youth crime in Memphis – Memphis Flyer

The exterior of the Memphis-Shelby County Juvenile Court in downtown Memphis. Photo by Andrea Morales for MLK50

This story was originally published by MLK50: Justice Through Journalism. Subscribe to their newsletter here.

In January, a new “blended sentencing” law will go into effect in Tennessee that could usher hundreds of children into the adult criminal justice system with fewer checks than the existing adult transfer process. It will also keep those kids in the juvenile justice system longer.

The law is “extremely harmful for youth in Memphis,” said Ala’a Alattiyat, coordinator for the Youth Justice Action Council. “It will not keep our community safer, and it will continue to perpetuate the cyclical nature of the justice system by making it harder for youth to exit that cycle.”

Children as young as 14 could be subject to blended sentencing. These children will be required to serve juvenile sentences until they turn 19. They will also face up to four years of adult prison or probation.

Initially, this adult sentence is stayed, meaning it will only take effect if certain criteria are met. Only one of these criteria concerns whether a child has committed another delinquent act.

As a result, kids could end up in adult prison without committing another crime, said Zoe Jamail, policy coordinator at Disability Rights Tennessee. Instead, the text of the law allows children to increase their risk of going to prison by breaking curfew or failing to graduate from high school.

Ultimately, children “who would otherwise never have been facing an adult sentence” will be swept into the adult system, said Jasmine Ying Miller, a senior attorney at Youth Law Center.

Blended sentencing is part of a broader effort by some lawmakers to make Tennessee’s juvenile justice system more punitive, even though rates of youth crime in the state have been declining for at least a decade.

In April, the state legislature passed the “Juvenile Organized Retail Theft Act,” which allows children to be tried as adults for shoplifting or stealing a gun. In May, it passed the “Parental Accountability Act,” which allows judges to fine parents for offenses committed by their children.

Rep. John Gillespie. Photo by Andrea Morales for MLK50

The blended sentencing legislation, which also passed in May, was introduced and sponsored by several Memphis-area lawmakers. In the State Senate, the bill was sponsored by state Sen. Brent Taylor (R-Memphis). In the House, the bill was sponsored by Rep. Mark White (R-Memphis), Rep. John Gillespie (R-Memphis), and Rep. G.A. Hardaway (D-Memphis).

“State policies related to youth justice consistently and disproportionately target Memphis, which is a predominantly Black city,” said Alattiyat. As a result, “this type of law always ends up disproportionately targeting Black youth.”

Blended sentencing’s sponsors often imply — incorrectly — that youth are responsible for most of Memphis’s crime.

“We are living in a state of fear in Memphis, in the surrounding area,” Rep. Gillespie told colleagues during a House discussion of blended sentencing, “and it is almost entirely because of juveniles committing violent crimes that are going unpunished.”

These claims are misleading. Memphis-Shelby County Juvenile Court has said that adults are responsible for most crimes in the county. Children do seem to be disproportionately involved in car theft; about a third of those charged with vehicle-related crimes are youth offenders, according to the Memphis Police Department. Available data suggest that youth are less involved in violent crime.

According to statistics maintained by the Memphis-Shelby County Juvenile Court, juvenile crime did increase in 2022. But by 2023, juvenile crime had fallen to the same level as 2021. Overall, juvenile crime in Memphis has been on a steady decline since at least 2011.

Nevertheless, legislators insist that drastic action must be taken on youth crime in Memphis.

Rep. Mark White during a House committee hearing in March of this year. Photo by Andrea Morales for MLK50

“Juvenile laws traditionally have been there to protect the juvenile,” said White, who introduced the bill in the House. In his view, protection is no longer the right approach. “We’re living in a different time with some of the crimes committed by these 14, 15, 16, 17-year-olds.”

Currently, Tennessee’s juvenile justice system operates on two tracks: either children remain in the juvenile system — where they must be released by 19, no matter the offense they’ve committed — or they can be transferred to the adult system.

White believes that the first track, in which children remain in the juvenile system until age 19, enables juvenile crime. Under the current system, children “can shoot and kill a person at 17 and go free at 19,” he said.

Children accused of murder and attempted murder are usually transferred to adult court unless they have been abused or coerced, lawyers say.

Some juvenile judges also take issue with this part of the law; they’d like the option to keep older kids who have committed serious offenses in the juvenile system beyond 19.

“We all want a tool where we can extend jurisdiction to capture youth past the age of 19,” said Judge Aftan Strong, chief magistrate of Memphis-Shelby County’s Juvenile Court. “Extended jurisdiction” would give courts more time to rehabilitate young offenders, she said.

Blended sentencing bears little resemblance to this policy. And while juvenile judges are legally required to rehabilitate youth offenders, the architects of blended sentencing have made it clear that rehabilitation is beside the point.

