Today’s New York Times reports on a Long Island teenager who in 2014 participated in a drag race that ended up killing five people and severely injured two others. The article says that New York Justice Terence Murphy “has committed to sentencing [the teen] to six months in jail and five years of probation, along with revoking his driver’s license for a year,” and that Murphy “is expected to grant [the teen] youthful offender status,” a designation that relieves the youth of having a criminal record (and in many other sates also shields some of the proceedings from the public). The article notes that prosecutors will be opposing the youthful offender status.
I have vented about this before, in 2012, when a Connecticut teen driver was involved in a bus off going over a guardrail on the side of an interstate highway, killing a student on the bus. When youthful offender status was granted to the teen, I blogged about it, saying that such status is not appropriate. If we are to allow teens the adult privilege of driving, we should treat them like adults, and parents should understand that in advance. Put another way, it seemed to me that granting youthful offender status sends a mixed message to teen drivers and their parents: you are less responsible for injury and death you may cause than other drivers. I received some highly-charged feedback from those who work in the juvenile justice system in Connecticut, telling me that I did not understand how valuable it is to teens to be in a separate, more protective system.
Sorry, but I still think youthful offender status for teen drivers who cause serious injury or death is not appropriate. I also wonder whether six months in jail and a one year driver’s license suspension are the right sentence for a driver whose conduct was a cause of five fatalities and two serious injuries.
