A few months ago, our juvenile probation department stopped accepting cases that weren't "on-view" arrests.

Previously, juvenile probation would accept non-custodial cases, simply make a call to the juvenile's parent. Juvenile Probation asked the parent to bring the child up to the office for intake and someone from the Sheriff's Office would come over to do the fingerprints. In the rare instances where a severe offense didn't result in an on view arrest, juvenile probation would contact me to assist in drafting an Affidavit for Directive to Apprehend.

Now, juvenile insists on our office drafting a directive to apprehend for every case. It's something our office and our law enforcement agencies simply don't have the manpower to do. More importantly, it seems incredibly harsh to have a child arrested at school or taken from his home to spend a night in juvenile detention before ultimately being counseled and released or put on deferred prosecution for low grade misdemeanors.

How do you handle juvenile intake in your counties? How do you recommend getting juvenile probation back on board with the more traditional way of doing things?