CMPD considers expanding youth program to include some adults
A Charlotte-Mecklenburg police program that allows juveniles who have committed low-level offenses to learn life skills and avoid a criminal record may be expanded to adults as an alternative to being arrested, CMPD Chief Johnny Jennings said Wednesday.
While there are programs that help people after they are released from jail, an expansion of the Youth Diversion Program could help adults with low-level offenses avoid jail time and an arrest record, Jennings said. The chief said he hopes the program will provide low-level offenders with classes and job training that ultimately helping them become “successful members of their community.”
“That’s the ultimate goal,” Jennings said. “We’re talking about low-level offenders that we were able to keep out of that cycle.”
According to CMPD’s website, the Youth Diversion Program allows juveniles between 6 and 17 years old who have committed a first-time misdemeanor or lower offense — which can include larceny, disorderly conduct and some weapons and drug violations — to attend an eight-hour life skills session or a teen court program to avoid an arrest record and criminal prosecution.
Jennings said CMPD is working with the District Attorney’s office as well as the Mecklenburg County’s magistrates and Sheriff’s Office and looking to fund the initiative through local companies and partners.
“It involved money and it involves resources that that we don’t necessarily have in our budget to be able to do,” he said.
In 2018, then-CMPD Chief Kerr Putney said that around 700 children go through the program every year, the Observer previously reported.
