Police getting summertime juvenile crime under control

Less than a week after schools in St. Landry Parish closed up shop for the summer, three juveniles – one 16-year-old and two 13-year- olds – were arrested for a string of crimes including unauthorized entry of a place of business, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, simple burglary and simple criminal damage to property.
“This year, we have had a little rash of juvenile offenses since school let out,” said Eunice Police Chief Randy Fontenot. “We’re getting it under control right now. Some arrests have been made, and we’ve got the right people. The crimes we were having problems with prior to these arrests have ceased.”
Some of the juvenile arrests are associated with Goons for Life, a local street group, and several of the incidents involving juveniles are still under investigation. Fontenot credits the downturn in the number of juvenile crimes to increased patrols at random times during the week.
“As the offense rate increases, so do patrols, to keep everything under control,” Fontenot added.
Since taking office in January, Fontenot discovered a “deficiency” in the way juvenile arrest records were kept in the past. The problem has been corrected, and the department has begun keeping more accurate records of juvenile arrests.
Juvenile arrest numbers were available for last summer, and between June 1 through Aug. 15, police arrested 38 juveniles. The top five juvenile crimes last summer, in order, were theft, ungovernable, disturbing the peace, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and curfew violation.
While theft, disturbing the peace and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle are all charges that adults can be arrested for as well, ungovernable, curfew violations, runaway, truancy and misbehavior at school are all considered status offenses, which adults cannot be charged with.
The juvenile curfew in Eunice is from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. Sunday through Thursday nights and from midnight to 5 a.m. Friday and Saturday. If a juvenile is out after those hours, he or she must be with a responsible adult over the age of 18, a sibling, parent or grandparent. Those who violate curfew are brought in and booked, and the parents are called to pick up the child and sign a custodial agreement that the child will be present for his or her court date. If the child does not show up for court, the parent or parents will be held responsible. If a parent is aware that their child is out past curfew, they will be charged with improper supervision.
Punishment for juvenile crimes can include community service, stricter curfews and house arrest, and for serious crimes, a stay at a juvenile detention or correctional facility. The sentence is decided on a case by case by basis by a judge.
“Former judge Lynette Feucht used to make some juvenile offenders write essays and book reports,” Fontenot added.
Juvenile offenders are referred to Families in Need of Services, a program overseen by the Louisiana Supreme Court and administered locally by Angela Roberts with the 27th Judicial District Court in Opelousas.
“It’s multidisciplinary,” the police chief said. “It looks at family needs and what services are available to help the family like counseling, a diversion program to help children outside of court for non violent status offenses, social services and maybe finding a different school setting.”
“But if an offender does not comply with FINS, they are referred back to court, and the judge comes in with more teeth.”
According to Roberts, families are refered to resources to get the children and families involved and engaged and to help parents and children deal with the lack of discipline or inability to discipline.
Some of the more highly utilized services and programs in St. Landry Parish are Multisystemic Therapy for Juvenile Offenders, which focuses on cognitive behavior management and services from Southwest Primary Health Care Opelousas, which provides affordable outpatient medical care, and Magellan Health Services.
Fontenot was the juvenile officer for the Eunice Police Department off and on from 1986 through 1998. In those days, he said the department averaged about 20 to 25 juvenile arrests each month, and arrest numbers were actually higher during the school year.
“More things come to light when teachers are seeing things,” he said. “Not as many people are seeing things to report during summer months. Kids get together while at school and plan things. During the summer, they are separated.”
There is a big difference between the juvenile offenders arrested then and the ones arrested now, he said.
“When I started in juvenile, we were just starting to see a generation of kids that were growing up not disciplined the way earlier generations were,” Fontenot said. “Now it’s ‘time outs’ instead of spanking. Back then, we were starting to see the first generation of kids that had a lack of respect for authority and responsibility for their actions.”
“Now, 20 years later, we are seeing it on a larger scale -- we are seeing the second and third generation of these kids. The lack of respect and responsibility has been magnified.”
Fontenot said he attributes the growing problem to a lack of discipline at home and a lack of father figures in many homes.
“That’s the major causes, in my opinion,” he said. “Fathers are usually the disciplinarians at home. They taught them (children) responsibility and work ethics. I don’t think we are seeing that today, and with work ethics, too.”