County Cuts May Keep Teen Offenders Out of Jail And On the Streets

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Story Published: Nov 11, 2009 at 6:15 PM PST

By Peter Bukowski

The criminal justice system will take the brunt of the cuts in the 2010 County budget, even decreasing capacity at the Department of Corrections. But if we can't put criminals in jail, does that mean they'll be more out on the street? I went to YPD to find out.

I asked Sgt. Tim Bardwell if they couldn't lock these kids up, would they be back on the street. "Yes, yes, there's nothing we can do to a juvenile other than place them in a holding facility, a juvenile holding facility. We can't house them anywhere else."

But police won't be taking as many to "juvi" for crimes like graffiti, stealing cars, or running from the cops because they don't have the money.

"Instead of taking them to jail, they could be right back on the streets thinking 'Hey I got a slap on the wrist if that. We'll try to go somewhere else and try not to get caught'," says Sgt. Erik Hildebrand.

The courts are already overrun with cases, and cuts in the prosecutors office will make things even worse.

"If there are cuts at the prosecutors office then we're probably not going to reduce the number of cases we forward to them, but once it gets to them it's probably going to slow down a little," Bardwell explain.

But that's something YPD can't worry about.

Hildebrand says, "That's the part we can't control. What happens when they go to court, we don't control. We're going to do the best we can to apprehend them, hold them accountable, and whatever happens after that we'll respond however we need to."

The money may be short for the county, but the effects of their thin wallets could trickle into your neighborhoods. That's the problem Yakima Police are hoping to prevent.

That means business as usual for cops on the street.

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