Juvenile justice system: A crisis hidden in plain sight | Opinion

The recent tragic case detailed in the article “Justice System Failed Family“ serves as a blood-chilling reminder of what happens when ideology trumps public safety. In October 2021, a 17-year-old girl brutally stabbed 20-year-old Sergio Bonboster 19 times – each thrust of the knife a deliberate act of savage violence. But the horror didn’t end with his murder.

In an act of unthinkable depravity, she and her boyfriend then mutilated his body and disposed of the remains in multiple locations, erasing what was left of a young man with dreams and plans for his future.

Now, due to constant changes to the juvenile justice system, this killer walks freely among college students, attending classes and visiting Starbucks. A reality made possible by the legislative erosion of accountability in the juvenile justice system. We must put the tools back to our justice system to address these horrible crimes with a balance our community demands and victims deserve.

Over the past seven years, the state has systematically dismantled the tools prosecutors and judges once had to hold the most dangerous juvenile offenders accountable. California has built this crisis one legislative session at a time.

California rushed to close the Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ), the state’s secure facilities that provided intensive rehabilitation programs for the most violent and serious juvenile offenders — most of whom were between 18 and 25 years old. Simultaneously, the state passed legislation making it nearly impossible to transfer young adults committing the most serious crimes to adult court.

Once the law changed to keep the most violent young adults in juvenile court, the Legislature changed the law again to make it harder for prosecutors by allowing the case to be revisited every six months for release into the community — and that includes release into college housing. All of this creates ongoing uncertainty for victims, our communities, and can disrupt critical rehabilitation while in juvenile detention.

Consistent with the effort to dismantle safety and accountability tools for law enforcement, Assembly Bill 1376, authored by Assemblymember Mia Bonta, D-Oakland, arbitrarily limits the time courts maintain jurisdiction over some of the state’s most horrific cases.

Continuing to prioritize ideology over balanced, tried-and-true policies, California lawmakers take another step toward their insatiable rush to remove tools from our courts, law enforcement, and probation to address criminal behavior. This isn’t progressive reform — it abandons public safety, juveniles and especially victims.

The case highlighted in the article demonstrates the soul-crushing cost of these policies that thoughtlessly ignore the victims’ needs as a community grapples with what accountability for young offenders should look like. When we walk away from balance, the state continues to make a mockery of our legal system.

As the victim’s brother noted, watching the killer receive state-funded education is “a spit in the face” to every family member forced to live with nightmarish images of what was done to their loved one. While they struggle with lifelong trauma and grief, his killer enjoys freedoms that Sergio will never experience — freedoms paid for by taxpayers whose safety she had no regard for.

California didn’t create this crisis overnight, but each so-called “reform” moves us further from protecting communities and providing real rehabilitation. Our communities deserve better than murderers strolling through college campuses a few years after they commit their crime. Victims like Sergio Bonboster deserve a justice system that recognized the unspeakable evil of his murder and responded accordingly.

It’s time to reject AB 1376. We cannot afford another step away from accountability and justice.

Lisa Smittcamp is the Fresno County District Attorney.