The Nueces County Juvenile Justice Center said they've seen an increase of court cases involving minors over the past few years. However, it's not just petty crimes that kids are being accused of. According to the Juvenile Justice Center's records, minors are being accused of much more serious offenses like aggravated assault and drugs.
It was right before the Covid-19 pandemic that Miles Toren, the Justice Center's Facility Administrator, said he saw the drastic increase.
"It changes a little bit year to year, but over the last couple of years, the assaults have gone drastically up," Toren said,"I think that’s about a 65% increase of assaults alone and drugs. It’s not just your marijuana, but you see a lot of the kids doing vape pens.”
The higher number of cases has led to a 90-day backlog of minors who are waiting to be transferred to a state facility. Toren added it's not during the summer when kids get in the most trouble. Surprisingly, as kids head back to school, that's when the crimes start going up.
“Once they get around each other, they see each other. You have kids with mental health issues, you have kids who are being bullied. Last year, between July and July, we’re probably looking at 1,200 new cases and we’re not even through the year yet," Toren said.
Juveniles in the detention center get access to mental health therapy, which can be beneficial in their transformation. Some of the mental issues they have are blamed on the changes the world experienced during the global shutdown of the pandemic.
The Juvenile Center's Mental Health Supervisor, Dr. Claudia Iconomopoulos said many children witnessed death for the first time in 2020, while many of them also were also isolated from they're typical friend groups, teachers and resources.
"They don’t even know what to do with those feelings. They didn’t have their social groups to connect with. They had to figure out what to do with it on their own. How do we come back from that? What is it that we need to be doing in order to help these kids process what they’ve been through the last two and a half years," Iconomopoulos said.
However, the pandemic can't take all the blame. There are other factors that contribute to the changes of children's behavior. Iconomopoulos mentioned that it's a combination of their community environment, their family systems and the rise in children dropping out of school. She added if more school districts worked on keeping kids in the classroom and teaching them the fundamentals of social skills, it could help keep the dropout numbers low, while also teaching them how to navigate their peers, life challenges, and what's to come as they continue learning and growing.
According to the Nueces County Juvenile Justice Center, there are several warning signs that parents can look out for. Those include a change in their child's behavior or if they spend a lot of time alone. Drug use is a definite red flag. Another warning sign is if your child suddenly cuts off ties with their regular circle of friends and hangs out with other kids who may be a bad influence. The bottom line is parents need to intervene at home so their kids don't end up at their area detention center.
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