Retired Hennepin County judge calls for new funding to stop what has become a rampant string of juvenile crime

A prominent voice in the Minnesota court system is calling for what he calls a "severe" influx of new funding to stop what has become a rampant string of juvenile crime.

This week's arrest of six more kids as young as 11-years old in a Minneapolis robbery spree comes on the heels of last week's arrest of a 10-year old in a stolen car who drove across a school playground, narrowly missing several young children.

Retired Hennepin County Chief Judge Kevin Burke says the problem starts at home.

"So, it ranges from kids who are having kids, that is, parents are really not prepared to be a parent," says Burke. "We have parents who are chemically dependent and, or mentally ill."

Burke is calling for next year's Legislature to make a significant investment in systems that improve how the law deals with children.

"The core would be, at least in our county, Hennepin, the Hennepin County Board is going to have to speak up," Burke explains. "But it is a bigger problem than just Hennepin. And so I think that at the state legislature, when it convenes in January, is going to have to seriously look at investing money in improving how we deal with children."

He adds this is not a problem that can be kicked down the road either.

"There's no doubt that they have to and the idea of just saying, 'well, let's wait another year and see how this is gonna play itself out' is silly," says Burke. "We've got to do something quite dramatic, quite quickly."

Burke says he'd like to see the state revisit a past children's justice initiative that was implemented under former Chief Justice Kathleen Blatz but has fallen by the wayside.

Blatz opened Minnesota’s juvenile courts to the public to increase transparency and accountability for decisions affecting vulnerable children’s lives. She also led the way to the Children’s Justice Initiative, a collaboration between the Minnesota Judicial Branch and Department of Human Services to try and find safe, stable, permanent homes for abused and neglected children.

Currently, the Hennepin County Attorney's Office decides what to do with minors who commit these crimes. According to their website :

"Any youth who commits a crime when he or she is between the ages of 10 and 17 is under the jurisdiction of juvenile court. Children under 10 cannot commit crime under Minnesota law and any incidents are handled by the child welfare system. The philosophy of juvenile court is to rehabilitate the youth and return him or her to law-abiding behavior. The intent is to give young people who make a mistake the opportunity to turn their lives around."

On Tuesday, along with Minneapolis City Council President Elliot Payne, Moriarty penned an op-ed in the Minnesota Star Tribune saying there is a system failure in a key area of juvenile justice. They say the "system" doesn't have appropriate options in place for children stuck in a cycle of criminal behavior who are "not competent" enough to stand trial by a judge because they don't understand the process or how to get assistance from their lawyer.

"When a child is found not competent, their juvenile court case must be dismissed or suspended, as the Constitution requires," the op-ed reads.

They go on to say some children as young as 10 to 13 years old face upward of 50 case submissions as a result of this cycle of arrest, incompetency finding and release without appropriate placement.