A 13-year-old found with a handgun in his backpack—it’s all in a day’s work for Judge Robert Philyaw.
In Juvenile Court, he handles situations that seem far too serious for the children who are accused of all the same things hardened criminals are. This year alone, he’s seen multiple rapes, aggravated burglaries, robberies and four murders.
“There are no easy answers to the problems of youth crimes in Chattanooga,” Judge Philyaw said in an address to the Pachyderm Club.
He said the problem is systemic with truancy, broken homes and gangs all adding to the epidemic of youth crime perpetuating it.
Judge Philyaw said, “Gangs are alive. They’re recruiting, and it’s not a myth, they’re recruiting younger and younger.” He said it is not uncommon for a child as young as 11 to be asked to carry a gun while 17-year-olds are actually employed as shooters.
According to him, children are recruited to commit crimes like this because gang members or criminals are facing down serious jail time if they’re caught with felony possession or another offence.
He said that they will tell the children lies about the consequences they would face as a minor if they were caught saying, nothing bad is going to happen to them, but if the adult is caught, they’ll go away for years.
In reality, he said he has to transfer a case or two every week where that child is tried as an adult for their accused crime.
“It breaks my heart literally every time,” he said.
Truancy contributes to the problem, as does the fact that so many children in the inner city are growing up in single-parent homes, but he said that schools have been doing a better job with school discipline, keeping kids out of the court system.
“There was a time when it wasn’t uncommon for the police to have to bring down van loads of students to deal with discipline,” he said.
He also said that the county has been taking steps to remedy the situation, one of which is the drug recovery court which was recently established to better serve minors addicted to hard drugs.
Hamilton County will also be adopting a Serious Habitual Offender Comprehensive Action Program later this month which will attempt to better deal with potential future offenders in the community.
As he said, the program would rely heavily on active officers already working in specific communities to target the handful of individuals responsible for the majority of crime. It would be a collaborative effort between several law enforcement agencies and local government.
The same program has been applied in other municipalities since the late 80s, including Knoxville where it has been considered a success largely.
Now it’s Chattanooga’s turn to apply the same model.