Incompetent Youth in California Juvenile Justice

INTRODUCTION With increasing frequency, juvenile justice professionals express concern over the difficulties of serving youth who "do not belong" in the juvenile justice system. They lament the influx of youth who properly should be served in the mental health, child welfare, or education systems. They offer troubling accounts of what happens to these young people, who often wind up incarcerated in secure facilities that are not designed for and are ill-equipped to provide appropriate care for them--resulting in further deterioration of mental and physical conditions, over-reliance on isolation and control measures, and severe stress on staff and resources in the facilities. Among these young people are some with cognitive impairments so severe that they are unable to fully participate in their court cases. Competence to stand trial requires that they be able to understand the nature of the proceedings against them, and to assist their lawyers. And while the presence of a mental disorder, developmental disability, and/or immaturity does not automatically render a juvenile incompetent, the presence of these factors triggers the need for further inquiry. At the very least, these youth present serious challenges for the system in case processing and provision of services; at the most, the system must recognize their incompetence and prevent their cases from going forward. Despite this, there has been little analysis of the extent of juvenile incompetence in California, or of the ability of the system to meet the needs of incompetent youth. Nor has there been any comprehensive effort to determine what could be done to improve state law or practice with respect to this population. This Article offers a vehicle for discussion of California juvenile incompetence to stand trial. It begins with an overview of the California juvenile justice system and a profile of youth in juvenile justice, briefly reviews the incompetency laws applying to adults, and then describes existing legal provisions to address juvenile incompetence. It also describes the context in which this work was undertaken. The Article then presents the findings of the first-ever statewide survey (1) of California probation departments on youth who are incompetent or potentially incompetent to stand trial in juvenile delinquency proceedings. (2) It includes the information we set out to collect--responses on incidence of incompetence, what happens on the way to a determination of incompetence, and what happens to youth who are judicially adjudged incompetent. The Article also presents what county probation officers said about issues they face in serving youth who are not judicially adjudged incompetent but who have developmental disabilities or serious mental health issues. Finally, the Article closes with suggested policy actions to address the issues encountered in serving this population, with examples of currently existing "best practices." I. BACKGROUND ON JUVENILE COURT PROCEEDINGS AND DISPOSITIONAL PLACEMENTS Juvenile competence must be considered in the context of a complex system for handling juvenile crime. A brief overview of the California juvenile justice system and a profile of the young people in the system may be helpful. A. California Juvenile Court Process (3) "Juvenile justice" refers to juvenile court proceedings in which a minor is alleged or found to have committed an act that would be a crime if committed by an adult. In California, juvenile justice proceedings are also referred to as "delinquency" cases, or "602" cases, in reference to the jurisdictional statutes beginning at California Welfare and Institutions Code section 602. A California juvenile justice case begins with an arrest based on alleged commission of a crime, after which the youth may be released, delivered to a shelter or diversion program and cited to appear before the probation officer, or held and transported to the probation officer. …