New Jersey Tackling How to Keep Kids Out of Jail

A student who did bike tricks in a crosswalk during dismissal was charged with disorderly conduct. Another who entered school grounds while on suspension was accused of criminal trespassing. A third, who tampered with an elevator, causing “public annoyance and alarm,” was hit with a criminal mischief charge.

The three incidents were among hundreds in New Jersey schools last spring that resulted in calls to police, according to a report by a member of the attorney general’s Juvenile Justice Commission.

In South Carolina, the removal from a classroom of a student who refused to follow the directions of a police officer captured national attention because of the violent way it was handled. But juvenile justice experts in New Jersey say they have long been concerned about a deeper, more pervasive phenomenon — school leaders calling police for minor infractions that are then dealt with in the criminal justice system when they might have been handled better through social services.

While New Jersey has been credited with reducing the percentage of juveniles who wind up in the criminal justice system over the past decade, there is a critical issue that is being debated: Are too many being charged for minor offenses and being branded juvenile delinquents, something that can have negative impacts on the rest of their lives?