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Juvenile Crime
Gets New Rules
By SHERRY JONES
Capital Newt Service
Richmond — During the past six months the Governor’s Commission on Juvenile Justice Reform has been working to establish more stringent guidelines for m dealing with juvenile offenders.
While the commission presented Gov. George Allen with a set of 28 recommendations last week, it began focusing on four areas:
• automatically trying and sentencing serious violent offenders age 14 and older as adults,
• opening juvenile court proceedings to the public,
• establishing military school-style discipline in juvenile correctional centers,
• requiring that information regarding incidents of violence or drugs in schools be made available to parents.
Attorney General James S. Gilmore III, chairman of the commission, said stricter punishment for juvenile offenders is necessary to curtail the spread of juvenile crime.
“The juvenile crime rate in Virginia, as in the rest of the nation has been increasing even though the population of juveniles has decreased,” Mr. Gilmore said.
These proposals, he said, will prevent a further increase in juvenile crime.
According to statistic^ provided by the commission, Virginia’s juvenile crime rate increased 21 percent form 1980 to 1993.
In addition, the total juvenile arrests for 1994 reached its highest rate in the past 15 years, and the juvenile murder arrest rate quadrupled from 1987 to 1993.
“The present system was neither designed nor intended to handle the kind of juvenile criminals that we too often see today,” Mr. Gilmore said. “They’re committing rape, armed robbery and murder. The present system of juvenile
See Juvenile, Page A-8
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