Criminal, juvenile cases on the rise

Annually, both criminal and juvenile cases are filed three times higher than 14 years ago, according to the Public Defender’s Office.

In a report dated May 12, 2005, PDO said that criminal case filings grew an average of 19 percent annually and juvenile cases grew an average of 22 percent per year.

“Now, per year, both criminal and juvenile cases get filed at a rate three times higher than 14 years ago,” said Public Defender Masood Karimipour.

“This trend has been due to the population explosion in the CNMI, nearly doubling since 1984,” he explained.

He also said that due to population growth and the lack of legal staff, case dispositions “have become less and less timely.”

Citing statistics from the CNMI Superior Court, Karimapoor said that the gap between the number of criminal cases filed and criminal cases disposed of has widened.

He said that when case filings increased by 20 percent in one year, the disposition rate decreased by 15 percent in the same year.

Juvenile cases dispositions “have grown even less timely.”

He said that when juvenile case filings increased by 17 percent, the disposition rate decreased by 34 percent.

“The lesson learned is this: the more cases get filed, the less efficient the criminal justice system gets. This is equally true of the PDO and its legal staff, who handle, and who are instrumental in facilitating dispositions in, most of the criminal, juvenile and traffic cases,” he said.

To address the issue, he said that the PDO “planned” a multi-track approach to make the office more efficient in its operation.

He said PDO obtained federal grants to hire a “fast-track paralegal” whose major responsibilities include the handling of the required but time-consuming tasks of preparing papers for filing, coordinating with attorneys, witnesses, court personnel, and the prosecution in preparation of cases and hearings.

Last year, authorities reported that the number of juvenile delinquency cases declined by 36 percent in 2003.

But this was due to the Department of Public Safety’s temporary abolition of its anti-theft task force, the Division of Youth Services earlier said.

The DYS Juvenile Probation Unit said that it handled a total of 272 cases involving youth offenders in 2003-or a third less than the 478 cases posted in 2002.

DYS attributed the decrease to DPS’ decision to assign six of its detectives to robbery and burglary cases, resulting in the temporary dissolution of the DPS Thief Apprehension Select Coalition.

Based on DYS statistics, theft was among the offenses committed by most youths. Despite the suspension in 2003, DYS documented 37 theft cases involving minors.

In 2000, DYS said there were about 552 juvenile delinquency cases, which was 33 percent higher than in 1999’s 369 cases.

The 1995-2000 Statistical Summary of Children, Youth and Family Served report revealed that the year 2000 recorded the highest juvenile delinquency cases.

There were 209 in 1995; 369 in 1996; 523 in 1997; 413 in 1998; 369 in 1999; and 552 in 2000.

Of the said cases, only 14 youth offenders served prison terms in 1995; 128 in 1996; 162 in 1997; 104 in 1998; 104 in 1999; and 115 in 2000.

From 1995 to 2000, DYS recorded 2,435 juvenile delinquency cases that sent 627 youth offenders to jail.