Section 22 Constitutionally ProtectedRights

• Library: Juvenile Law 2011

The United States Supreme Court has established the federal constitutional requirements that must be safeguarded throughout the process of waiving juvenile court jurisdiction to allow prosecution
as an adult. Kent v. United States, 383 U.S. 541 (1966). In Kent,
the juvenile court process resulting in relinquished jurisdiction and prosecution of the juvenile as an adult consisted merely of an informal review of the juvenile’s file by the juvenile court judge. In ruling that this procedure was insufficient to uphold constitutionally protected rights, Kent noted:

that the Juvenile Court should have considerable latitude within which to determine whether it should retain jurisdiction over a child or . . . waive jurisdiction. But this latitude is not complete. At the outset, it assumes procedural regularity sufficient in the...