When a young nursing student from Altoona criticized her treatment as a victim in Blair County's juvenile justice system in December, she touched the raw nerve of an issue that state and local officials will have to address, particularly in view of Gov. Tom Corbett's state budget proposal.
The Pennsylvania General Assembly during the last two decades has enacted "rights" for crime victims in both the adult and juvenile justice systems.
Counties are mandated to provide services to victims, but over the years, the state funding has been reduced bit by bit.
According to officials in the juvenile system, the $27.1 billion budget proposed by Corbett last week eliminated the funding altogether, and unlike past years, there are no federal funds, such as stimulus money, to fill the gap.
The dilemma facing local officials such as Nancy Williams, director of the Blair County Juvenile Probation Office, and her victim-witness coordinator, Betty Young, is how to pay for services designed to help crime victims that her office is mandated to provide.
"We are going to ask the county to continue to fund the program [victim services]," Williams said last week.
Susan Blackburn, a former director of the juvenile probation office in Somerset County and now a court consultant with the Juvenile Court Judges Commission in Shippensburg, put the issue another way. She said there must be a "conversation" at the local level on how to provide services for crime victims in the state.
She said it is "kind of scary" that money to help victims can be zeroed out of such a large budget.
One case
An example of why victim services are so necessary occurred in Blair County in late December when first-year nursing student Cortni Lynn McClain had her car stolen.
The vehicle was in a garage awaiting repairs so McClain, 19, could travel to her job, to her classes at Mount Aloysius College and to Windber Hospital for her practical training.
The 16-year-old who stole her car and "trashed it" was on probation for similar offenses.
McClain was summoned to court for a probation violation hearing but never got to speak to the judge. The 16-year-old was not yet charged with theft of her vehicle, as the investigation is still continuing.
Upset at the court system, without her own transportation and with apparently no restitution in sight, McClain was critical of the juvenile system.
The story took on a life of its own and was resolved when local people launched a fundraising effort to replace McClain's car.
Williams and Young said even though they explained to McClain why she was not able to speak to the court that day, they still could empathize with her.
"It's unfortunate she had a bad experience," Williams said. "That's the last thing we want. We don't want to make a bad situation worse."
She explained that under the juvenile system, victims have rights that revolve around the idea that juveniles in Pennsylvania - young people between the ages of 10 and 18 - are to be held accountable for their actions and are liable for restitution within certain limits.
They explained that McClain's case was more of a glitch than normal, but they also noted that the case shows why victims' services are so important and how tough the job is, even when services are in place.
System framework
When crimes are committed by perpetrators older than 18, victims' services are provided through Victim-Witness Coordinator Susan Griep. Griep and her staff are in the office of District Attorney Richard A. Consiglio.
If a crime is committed by a juvenile, the victim is assigned to victim-witness coordinator Young, whose office is in the Blair County Juvenile Probation Office.
While the two victim-witness programs are separate, the staffs of the two offices work closely with each other.
Assistant District Attorney BiPasha Barua is assigned to the prosecution of juvenile cases, and she works closely with Young.
Barua and Young often talk to victims together - Barua to put together her case against a juvenile for presentation in court and Young to make sure the victims know their rights and receive the assistance they need and are entitled to by law.
In the juvenile system, a greater effort is made to address why a young person committed a crime and to focus on directing him to a more productive life.
A great emphasis is placed on what the juvenile system calls "balanced and restorative justice."
Young explained that when victims provide an impact statement telling the court how the crime affected their lives, they are asked for permission to use the statement to help the juvenile understand the harm he has caused.
In the juvenile system there is emphasis on having the youngster make amends for what he has done.
The Blair County Juvenile Office has a restitution fund from which it can pay the juvenile for community service work. In essence, however, the money goes toward restitution owed by the juvenile.
Community service is also considered a way for the juvenile to "give back" to the community if there are no specific victims of a crime - for instance, those youngsters who commit drug offenses.
Another prong of the restorative justice program is to place the youngster on a path to a productive life, through helping him find work and making sure he attains an education.
