Split Sentencing in the Juvenile Justice System

Running head: SPLIT SENTENCING

Split Sentencing

Amy

Juvenile Delinquency

August 31, 2015

This paper will discuss what split sentencing is and give examples of successes and failures of split sentencing. I will also give my opinion as to whether I believe split sentencing is an effective resolution in dealing with juvenile offenders and whether or not split sentencing is essentially an easy way out, such as a slap on the wrist, for a juvenile offender.

When you know what a split sentence is, you will understand how it came to have that name. A split sentence is when a juvenile offender that was waived to an adult court would receive two sentences, one in which would be to spend some of their sentence in a juvenile detention center and if they fail to be reformed in the juvenile system they are to be automatically transferred to an adult prison to serve out the remainder of their sentence. On the other hand, if the judge believes that the juvenile has been successfully rehabilitated while in the juvenile detention center and has not committed another crime, the judge has the discretion to suspend the sentence of transferring the offender to an adult prison and releasing him/her back into society.

There is a success case that involves an individual that is referred to as N.S. When N.S. was sixteen years old he was convicted of first degree robbery. He was sentenced to eight years and spent the first two years in a juvenile correctional facility with a split sentence. “On the same day N.S. was to appear before the court for his hearing after turning eighteen, the Court of Appeals held that youthful offenders transferred under KRS 635.020(4) are not eligible for probation.” (Crone, 1998). N.S. was subsequently sent to the Roederer Correctional Complex. After six months, the judge had N.S. ordered back to the juvenile correctional facility for six months. By the time he left the Roederer Corectional Complex he was extremely depressed. However, he received treatment, completed his G.E.D. and his treatment program once he went back to the juvenile correctional facility. After N.S. returned in front of the judge with numerous letters of recommendations from teachers, counselors, and staff, the judge released him back into a free society.

A case that was a failure of split sentencing was about 16 year old boy named Tyrone Winkelman. Tyrone and several other teenage friends had decided that they wanted to steal the vehicle of a friend’s mother. In their effort to commit this crime they tied their friend’s mother up and forced her by knifepoint into her basement before stealing her car. Tyrone received a split sentence, but at the age of 17 he was sentenced to serve out the remaining 48 months of his sentence in an adult prison called St. Clout State Penitentiary which is a maximum security facility due to his violent action against a staff member while in the juvenile facility in which he threw her into a toaster and she was severely bruised.