Is the juvenile justice system, the delinquency part of the system, equippped to deal with 6-year-olds?
Easton: No, young kids we have a very hard time dealing with because the systems are not set up to treat their problems. At that age you’re more likely to have very serious family problems involved that aren’t specific to the kid and we have interventions like our boys’ ranch which are set up for kids who are 13 or 14, at the low end. Sometimes a really big and mature 12-year-old can function okay. But that’s it, we can’t do anything with kids younger than that and that’s our main county-run program. There are some group homes that will take younger kids, but often times we’re not the appropriate part of the court to do that. The dependency side of the court is far better equipped to deal with it. The social workers are trained in working with the whole family in a much stronger way than the probation officers generally are and the programs they have available are attuned to younger kids where the probation programs really are not. Q: So ten young kids under that scheme would be better
