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Oklahoma City-While the liberal Democrat leadership in the state senate continues to complain about Governor Frank Keating's prudent vetoes, they are ignoring their own record on a key issue: juvenile justice, the Governor's director of communications Dan Mahoney charged today. The final budget approved by lawmakers contained 10 million dollars less than requested in the Governor's budget.
"O.S.B.I. statistics, as highlighted on the front page of the Sunday Tulsa World say it all: juvenile crime is on the rapid rise in Oklahoma. Between 1985 and 1995 murders committed by juveniles were up 329 percent, rapes up 74 percent, robberies up 215 percent and drug arrests up 174 percent. We're arresting 30 thousand kids a year but have nowhere to put most of them nor any way to monitor them when they are let go. The liberal Democrat leadership in the senate had a chance to take a whack at the juvenile crime problem and failed, " Mahoney said.
Among the key provisions "vetoed" by the budget writers in the senate was funding to provide consequences for juvenile offenders who break probation. "Currently there is no incentive for juveniles to adhere to the terms of their probation," Ken Lackey, Director of the Office of Juvenile Affairs said. "Kids are tearing up their probation papers as they leave the courthouse knowing if they violate probation, nothing can be done with them. The Governor's recommended budget would have created dedicated beds for juveniles who break probation so they could be placed into a short-term regimented program. Juvenile judges and prosecutors statewide identified this as a major need," Lackey said.
Also killed was funding for electronic monitoring for juveniles released into the community. "We have thousands of juveniles on probation and just don't have the resources to monitor them properly. With 30,000 arrests a year and only 600 juvenile beds, most end up back on the streets and unfortunately we aren't able to track them effectively," Lackey added.
Funding to do drug testing on juvenile offenders also was rejected by lawmakers. "With the dramatic increase in drug related crimes, deterring drug use among juveniles in custody and on probation is a key to reducing the number of juvenile offenders. Our ability to identify those who are using drugs is crucial. Without the money we can't keep juvenile offenders off drugs ," Lackey said. The Office of Juvenile Affairs also failed to receive money to continue drug testing for employees. It was the first agency in the state to establish such a program.
Additional money for more foster care for delinquents was also nixed by the Democrat leadership in the final budget. Foster care for appropriate juvenile offenders is the least costly of all O.J.A. options.
"They can complain all they want to about Governor Keating's vetoes. But here was a real problem with some real proposed solutions and the liberal Democrats in the senate ignored it. Teens and even pre-teens are raping, robbing, murdering and stealing our cars and property. All we wanted to do was take steps to make sure they pay for their crimes, the senate leadership didn't seem to agree," Mahoney said.