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(Memphis 11/17/2009) "They had stopped to talk to him. At that point after a few minutes he had forced himself on her." says Mary Clark, an angry mother.
Her 15-year-old daughter was raped by a 16-year-old friend.
It happened at a Bartlett Park almost one year ago.
The teen boy was arrested and convicted. Clark thought he would be locked up for awhile.
But her daughter came face to face with the boy last month.
"My daughter had come home from the movies. She told me she had seen him at the movies." says Clark.
And talk about too close for comfort, Clark later learned the same boy who raped her daughter had been sent to live in a foster home, of all places, right across the street from her other daughter.
"He was just walking around like nothing happened. They put him in a Foster Home 2 miles from my house." says Clark.
It's a story that Juvenile Court Prosecutor Terre Fratesi has heard again and again.
Her office is full of files on dangerous kids that prosecutors got off the streets, only to have them back out in the public committing more crimes.
"Despite everything law enforcement does, everything the D.A.'s office does, despite everything juvenile court judges do, if a child gets right out of custody and is placed in a Foster Home in a nearby neighborhood to a victim, of house they broke into, for example, that victim's confidence in the system to protect them is destroyed." says Fratesi.
And many times there is nothing juvenile about these juvenile cases. Perhaps one of the most notorious involves Odie Buckhanon, a 17 year old arrested for raping and beating a woman in Frayser. The 2007 attack lasted four hours.
That woman was Ernestine Archer's daughter. She spoke with us last year.
"Every now and then she'll tell me pieces of what happened like she was telling me she could hear her bones cracking. She said she didn't know her body could bend like that." said Ernestine Archer in our interview last year.
A juvenile judge put Buckhanon in a state facility and ordered a mental evaluation. A year later, Buckhanon was back on the street charged with the gang rape of another Frayser woman, who was beaten with a power drill and tossed naked into a vacant yard.
"Who is evaluating him to say he is competent enough to return to society. Who's doing this? " said Irvin Archer, the rape victim's father.
Terre Fratesi says the problem stems from the Department of Children Services returning these juveniles to the community, sometimes after only 30 days of treatment.
"I think the most any of these kids have served is 9 months to 12 months for B felons and the problem is once they've been there 30 days, the state starts requesting home visitation passes. So they are released in the community with no ankle bracelets, no supervision, no nothing. " says Fratesi.
The problem grew after last year's closing of the Shelby County Training Center for juvenile offenders.
It eliminated a local high security lock-up for teens. Since it's closure, Shelby County Juvenile Court has put 176 juveniles into DCS custody for correction. Normally they would place only 50 to 75 juveniles a year with DCS.
DCS sent us a statement saying where those juveniles are placed depends on their needs and it's evaluated closely.
DCS says 93 percent of high risk youth are placed in secure facilities, before being returned to the community, foster homes and ultimately their own home. It says those juveniles get their needed treatment, which increases community safety.
But parents like Mary Clark say seeing the man who raped her daughter back on the streets, and living next door, just 30 days after he was convicted of rape is not the kind of safety she expects.
"My daugther feels like she was punished with everything telling her to come forward to tell the truth. It will be ok. It wasn't." says Clark.
So what can worried parents like Mary Clark, and anyone else concerned about safety, really do?
Prosecutors say it's going to take a citizen uproar, contacting lawmakers and pushing for courts to have more sentencing leeway and ultimately make violent offenders do more time under maximum security.
- Juveniles, convicted of violent crimes, end up back on the streets
- Prosecutor blames Department of Children Services
- DCS says each case is evaluated and juveniles get treatement before release
(Memphis 11/17/2009) "They had stopped to talk to him. At that point after a few minutes he had forced himself on her." says Mary Clark, an angry mother.
Her 15-year-old daughter was raped by a 16-year-old friend.
It happened at a Bartlett Park almost one year ago.
The teen boy was arrested and convicted. Clark thought he would be locked up for awhile.
But her daughter came face to face with the boy last month.
"My daughter had come home from the movies. She told me she had seen him at the movies." says Clark.
And talk about too close for comfort, Clark later learned the same boy who raped her daughter had been sent to live in a foster home, of all places, right across the street from her other daughter.
"He was just walking around like nothing happened. They put him in a Foster Home 2 miles from my house." says Clark.
It's a story that Juvenile Court Prosecutor Terre Fratesi has heard again and again.
Her office is full of files on dangerous kids that prosecutors got off the streets, only to have them back out in the public committing more crimes.
"Despite everything law enforcement does, everything the D.A.'s office does, despite everything juvenile court judges do, if a child gets right out of custody and is placed in a Foster Home in a nearby neighborhood to a victim, of house they broke into, for example, that victim's confidence in the system to protect them is destroyed." says Fratesi.
And many times there is nothing juvenile about these juvenile cases. Perhaps one of the most notorious involves Odie Buckhanon, a 17 year old arrested for raping and beating a woman in Frayser. The 2007 attack lasted four hours.
That woman was Ernestine Archer's daughter. She spoke with us last year.
"Every now and then she'll tell me pieces of what happened like she was telling me she could hear her bones cracking. She said she didn't know her body could bend like that." said Ernestine Archer in our interview last year.
A juvenile judge put Buckhanon in a state facility and ordered a mental evaluation. A year later, Buckhanon was back on the street charged with the gang rape of another Frayser woman, who was beaten with a power drill and tossed naked into a vacant yard.
"Who is evaluating him to say he is competent enough to return to society. Who's doing this? " said Irvin Archer, the rape victim's father.
Terre Fratesi says the problem stems from the Department of Children Services returning these juveniles to the community, sometimes after only 30 days of treatment.
"I think the most any of these kids have served is 9 months to 12 months for B felons and the problem is once they've been there 30 days, the state starts requesting home visitation passes. So they are released in the community with no ankle bracelets, no supervision, no nothing. " says Fratesi.
The problem grew after last year's closing of the Shelby County Training Center for juvenile offenders.
It eliminated a local high security lock-up for teens. Since it's closure, Shelby County Juvenile Court has put 176 juveniles into DCS custody for correction. Normally they would place only 50 to 75 juveniles a year with DCS.
DCS sent us a statement saying where those juveniles are placed depends on their needs and it's evaluated closely.
DCS says 93 percent of high risk youth are placed in secure facilities, before being returned to the community, foster homes and ultimately their own home. It says those juveniles get their needed treatment, which increases community safety.
But parents like Mary Clark say seeing the man who raped her daughter back on the streets, and living next door, just 30 days after he was convicted of rape is not the kind of safety she expects.
"My daugther feels like she was punished with everything telling her to come forward to tell the truth. It will be ok. It wasn't." says Clark.
So what can worried parents like Mary Clark, and anyone else concerned about safety, really do?
Prosecutors say it's going to take a citizen uproar, contacting lawmakers and pushing for courts to have more sentencing leeway and ultimately make violent offenders do more time under maximum security.
