Juvenile court proceedings differ markedly from adult court. In juvenile court youths are not charged with crimes. Instead, prosecutors file a petition to have the offender declared a delinquent because of an offense that would be treated as a crime in adult courts. Juvenile courts neither convict nor sentence. Instead, juveniles are adjudicated delinquent and receive a disposition of their cases.
Juveniles have no right to a jury of their peers.
Options available for judges at disposition include transferring the juvenile's custody from the family to the state, placing the juvenile in custody of someone else, such as a foster family, imposing probation or short-term detention. In the Jonesboro case, the boys most likely will be transferred to the custody of the state, Glynn said. At that point, the state Department of Human Services Youth Services Division will send them to its observation and assessment facility in North Little Rock, where juveniles are evaluated for their emotional state, seriousness of their crimes and medical needs, agency spokesman Joe Quinn said. Then juveniles are assigned to either the agency's serious offender program at Alexander or to one of three wilderness camps. If adjudicated delinquent, the suspects in the Jonesboro case likely will be assigned to the serious offender program, the state's only lock-down facility for juveniles.