State law requires that prosecutors charge 15-, 16- and 17-year-olds as adults if they’re accused of certain violent crimes.
In Maricopa County, some of those young people are sent to a therapeutic treatment court run by the judicial branch.
KJZZ is only using the first names of people in what’s officially called the Juvenile Transfer Offender Program, or JTOP.
Robert, 19, is among more than 300 enrollees.
“I feel like I’m a very proactive person. I’m a very big family man. I feel like I deserve better things in life,” Robert said.
Which is why Robert was taking his break from working on rebar and insulation to attend a resource fair at the courthouse in downtown Phoenix.
“I feel like my attendance matters on the little things for probation,” he said.
Robert is trying to finish supervision early. After shooting two people he says were about to shoot him, Robert spent a year in jail.
“And the people that were there, I learned a lot from them. I learned how to take accountability. I learned how to be a leader. I learned how to make a better situation out of everything. I learned my worth of me as a person,” he said.
The inaugural JTOP resource fair was to help Robert and others like him find a job, housing and a bank account — even get a state ID. Nonprofit groups were also there to help with food insecurity, addiction, healthcare and college.
“I feel like they’re doing a great thing for kids my age. I feel like they’re doing a great thing for the community. And I feel like every kid deserves another chance in life,” Robert said.
JTOP program participants are ages 16 to 25. Those eligible are screened, go through orientation and sign a behavioral contract that requires supervised probation, treatment, drug testing and other services.
“I don’t consider them to be throwaways. I consider them to be people who have a made a mistake. And we are catching them early enough, hopefully to keep them from coming back,” said Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Max Covil.
Recidivism is an issue in Arizona. Between 2022 and 2024, nearly one third of people under 18 returned to custody within 12 months of being released, according to the latest data from the state Department of Juvenile Corrections.
Click to see the full recidivism report below
Covil said he likes that the roughly 20-year-old JTOP program lets him be hands-on.
“What I’m hoping is that this program will keep these individuals from coming back into the system at all. And that we’re giving them a fresh start. A new path. A path that doesn’t involve them getting into more trouble. A path that gets them drug treatment. A path that gets them to stable housing,” Covil said.
His counterpart overseeing the program is Judge Todd Lang.
“These are folks who have real potential to be contributing to our society and they demonstrate every time we’re in court,” Lang said.
Lang also said the JTOP program addresses a fundamental, underlying lack of support for many of the participants. And he wants to grow the resource fair.
“I guess that’s why I don’t consider them throwaways. Because this program works,” Lang said.
This appears true for JTOP program participant Nyonna, who is on probation and was there to find help getting work.
“My dream job has always been nursing, or lawyer, or real estate. Those are the three main jobs I've always said since I was a kid,” she said.
The 18-year-old has experience in fast food, and is looking for businesses that will hire people with a felony record. Hers stems from an incident in a foster home where she was living.
“What happened on my background doesn’t define me as a person. It happened as a accident. And everything happened so fast,” Nyonna said.
Nyonna accepts that her record will stay with her. She said friends are the only support she has here.
“The faster I can get off probation … I like to travel. I’m not from Arizona. I'm from Chicago. But at 16, things happened with me and my family and I got put out. And I’ve been in Arizona by myself since,” she said.
Next April is the earliest Nyonna could be free to travel.
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