingDeon J. Hampton is a national reporter for NBC News.
Read more »
Albuquerque High School Principal Removed After Drag Show At PromDeon J. Hampton is a national reporter for NBC News, based in Cincinnati.
Read more »
Albuquerque principal is removed and some employees on leave after prom drag showDeon J. Hampton is a national reporter for NBC News.
Read more »