Juvenile crime is on the rise in almost every community in
the country. We see it in the newspapers, on television, and hear it on the radio.
This rise in juvenile crime has been a steady problem, which poses some problems for
our community. First, the juvenile justice system is far different than the adult justice
system. Juveniles that commit delinquent offenses, unless serious, rarely go to prison.
For many this is seen as an opportunity for them to commit crimes without serious or
immediate repercussions. This may not seem like a good idea, but do we really want to
send each of our children that breaks the law to the Department of Corrections to become
more hardened to crime? With that question in mind, the Mt. Vernon Police Department and
Jefferson County Sheriff's office adopted the Serious Habitual Offender Comprehensive
Action Program.
S.H.O.C.A.P. (Serious Habitual Offender Comprehensive
Action Program)
is a two-part program, on one side you have the juvenile justice side,
on the other is the Comprehensive Action side. It is our job to make everyone accountable
for the offenses they commit; this promotes public safety and personal well being. The juvenile
justice side keeps track of all delinquent offenses each juvenile commits and assigns a point
value to each of these. At the point the juvenile reaches a certain level of points he/she
is deemed to be a near SHO (Serious Habitual Offender.) During this time the second phase of
the program kicks in.
The Comprehensive Action Program side of SHOCAP is used to attempt
to stop a juvenile from offending before a Department of Corrections (DOC)
commitment is made necessary. Social Service Agencies are brought in to work with the family
and a case manager is assigned to see the youth through available programs. In conjunction
with the comprehensive action program side, the S.H.O. side is still monitoring
progress. At the time the youth reaches the next level of points and a conviction, certain
sanctions take place.
Once sanctions are imposed, usually through an order of probation, it
is aggressively monitored. If the youth violates any conditions of the probation order,
immediate detention is sought at a juvenile detention facility. Curfew is monitored by the
police in the form of random home visits. The parents of the youth are required to present
the youth to officers upon the home visit for a visual check. If the youth is not home,
the next contact police have with the youth will be to arrest the youth. This helps keep
offenders off the streets at night when they are most likely to commit crime.
Meetings are held bi-weekly by all agencies involved in
S.H.O.C.A.P. to discuss the youth on the S.H.O. list.
All members of the SHOCAP Steering Committee are allowed to share information about the
individual youth on the SHO list by state statute. In this manner we are able to keep track
and account for our most active and violent juvenile offenders. Up to this point
S.H.O.C.A.P. has been very successful with curbing repeat offenders.