Consiglio has been confronted in the past year-and-a-half with tough cases involving crimes committed by juveniles, which he contended should be handled in the adult court: an attempted homicide at Altoona Area High School; the stabbing of a police officer by a 13-year-old; a gang member from New Jersey carrying guns and making threats in an Altoona neighborhood; a young drug dealer who was arrested several times despite attempts to help him in the juvenile system; and a 17-year-old whose reckless and intoxicated driving led to the death of a 16-year-old passenger in his car.
Some of the juveniles in these crimes were certified as adults, and some weren't.
Generally, however, Consiglio said he believes the juvenile system has little ability to make victims whole because the young people who commit the crimes have little earning power and the law restricts what parents must pay in restitution.
He believes that the juvenile system can't "appropriately punish" many of the juvenile offenders.
"Victims have a tough time in juvenile court," he said, but he concluded, "We are stuck with the system. We have to abide by it. We do what we can."
Williams' counterpoint is that the balanced and restorative justice system is effective. She points out juveniles can be removed from their homes and sent to institutions, but the reality is the county and the state can't afford "jail" for juveniles.
"Placements are $300 a day," she said.
Victims' rights
Blackburn, the consultant to the Juvenile Court Judges Commission, was in charge of Somerset County's juvenile probation office and instituted victims' services before they were mandated by the law.
She said that funding for victims' services in the juvenile system was initiated in 2000, and at that time, the state provided $3.5 million in funds annually.
The figure slowly dropped to $1.7 million in recent years, and in the latest budget proposal, proposed by Corbett on Tuesday, funding for juvenile services is gone, Blackburn said.
"The rights [of victims] are still there," she said.
Blackburn said her agency has "major, major concerns" that the victims' rights specialists in the state's 67 counties are not going to be there in the future, to the detriment of crime victims.
She said Pennsylvania's services for victims in the juvenile system are "fabulous" compared to other states. All 67 counties have a restitution program and all make provisions for a community service program, she said.
As for victims' rights, there are such programs regarding the juvenile system, including 37 provided through district attorneys' offices, 18 provided by community-based organizations and 16 located in juvenile probation offices.
Those programs provide information about the court system to victims and are mandated to inform victims of all hearings.
Victims have the right to submit impact statements and to attend court hearings. They have a right to restitution.
They have a right to know court dispositions.
Those victims' rights are continuing to increase, Young pointed out.
If a victim needs counseling, the victim-witness coordinator is to make referrals. Young, for instance, said she makes referrals to Blair County Human Services.
The job keeps her busy. In 2011, Young counseled 199 victims, 111 witnesses and 74 "significant others," such as the parents of victims.
She must provide all the appropriate notifications to those individuals, aid them with restitution requests and impact statements and attend hearings with them.
Young is on call 24 hours a day, Williams pointed out. She must be available to accompany a victim or witness to the police department to give a statement, or even attend to an injured victim in a hospital emergency room.
The upcoming battle
Corbett outlined a proposed budget for the 2012-13 fiscal year, but the General Assembly has the final word.
"We don't want to give up yet," said Blackburn, outlining efforts of local residents to talk about the funding issue with their state representatives.
She said discussions will begin in each of the counties about what will happen with victims' services if funds are not restored.
When Luzerne County experienced a crisis in its juvenile system because of the "kids for cash" scandal, former Gov. Ed Rendell appointed the Interbranch Commission to investigate the state's juvenile system and to make recommendations.
At the time, funding for the juvenile justice victim-witness program had dwindled to $1.7 million. Rendell then chopped another $500,000 off that amount in view of the growing budget crisis.
The Interbranch Commission recommended the restoration of funding for victims of juvenile offenders.
"These [funding cuts] have forced counties to reduce the number of advocates serving victims of juvenile crime and enhanced the difficulties associated with providing services to juvenile victims," the commission's report stated.
Mirror Staff Writer Phil Ray can be reached at 946-7468.
