Chairman Linda W.
Cropp, at the request of the Mayor
A PROPOSED RESOLUTION IN THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
To declare the existence of an emergency with respect to the need to
permit the Director of Social Services for the Family Division of the Superior Court to
take into custody children who are under his supervision and who have violated a condition
of their probation.
RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, That this
resolution may be cited as the "Home and Community Juvenile Probation Supervision
Emergency Declaration Resolution of 1998".
Sec. 2. (a) There exists an immediate crisis regarding
the need to supervise and protect juveniles who are on probation in the District of
Columbia. Currently, when a juvenile is placed on probation, one condition of probation
may be the imposition of a curfew. These curfews are designed to keep juveniles off the
streets during time periods when the temptation to commit a delinquent act may be the
highest, and to protect juveniles from any harm that may come their way during those time
periods. However, because there is no effective method available to the Division of Social
Services to enforce these curfews in a prompt, efficient manner, juveniles on probation
often disobey their curfews, confident that they will not be punished, thus rendering the
curfew ineffective as a means of controlling behavior.
(b) To combat the problems identified in subsection (a) of this
section, the Director of Social Services for the Family Division of the Superior Court has
proposed that he be permitted to take into custody those juveniles who are under his
supervision and who he has reasonable cause to believe have violated the terms of their
probation, including any curfew requirements. However, there is currently no clear legal
authority for him to do so. His inability to take these juveniles into custody has
seriously impaired the ability of the Superior Court to convince juveniles that court
orders should be taken seriously, and has resulted in many juveniles who are on probation
violating the terms of the probation, which poses a risk to the juveniles themselves, and
to the community at large.
Sec. 3. The Council of the District of Columbia
determines that the circumstances enumerated in section 2 constitute emergency
circumstances making it necessary that the "Home and Community Juvenile Probation
Supervision Emergency Act of 1998" be adopted after a single reading.
Sec. 4. This resolution shall take effect immediately.