White introduced an initial version of blended sentencing to the legislature in April 2023. The next month, White published an op-ed where he wrote, “We are well past the time of ‘we need to rehabilitate our youth.’” Instead, he wrote, the juvenile justice system should focus on “discipline, correction and punishment.”

A view of the state legislature floor during a House session in March 2023. Photo by Andrea Morales for MLK50

In that same op-ed, White compared Memphis’ “undisciplined youth” to the 1870s yellow fever epidemic that killed or displaced 30,000 Memphians.

Ultimately, blended sentencing will likely incarcerate more children while failing to address youth crime, critics say. Empirical research on young people “does not support this viewpoint that you can punish your way into reducing crime.” said Cardell Orrin, Tennessee executive director at Stand for Children.

White is not concerned by this critique. “We have to have a system where [young offenders] understand the seriousness of what they did and that they will be detained in the system,” White told MLK50.

“A lot of the issues are coming from 2 percent-4 percent of our [youth] population,” he continued. “If we would just detain those people and make believers out of them, it may keep other people from reoffending.”

Four percent of Memphis’ population between the ages of 10 and 17 is roughly 2,700 children, based on available U.S. census data.

“We may have to go too far to one side trying to correct it in order to get back to sanity,” said White.

Rebecca Cadenhead is the youth and juvenile justice reporter for MLK50: Justice Through Journalism. She is also a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms. Email her rebecca.cadenhead@mlk50.com.

It was two weeks before Christmas in 1965. I was 15 years old. As the eldest of five boys, I had developed a sense of when things weren’t going well financially for my parents. No, they didn’t argue about money in front of us, especially since my stepfather was a man of few words to begin with. So, when they asked us to gather to tell us something in a rare family meeting, I knew in my heart it wasn’t going to be good.

My “pop” grimly forged ahead with what he had to say without directly looking into our eyes. He said, “Here’s the deal. We just don’t have enough money to make this a very good Christmas for you children. But I figure we got enough to get each of you one present. However, it can’t be any more than about $10 each. You tell your momma what you want, and we’ll try to get it.”

No moans or groans emanated from any of us. We knew it hurt our parents to divulge their financial straits. We had known better times, but this Christmas wasn’t going to be one of them. Afterward, I told my mother I’d be willing to get something less if she needed to put it on somebody else’s gift. She appreciated my willingness to sacrifice, but, she said, “I’ve got a pretty good idea of what you want, and I think it just might be a surprise!”

What did I get? It was the album Beatles ’65. I was in heaven! You might ask why in the world a black teenager in the middle of Missouri would be so ecstatic to embrace the music of a British rock band. Because, like millions of teens, I was fascinated by the Beatles and the sense of youthful revolution they represented. I played the grooves out of that vinyl disc for years.

That remembrance came flooding back to me, sparked by the disturbing reports of violence allegedly inflicted by two Memphis 15-year-olds in separate incidents. In one, the young man, vigorously defended by Memphis attorney Matthew John, was given a “second chance” by a Shelby County Juvenile Court judge after pleading guilty to attempted second-degree murder and a handful of assault charges for recklessly shooting into a crowd of people. His intended target was the son of a woman who’d had a years-long feud with his mother. Instead, he shot two innocent bystanders on an Orange Mound street.

In a show of compassion, Judge Dan Michael ruled the child would not be charged as an adult for the shooting. He was assigned to county child services where he will stay in foster care until he’s 19. Hopefully, the sentence will help him stay away from his biological mother, who, despite his claims, denies she released him like some heat-seeking missile to do her bidding.

Even sadder is the story of another 15-year-old, who was arrested and charged with the senseless murder of a father of two while he was doing a contracting job. The details describe a robbery “gone bad,” as if such a deed could ever be anything else.

You’re probably thinking I should tie up loose ends now, and I will do the best I can to do so:

A Christmas story. Two police-blotter incidents of teen crime. As a reporter who’s covered trials for years, I’ve heard all the excuses about how a defendant’s environment sculpted his way of looking at the world: He or she was abused as a child. They developed a warped sense of right and wrong. They are incapable of human feeling, because their tragic lives were devoid of parental caring.

Like many of us, I am tired of these excuses for committing violent acts. Let us, as a society, put the blame where it lies — with parents who are either unwilling, uncaring, or too afraid to honestly lay down a set of morals and ethics for their children. “Babies having babies” has created a lost generation of children whose moral and ethical compasses were never set. I am weary of hearing how it’s the responsibility of somebody else — a grandmother, a teacher, a foster parent, or a judge to somehow turn on the light bulb of recognition so that miscreants can realize their wrongs.

Parents need to be as honest and straightforward with their children as my father was with us that December in 1965. That’s why I remember and cherish that lone gift I received that yuletide season to this day.

Les Smith is a reporter for Fox-13 News.