New Orleans council members to receive juvenile crime report

Today the Criminal Justice committee of the New Orleans City Council will be talking about juvenile offenders who keep offending. 

The council will get a report on repeat offenders in the juvenile system. The report will show that most of the charges involving juvenile offenses are attributed to relatively few offenders.

While overall numbers are made available through the state supreme court, some juvenile court judges say they'd like more in depth info on repeat offenders, so they know what diversion programs work and which ones don't.

"What is their recidivism rate and how are they doing?" asked New Orleans Juvenile Court Judge Mark Doherty. "Are they wisely spending tax dollars or not?"

Judge Doherty says even his court has trouble getting a hold of records of prior offenses, but that information could be critical.    "What is the record of that individual's encounters with the system, and what has the system done to try and get that young life back on track?"

Judge Doherty says he'd like to see more specific data for each offender that comes through his court, so they can figure out if efforts to get a kid to straighten up and fly right is working.

"If we're not sharing that information, and bringing the expertise to bear on that kid, then we're kind of running around in circles," he told WWL's Newell Normand.

Judge Doherty says confidentiality involving juveniles makes it hard to share that information, but he believes a way can be found to do it without compromising privacy.

The meeting starts at 10:00 a.m. at New Orleans City Hall.