SD5 - A Study of Alternative Means to Ensure that Court Practices and Procedures Provide Adequate Advance Notice and Meaningful Public Access to Juvenile Court Proceedings Involving Serious Juvenile Offenders


Executive Summary:
Chapters 755 and 914 of the 1996 Acts of Assembly, which together were known as the Juvenile Justice Reform Act ("the Act"), opened certain proceedings held in juvenile and domestic relations district court involving juveniles to public view. In particular, the Act provided that hearings shall be open to the public in those proceedings involving juveniles fourteen years of age or older, who have been charged with what would be a felony if committed by an adult. However, the juvenile and domestic relations district court records involving such juveniles are not open to the public unless, and until, such a juvenile has been adjudicated delinquent for a felony-delinquency. Therefore, the Act did not authorize court personnel to provide information from court records to the public regarding those juveniles prior to adjudication.

The prohibition of the release of information from juvenile records about specific juveniles prior to their adjudication for a felony-delinquency meant that the ability of the public to attend hearings in these matters could amount to "a right without a remedy." While the public could attend such a hearing, they were limited in discovering specific information about these hearings beforehand. Public access was experienced as less meaningful to the extent to which that access depended either upon a continuing monitoring of courthouse activity, fortuitous discovery of when an open hearing was scheduled or learning the time of a hearing through other routes.

The Study Committee reviewed the applicable statutory provisions regarding access to juvenile records and to hearings in juvenile and domestic relations district court proceedings. A goal of this review was to see how both the intent of the Act to "open up" certain proceedings in the juvenile and domestic relations district court and the purposes of this study could be furthered within the current statutory framework. The Study Committee considered the interests of the public and the legitimate needs of the press, along with the administrative responsibilities of the court system, in attempting to identify a solution which would secure meaningful public access to these proceedings while also appropriately protecting that information which the relevant statutes provide shall remain confidential.

The Study Committee concluded that it would be permissible under the current statutory framework to make public in advance the time, the date and the location of these open hearings, as long as identifying information is not made public or otherwise compromised prior to adjudication. As a result of this study, the Office of the Executive Secretary offers the following two recommendations:

Recommendation 1.

Extensive training should be provided to juvenile and domestic relations district court judges and clerks on the current statutory authority regarding the confidentiality of juvenile case records and dockets and the status of juvenile records pending adjudication for a delinquent act which would be a felony if committed by an adult.

Recommendation 2.

The court system, with the assistance of the Office of the Executive Secretary, should implement a uniform notification procedure, consistent with the current statutory framework, which provides advance notice of open juvenile hearings. This procedure should utilize the automated case management system ("CMS") as now in use in the district courts. The report would list the day and time for those hearings in proceedings where a juvenile fourteen years of age or older has been charged with a felony-delinquency, as well as indicating the offense charged and the courtroom where the hearing will be conducted. It would not list the name or other identifying information regarding the individual juvenile. The report would be posted in the public area of the juvenile court facility for public information purposes.