As of January 1,2017, the Juvenile Probation Department is required to conduct a Juvenile Detention Risk Assessment of all detained juveniles. The Assessment will be used by Juvenile Court judges to determine whether or not a child should be released pending resolution of their delinquency charges. The purpose is to measure a child’s risk to public safety and to encourage the release of more youth.
The following are the Detention Risk Screen Items:
- Are there any prior judicially handled matters?
- Are there any prior delinquency commitment dispositions?
- Are there any prior felony adjudications?
- Are there two or more prior supervision or probation dispositions?
- Is the child currently on probation?
- Are there two or more prior school based arrests?
- Are there any prior charges involving a Violation of Court Orders?
- Are there any prior charges of Violation of Probation?
- Does the instant offense include two or more charges?
- Does the instant offense include felony charges?
Each “yes” response equates to a one point. The number of “points” is supposed to correlate to the child’s level of risk to the community.
- Level 1 = 0 – 2 points
- Level 2 = 3 -5 points
- Level 3 = 6 – 10 points
This is obviously a new process but here’s the likely result based on a child’s “Level”. Level 1 is typically a release. Level 2 will require some context of the Detention Risk Assessment responses and strong persuasion that the child should be released, Level 3 is a likely remand to Juvenile Detention.
Contact me by email or call me in Fairfield at (203) 259-5251 or in Stamford at (203) 356-1475 if you have questions about Connecticut Juvenile Court.