Page 15 - Florida Sentinel 9-23-16 Online Edition

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Hillsborough County Ranks High In Arresting Juveniles
The Juvenile Civil Citation Program was created as an alternative to arresting juve- niles for misdemeanor crimes.
A report by The Children’s Campaign called “Stepping Up 2016,” highlighted Hills- borough, Duval, and Orange counties as among the worst for arresting juveniles, rather than using citations.
The three counties made up 24% of all arrests, totaling 2,860 juveniles in Florida, for common youth misbe- havior in 2014-2015.
According to another re- port, juvenile civil citations are preferable because they improve youth outcomes.
The report by “Stepping Up 2016” also identified an-
JEFF EAKINS School Superintendant
other problem: geographical unequal justice. Counties, cities, school districts and law enforcement agencies don’t have a uniform stan- dard as to which crimes are eligible for civil citations.
The study indicates five of
JOHN NEWMAN School Security Chief
Florida’s 67 counties hadn’t put in place a civil citation system by 2014-2015.
The study also found that 13 counties and 21 school districts didn’t use civil cita- tions at all in 2014-2015, and
that was an increase from 11 counties and 21 school dis- tricts the previous year.
The number of law en- forcement agencies using the program did increase, though, to 191 last year from 159 the previous year.
Hillsborough County School District Superintend- ent, Jeff Eakins said they follow the guidelines of the area’s law enforcement agen- cies and arrests involving ju- veniles has been going down.
School District Security Chief, John Newman, said civil citations are a county- by-county effort.
“Every county has a sys- tem that runs its civil citation program. Each county de- cides what warrants a civil ci-
tation and what doesn’t.
“By design of the statute, everyone has to be in agree- ment on civil citations. I’d be interested to see what the numbers will look like at the
end of the year.”
Newman said most civil
citations involving juveniles are for fighting or theft.
“I think with civil citations now being recommended for marijuana possession, the numbers will go down. But, we don’t set the standard at this level. One shot at a mis- demeanor is all the kids get in Hillsborough County.”
Newman said he feels it’s unfair to use a couple of counties to justify a high ranking in Hillsborough County.
Duo Filming Documentary On Sickle Cell Disease
Milton St. Germaine (left) and McKinley Abraham on the set of one of their productions.
BY LEON B. CREWS Sentinel Staff Writer
McKinley Abraham and Milton St. Germaine are the founders of New Wave Cinema, and with all the projects the two have completed, an up- coming documentary is one they cherish the most.
Abraham and St. Ger- maine are embarking on a project they hope will create awareness to Sickle Cell Ane- mia.
St. Germaine said after seeing how people struggle with the disease, he was sur- prised that little attention is given to Sickle Cell when it comes to awareness and re- search.
“McKinley and I want to create awareness so the victims
can have a voice, and we hope to create an atmosphere of in- creased institutional interest.
“We know it’s a disease that mostly strikes African Ameri- cans, but we’d still like to see the government get involved.”
Abraham and St. Ger- maine are gathering informa- tion, and trying to make contact with people suffering from the disease.
“What we’d like to do is iden- tify three patients and follow their daily routine so people can see what the disease does to people,” said St. Ger- maine.
“We hope this documentary will enlighten a lot of people, not just African Americans, about the need to find a cause and cure for Sickle Cell Ane- mia.”
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2016 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY PAGE 3-B