Jason Simmons Juvenile Crime

This essay is about a young African-American male teen name Jason Simmons. Jason was born on July 24, 1998 to the parents of Tony and Sallie Simmons. They lived in a small town in South Carolina were there was not a high crime rate but crime still existed in their small town. Like all cities and town crime does not omit it because it’s small or large because there is always someone trying to get something for nothing. Furthermore, there was some known gang activity in the small town. Therefore, there were some concerns of the young kids in the town getting involved in this activity in order to fill like they were a part of the in crowd. Furthermore, a lot of the kids did get blamed for being a part of these local gangs but are not actually

in the gangs they just hang with some of the people that are a part of them because they have been friends for years because of the small town surroundings. Therefore, at times Jason found himself being placed in this situation because of his choice of friends.
Although, Jason lived at home with his mother and father in a small middle class neighborhood in their town as well as attended a local church he was not guarded from trouble. There was one incident where he was detained and arrested for shop-lifting in a local store. After, being detained and arrest because he was a juvenile he was released to the custody of his father and mother. He had also found himself being detained for questioning in a simple assault case that he was involved in with another kid and later arrested for the charge of simple assault and once again placed in the custody of his parents. Rather than stay on his side of town he would find himself hanging on a side of town that was known to have a high rate of gang activity and crime from one of the small local gangs in the town. Furthermore, by hanging on this side of town and not living over there a lot of the kids did not like him because they felt as if he was better than them. Now just by hanging in this area he would be considered by some to be a part of a gang but his troubles started long before he started spending time in this area of town because he had got into some trouble previously. Therefore, he was already known by a few law officers because of his previous crimes around town so by him being in this area did not make things better for him especially because he did not live on that side of town.
Now when Jason was only eleven years of age he was arrested for shop-lifting in a local store.

He was caught taking a small bag of candy, a candy bar, bag of chips and a soda in which he did have the money to pay for but choose not to pay. Although, he was only eleven years old he was still charged with this crime as a juvenile and it was considered to be a misdemeanor under the state law of South Carolina Sections 22-3-540, 22-3-545, 22-3-550, and 14-25-65 (scstatehouse.gov, n.d.). Therefore, as a juvenile his crime was turned over to family court but that was not the only trouble he found himself to be a part of in a short time. Rather than stay at home after he found himself facing misdemeanor charges for shop-lifting he found himself later getting a simple assault charge as well. Now in the state of South Carolina simple assault is the carried out of a threat of bodily harm coupled with an apparent, present ability to cause the harm (S.C. Code Ann. § 16-3-600)(criminaldefenselawyer.com, n.d.). Therefore, he was charged with two misdemeanor crimes and was released to the care of his parents until his hearing date because as a juvenile he is entitled to a hearing in family court unless he is being tried as an adult. Furthermore, he had never been into any trouble with the local law or any law enforcement agency until these two incidents. There was also the fact that he had no known gang affiliation besides hanging with some known gang members but that is not enough

evidence to consider him as an active gang member. Although, there were some witness to the simple assault case who stated that Jason was a part of the local gang in their area because at the time of the assault he was using gang signs. There was really no major proof that he is in fact a member of that gang because it is considered hearsay and without any video or picture evidence of him actually doing these things it means nothing. Therefore, once he went to his hearing he received two years of monitored probation which means he had to wear an electronic monitoring device for the simple assault and had to pay for the things he took in the shop-lifting case.
Although, Jason is a juvenile he did receive two years’ probation for the crimes he committed.

Now as a part of his sentencing there is also a mandatory curfew that he must maintain or he will be sent to the Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ). Furthermore, he received this form of sentencing because he had not been in any form of major trouble in the past and his council argued that issue. There is also the fact that he will have to take a drug test every time he goes to see his probation officer for his mandatory visit. Now this was one of Jason options when he went to court because he was looking at facing an indeterminate commitment which means he would have been committed to a juvenile facility for an indefinite time but it would not exceed his 21st birthday. He could have also been advised or sentenced to perform community service, supervised visits, a drug rehabilitation program, a marine institute or group home program as well as school attendance program. Now all of these programs could have been one of his required sentences if he had no other offenses or referrals and maintain his curfew for his previous crimes and even though, he did not receive any of these options the judge also stated that because of the simple assault charge. He could have placed him in a Placement Boot Camp for youth which, is a form of military basic training program for juvenile, a Violence Prevention Program, retail theft program for the shop-lifting and community based probation.

Therefore, with the help of his council and no previous violation he was placed on probation with an electronic monitoring device on his ankle.
Now this device monitor all of his movements as well as let his probation officer and their office keep track of all his movement. It also keeps track of his curfew to ensure that he is at home on time unless it was authorize by his probation officer that he could be out later for work or school. This was also done because he had to attend school as well as go to his part time job so that he could pay his parents back their money for the attorney. It also allowed him to still be able to live a normal life as a kid and not be incarcerated in a juvenile facility because he was noted to have no mental or physical health problem that would limit him from working or doing any form of community service that was appointed to him by the courts.
Therefore, once Jason received his sentence and curfew he knew that he had to be home at a certain time or face the consequences of being placed in the Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ). This was done to ensure that he was not out committing any future crimes as well as not hanging out with the people he was hanging with in the past. Therefore, it not only help Jason but it made sure that his criminal acts would not be on the community for a short period of time and that he could not get blamed for certain crimes if he was at home. There is also the fact that he monitoring device give out feedback to his location at all times as well as where he has been during the day. Now this does not mean he could not be hanging with his gang member friends during the time he can be out but it does limit his time with them and it also limits the area of time he can be in. Therefore, his relapse by into any form of criminal behavior, drug use if he was using drugs or gang affiliation would be down to a minimum which will make him reconsider why he ever hung around the people he hung with in the first place. Furthermore, he would not want to be in an unauthorized area of town anymore because of all the trouble in that area. Therefore, he knows that if he does he could face more charges on top of the charges that he is already serving time for because of previous crimes.
Therefore, in conclusion I have discussed the cases of Jason Simmons. Jason is a young African-American male teen who lived in a small town in South Carolina. He came from a home where he lived with his mother and father in a small middle class neighborhood. Now like all kids Jason was a kid who did not like to stay in his neighborhood which caused him to get in trouble. There is also the neighbor where he was hanging out in with his friends of a few years. Furthermore, this neighborhood or area of town he was hanging in was not a good area. Therefore, I discussed the area that Jason was hanging in as well as the trouble that Jason found himself in by hanging in this area. I have also discussed the form of sentencing he received and the ones he could have received if his council had not recommended the one he received. Therefore, I have discussed Jason life as a kids and his life as a juvenile offender as well as the problems it not only cause his parents because they had to hire an attorney but the community as a whole because the things he done not only affected him but the people around him.