Baker v. Smith
| Decision Date | 17 December 1971 |
| Citation | 477 S.W.2d 149 |
| Parties | Robert BAKER, Director of Jefferson County Children's Center, Appellant, v. John Wayne SMITH, Appellee. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court — District of Kentucky |
Henry A. Triplett, Hogan, Taylor, Denzer & Bennett, Louisville, for appellant.
Dennis E. Bricking, Thomas P. McCarthy, John G. O'Mara, Legal Aid Society of Louisville, Louisville, for appellee.
CULLEN, Commissioner.
John Wayne Smith, age 17, was brought before the juvenile court of Jefferson County, Kentucky, on a petition under KRS 208.070 charging that on September 7, 1971, he had committed a public offense consisting of malicious destruction of property (throwing a brick through the windshield of a parked automobile). On order of the court he was released to the custody of his parents, pending a hearing. Subsequently, on September 19, 1971, he was arrested by the police of a charge of disorderly conduct, arising out of his having been found, with three other juveniles and four adults, in an apartment in which there were drugs and beer. The police placed him in the detention center, pursuant to KRS 208.110. On September 20 a complaint was filed, under KRS 208.070, charging Smith with the September 19 offense. On the same day Smith made a motion for release on bail. The juvenile court denied the motion in an order which recited as reasons the court's opinion that 'release or granting of bail to the defendant at this time would not be in the best interest of the defendant or the best interest of the community and * * * that the defendant is beyond parental control * * *'. The order further recited the fact that on a previous occasion in January 1971, when Smith was scheduled to appear in Juvenile Court, he failed to appear and a bench warrant was required to obtain his presence. Thereafter Smith through his mother as next friend brought habeas corpus proceedings in the Jefferson Circuit Court, asserting that he was constitutionally entitled to bail. The circuit court entered judgment holding that Smith was entitled to bail and directing the juvenile court to fix reasonable bail; however, the judgment contained a provision staying its enforcement pending application to this court for a stay pending appeal by the director of the detention center. This court entered an order staying enforcement of the judgment pending appeal but authorizing the juvenile court in its discretion to admit Smith to bail pending the appeal.
We have before us now the merits of the appeal from the habeas corpus judgment. The issue is whether juveniles charged with crime have the constitutional right to bail pending determination of proceedings against them in juvenile court.
The circuit court held that juveniles held in custody under the juvenile court statutes on charges of crime are 'prisoners' within the meaning of the provision of Section 16 of the Kentucky Constitution that 'All prisoners shall be bailable by sufficient securities * * *' (with conditions as to capital offenses). Accordingly, the court held unconstitutional the provision of KRS 208.110 that 'The law relating to bail shall not be applicable to children detained in accordance with KRS 208.010 to 208.540.' The court further held that the statute violated the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.
In approaching the issue in this case we think it is important to keep in mind that our juvenile court statutes deal not only with children charged with committing a public offense but with those who are alleged to be dependent, neglected, needy or abandoned, or to be beyond parental control, wayward or habitually disobedient, or to be truants from home or school. See KRS 208.020. While distinctions are made between the two categories as respects initial taking into custody, KRS 208.110, and as respects transfer of jurisdiction to circuit court, KRS 208.170, there is no basic difference in treatment of the two categories in regard to investigation, the factors to be taken into consideration in making a determination as to disposition, or the nature of the disposition made by the juvenile court, K.R.S. 208.140, 208.190, 208.200. The concern of the juvenile court is with the welfare of the children, and the court in holding a child in custody may be considered as exercising substituted parental control, to which the law always has recognized children are subject. A child does not have the unqualified right of individual liberty that an adult has, because of the fact that the child is subject to parental control. Therefore, the full basis for bail does not exist as to children; for a child released on bail would not gain individual freedom from custody, but would simply be restored to parental custody.
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