January 2, 2019
Page 15
Juvenile Justice Primer
c ontinued from p age 3
problem for them. I don’t think his
teachers understood how to deal
with minority kids.”
Shala’s son struggled at home
and at school. After his arrest, she
was overwhelmed by a complex le-
gal system. “I had to deal with ad-
ditional challenges with attorneys,
who were making decisions on be-
half of my child,” she said.
Shala’s situation and subsequent
list of questions are common for
parents involved in the juvenile
justice system. What are my rights?
What is a juvenile court counselor?
What is a Formal Accountability
Agreement? What happens if my
child is facing a Measure 11 charge?
Shala joined a parent group and
compared notes with a dozen oth-
ers who’ve gone through some of
the same pain. The group began the
first of 12 drafts of the parent hand-
book as part of county wide efforts
to reduce community violence and
recidivism, and keep youths from
entering the justice system in the
first place.
“It is great for parents to have
what they need,” Multnomah
County Circuit Court Judge Nan
Waller said. “But it’s really our
Parents hug each other at the launch of the Parent Handbook, a
48-page resource for parents with children in the criminal justice
system.
ultimate goal for every member
of this community to stand up and
make sure that children aren’t com-
ing into our juvenile justice sys-
tem. And that ultimately you will
put yourself out of business with
the parent handbook and instead
celebrate the successes it will give
you.”
The handbook is printed in En-
glish and Spanish. It will be avail-
able for parents at the Juvenile
Services Division in Northeast
Portland. It’s also available through
the Community Healing Initiative
(CHI), a multicultural collabora-
tive that includes the Department
of Community Justice, Latino Net-
work and Portland Opportunities
Industrialization Center (POIC).
“Letting someone else know
that you have walked through that
fire and made it through is such an
important way to give back to your
community,” said Commissioner
Lori Stegmann who also attended
the recent event. “Thank you for
your love of this community.”
Today, Shala’s son is off pro-
bation and staying out of trouble,
she said, after he was assigned to
a juvenile probation officer and re-
ferred to the Community Healing
Initiative.
He didn’t have to do any time
but he had to follow the rules.
“Ask questions,” Shala said.
“If you don’t know, ask questions.
If they don’t know, ask someone
else.”
“No one has the right or wrong
answer,” she continued. “Each kid
is different. Each case is different.”
“I’m hoping people will see
[the handbook] and speak with
their kids about it and help them
to prevent from getting in trouble.
Because I let my kids know at the
drop of a dime that you can walk
out this door and your life can
change.”
Jessica Morkert-Shibley is the
communications coordinator for
Multnomah County.