The state of Utah has a major problem that not many people know much about

[chinngiskhaan]

Buk Buk is absolutely responsible for his own actions, but this could have been prevented.

A major part of the problem is a change to the way Juvenile crimes are handled these days in the state of Utah. If you are under 18 you have to commit several serious crimes before they will even consider giving you the support you need. A few years back JJS’s budget was completely gutted in part because of the way their idiot leadership mismanaged things… Now the vast majority of services designed to help kids in the JJS system are gone. These are programs that were proven to help kids like Buk Buk get help as adolescents. He may have had a caseworker and other things when he was younger, then funding went away, and he was left to essentially fend for himself, without any kind of support whatsoever. 

There are hundreds of teens in Utah that have nowhere to belong. Their families don’t want them because they cause to many problems and right or wrong the families don’t feel safe with them around… but they haven’t committed a serious enough crime to fit into JJS’s matrix for one of the few facilities/programs that they have (as well as having a caseworker check up on them regularly among other things). DCFS/foster care is a bad option for them because none of the homes that DCFS receives funding for will take any kid that they perceive to be dangerous or violent. DCFS also does not have the power to force teens to do anything. Essentially, if the kid doesn’t want to be somewhere or do something, all they have to do is run or act out, and they get out of whatever undesirable situation/consequence they were put into. IF THOSE KIDS ARE LUCKY they end up floating around from foster home to foster home until they age out of foster care at around 21 years old, and they have long since come to the realization that society doesn’t give two s**ts about them… So they go and do stuff like this because they want someone to care about them, even if it’s for all the wrong reasons.

[chinngiskhaan]

Along with the gutting of JJS funding came the removal of any authority that schools had for holding kids and even parents accountable for kids missing class or causing problems in school. Kids are no longer required to go to school. Sure, the law may say they have to go to school, but nobody can make them go to school now, and if anyone tries, the punishments the kids are given make a slap on the wrist seem unfathomably harsh. If the parents don’t want to deal with it all, they just sign the kid up for some fake homeschool program that they have no intention of completing… Then it’s goodbye to the future of the child.

The only way these kids get help these days is if they voluntarily submit to it, and that isn’t good enough.

[dystopiamembrane]

[tarheelio]

Kids in juvenile justice need to see that there is a future down the road for them.  That often has nothing to do with the juvenile justice system, or the justice system as a whole. A world of opportunity includes opportunity for everyone. I think we get too interested in how many social programs we have, versus how much opportunity there is for everyone in our society.

I have been a defendant in juvenile court, admittedly for violent felonies. None of those folks got to ever meet me again because I saw that I could do something with myself and go to college. It wasn’t some special program that reached down and saved me, I just lived in a world that had a lot of opportunities that I needed to take advantage of. I don’t plan on ever being referred to as “defendant” again while in court, if you meet me in court these days you have to call me your honor.

We need to make sure there are plenty of opportunities, and then leave it to the juveniles to go out and get theirs. 100 altruistic social workers are completely ineffectual if the kid does not want to change.

[chinngiskhaan]

Yes, kids need to want to change in order to do so, but caseworkers and other role models that many of these kids don’t have anyone to show them that there is opportunity. 

yes, kids need to know there is opportunities. They also need to know that they are capable of taking advantage of those opportunities. There are far too many kids in our state with zero support, and zero sense of belonging. The programs that are now gone helped these kids by opening their eyes to the opportunities you speak of.

Also, caseworkers and therapists can’t make people change but they can absolutely help keep track of these kids and help prevent things like this from happening.

 

[Stone]

“The state of Utah has a major problem…”

California: “hold my beer”

[chinngiskhaan]

I have no idea what it’s like in California.

[Central Coast Ute]

Let’s just say when I hear Utahns talk about high crime rates or when I hear them refer to West Valley City as “The Compton of Utah”, I just have to laugh. Nowhere in Utah compares to Compton. Even if the Compton of today is nothing like the Compton of the 90’s that Utahns compare it to. It’s not even close.

[RedRocks]

Almost every problem becomes a bigger problem when you have 10x the population…

[Stone]

California’s problems are not just due to a larger population. It goes far deeper than that.

[Rick]

When I read this:  

In a disturbing jail booking affidavit, police say Buk fired two or three rounds at both victims, then walked up to them after they had fallen to the ground and fired five or six more times to “finish them off.” Lowe died at the scene. His girlfriend, whose name has not been released, underwent “extensive surgery,” according to police, and remained hospitalized as of Sunday in critical condition.

The phrase “Could have been prevented” seems to ring empty.  Sorry.  I am not buying that for a second.

[RustyShackleford]

Exactly there is something broken in this kid, he isn’t fixable. Lock him up for life or send him back to the Sudan and have them deal with him… there are plenty of people who want to get into this country that won’t murder people…

[Central Coast Ute]

Yep. Whether is sociopathy or psychopathy doesn’t matter. He’s too dangerous to have around. Bury him under the prison.

[dystopiamembrane]

The world is a horrible place, much worse if you are on the outside looking in.

[UTE98]

Utah needs to get them help all right, but something more along the lines of Delancey Street.

http://www.delanceystreetfoundation.org/

I read about this organization in leadership book. Problem is those who benefit from this organization need a bit more maturity and usually have spent time in prison. They don’t get’em when they’re in the grey area.

Recidivism is a problem, but from what I’ve read from you guys, not until they are adults.