Joe Early became the Worcester County (Massachusetts) District Attorney in 2006, declaring as one of his priorities the improvement of the juvenile court system. Early hopes that timely intervention will prevent some teens from becoming career criminals.

"'If you take 100 percent of the kids in the juvenile system, 80 percent of them are going to be fine, they may get in trouble once or twice, but they have a social network to fall back on and get back on track,' Early said. 'Five percent, no matter what you do, are incorrigible and are going to be repeat offenders. Then there's 15 percent that could go either way. Those are the ones we are going after.'"

Efforts are being focused not only on the juvenile justice system, but also on school districts, community groups, and social services. Early is also working to increase the availability of parenting classes for pregnant women. As part of his strategy to reduce the number of repeat teen offenders, Early has moved 10 of his best prosecutors and the assistant district attorney to the juvenile court system. Read more at SentinelandEnterprise.com.

Labels: community, courts, juvenile_crime