To those who don’t see the juvenile justice system every day, it can seem pretty black and white: The bad children go to jail.
But it’s not that simple, said Sandra Simkins of Wyndmoor.
Her new book, “When Kids Get Arrested: What Every Adult Should Know,” attempts to shed light on the juvenile justice system, namely that it’s more serious than one might think.
“I’m trying to reach out to parents, coaches, church leaders, school officials and anybody who works with kids,” said Simkins, associate clinical professor at the Rutgers School of Law in Camden and co-director of the school’s Children’s Justice Clinic.
Simkins co-directs the Northeast Region Juvenile Defender Center, where she gives consults with and trains children’s advocates in surrounding states.
She is also a former assistant chief of the juvenile unit in the Defender Association of Philadelphia.
Frequently, she has received phone calls from parents who felt lost when their children were arrested, she said, and she wanted to make information available to them in her book.
“Over and over I’ve seen
parents become very confused by the juvenile court process and not know where to turn,” she said.
It is important that parents and children understand their rights and the system, because the manner in which a child’s case is handled largely influences the outcome, she said.
Simkins has seen two children charged with the same offense, but their cases had radically different outcomes.
Her major tips for parents are not to waive their child’s right to a lawyer and not to let children talk to the police without one.
“Parents frequently encourage children to waive the right to a lawyer, and by doing that it always makes it worse for the kid,” she said.
The U.S. Supreme Court has granted this right to children, who have to be 10 to be arrested in Pennsylvania, she added.
Parents also need to understand that what happens in the juvenile justice system can severely affect a child’s future, contrary to the assumption that juvenile court may be easy on children.
The system is more punitive today than it was 15 years ago, when a child could get arrested and then have his “slate wiped clean,” Simkins said.
“Now, if a kid gets arrested, there are long-range consequences that go into adulthood,” she added.
For example, a child’s record of indiscretion may disqualify him from joining the military or receiving college loans, she said. The “zero tolerance” policy adapted by many schools is also significant because it brings many more children into the juvenile justice system, and guidance counselors and school officials should be aware of what happens when a child is arrested, she said.
The “school to prison pipeline” is something she discusses in the book because she wants to educate parents to make smart legal choices for their children, she added.
According to Simkins, everything goes downhill when a child gets involved in the juvenile justice system.
Simkins first became interested in this subject while working at the public defender’s office in Philadelphia, particularly working with girls.
“Girls that ended up in the juvenile justice systems always had a really tragic background,” she said.
Ninety percent of girls she worked with suffered abuse in their lives and landed in the juvenile justice system because they got into a fight with someone at school or at home, Simkins said.
Everything got worse when they entered the system, she said.
“Seeing that the system was often unable to make it better and often made it worse made me want to do more and make this my career,” she said.
Those who often end up in the system are poor, don’t have parents or have special needs, she said.
”I like being a voice for those kids,” she said.
Millions of children get arrested every year, she added.
“One out of three children of color is going to spend some time on probation or parole or prison in their lifetimes. One out of three,” she said, adding that the United States incarcerates more people than any other country in the world.
Simkins said her goal was to take what she learned in Philadelphia, a city with fantastic organizations like the Juvenile Law Center, and write a book with a national scope.
“The attorneys in the public defender’s office in Philadelphia are outstanding. Not everybody has that,” she said.
This is Simkins first book, and it was exciting for her that her daughters could watch her go through the process of having an idea, writing a chapter and then incorporating revisions, she said.
She has lived in Wyndmoor for eight years and has a “really supportive husband” and two daughters, 10 and 12, who attend Springfield Township schools.
