Juvenile Court

I attended juvenile court proceedings at the courthouse in downtown Tampa. I was astounded at how many cases were on the docket. Even more surprising was how many kids were in the courtroom in their orange jumpsuits. All of the defendants were brought into the court in both leg and handcuffs. It was baffling to understand how these young children could commit such horrible crimes. Good portions of the crimes were theft or assault. In some assault cases, the kids had assaulted their own parents who in turn called the cops on them. One case stood out in my mind when a young girl was arrested for assaulting her mother. The mother appeared in court to tell the judge that she did not want her daughter returned to her because she feared for her life. She said that she would rather have her daughter stay in jail until some form of custody could be arranged. A lot of the defendant’s parents did not appear in court. Most of the kids were left alone to stand trial for their crimes. It made me wonder how long some these problems have been going on that once the child was arrested that the parents no longer cared to see their child come home. Despite one or two cases, every child was represented by the public defender. When I first entered the courtroom, I could see the public defender shuffling through numerous amounts of papers looking completely frazzled. I did not know how many cases he actually would oversee that day. The workload that is given to the public defender is insurmountable and I could not imagine having to preparing for so many different cases in one day. A scene that stood out in my mind is when one of the younger girls was called forward to have her case heard. As she approached the pulpit, she tripped and fell due to her leg cuffs. For a moment, I felt terrible for her having to endure such treatment and embarrassment. For a second, I could see a mother wanting to rush to her daughter’s aid, but when the girl reached the pulpit, I learned that she had beat her. The mother did not come to witness her daughter on trial.