Juvenile Court Processing Study

In 2003, over 6,000 juveniles were arrested or cited in Wyoming for a variety of offenses including serious felonies (e.g. forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault), drug and alcohol law violations (e.g. sale and possession), and status offenses (e.g. curfew violations and runaway) (Annual Report of Crime in Wyoming 2003). These arrest statistics, in addition to several current initiatives and the passage of House Bill 33, "Children and Families Initiative" in the state of Wyoming resulted in compelling the status of juvenile offenders to the forefront. These initiatives, including the Juvenile Court Enhancement Initiative and the Judiciary Committee's interim study on child representation, served as the impetus for this review of the current Wyoming judicial system as it applies to juveniles. This report will also provide recommendations for meeting the needs of the children falling under the confines of the criminal justice system.

In the spring of 2004, the Department of Family Services contacted the Wyoming Survey & Analysis Center (WYSAC) regarding developing a project to collect information on the status of juvenile processing in the State of Wyoming. WYSAC collected the data for this evaluation in collaboration with the National Center for Juvenile Justice (NCJJ). To address the primary goal of describing juvenile processing in Wyoming, two phases of data collection were initiated.

In Phase I, WYSAC gathered court processing information for all cases involving a charged/cited juvenile, except abuse/neglect petitions, filed in district, circuit, municipal, or juvenile courts in the four Wyoming counties for the year 2003. In Phase II, the NCJJ conducted interviews with law enforcement, court, and disposition officials regarding juvenile case processing in the four jurisdictions.

Project Team