The struggle for juvenile justice in Shelby County

The U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday that federal monitoring of Shelby County Juvenile Court will continue, despite letters from local officials asking that federal involvement end.

"It would be premature to terminate the entire agreement at this time," John M. Gore, acting assistant attorney general, wrote in a letter to Mayor Mark Luttrell, Sheriff Bill Oldham and Juvenile Court Judge Dan Michael. "More work needs to be done."

The department said the court had complied with 14 of the hundreds of subsections in the 2012 Memorandum of Agreement. Last April, the department said the court had complied with 42 other subsections.

There are more than 300 subsections in the agreement, which addresses the court's failures to protect children from harm and provide their constitutional rights to due process and equal protection under the law.

Notably, the Justice Department did not release the court from any of the subsections addressing equal protection issues for African-American youth.

The Justice Department's notice comes about a week after local officials announced plans to establish a Youth Assessment and Resource Center at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center.

The center could completely transform the way juvenile justice is handled in Shelby County. It also raises more questions.

Can a juvenile justice system provide mercy and justice? Protect the child and the public? Rescue, restore and rehabilitate when possible, and punish when necessary?

This is the second of a two-part Sunday Viewpoint discussion on those challenges of juvenile justice in Shelby County.

THIS SUNDAY: Juvenile justice advocates express their concerns about a juvenile justice assessment center and larger and ongoing issues involving Shelby County Juvenile Court.

Bill Powell, who resigned in June as the county's agreement coordinator, addresses his hopes and concerns about the proposed center.

Demetria D. Frank, a University of Memphis Law School professor and executive director of Project MI, says the proposed center could make a troubling situation worse if the justice system doesn't confront its racial bias.

Van Turner, Shelby County commissioner, says federal monitoring of the court system should continue.

Cardell Orrin, Memphis director of Stand for Children, argues that the justice system needs to be doing more to see troubled youth as treasures to be nurtured, not problems to be solved.

Rev. Cheryl Beard, a member of the Memphis Interfaith Coalition for Action and Hope, says the public must continue to put pressure on the court system to do what's right for all youth.

LAST SUNDAY: Court and county officials made their case for the proposed Shelby County Youth Assessment and Resource Center and how it can inform and improve our juvenile justice system.

Bill Gibbons, president of the Memphis Shelby Crime Commission, explains how an assessment center will help young offenders not become repeat offenders.

Juvenile Court Judge Dan Michael makes a case for why we must change how we assess and address juvenile crime in Shelby County.

Dr. Altha J. Stewart, professor of psychiatry at the University of Tennessee Health Center, describes how the center would provide behavioral health and trauma assessment and treatment.

County Dist. Atty. Gen. Amy Weirich says the center will allow officers to remove juvenile offenders from the scene quickly and deliver them to professionals to begin assessment and treatment.

David Waters is Viewpoint editor for The Commercial Appeal.