CLEVELAND, Ohio — Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley says his office is facing an unprecedented spike in violent crime among younger juveniles, a wave that makes the balance between rehabilitation and deterrence ever more difficult.
O’Malley told Cleveland City Council’s Safety Committee that his attorneys have taken an aggressive stance in dealing with the increase in violence. They are seeing more youths involved in carjackings and robberies, as well as more juveniles creating terror on city streets on dirt bikes and all-terrain vehicles.
The committee invited O’Malley to speak last week as residents have become more fearful of youths committing more violent crimes. Police officers have been troubled by what they call a revolving door of juvenile justice, where they arrest youths for violent crimes and, in a short time, return to the streets.
“This is a growing, major problem in the city,” Cleveland Councilman Michael Polensek, the chairman of the committee, said in an interview. “There is no neighborhood in the city immune to this.”
O’Malley spoke about the difficult balance his office faces, as the county detention facility houses 180 youths, many of whom are charged with serious crimes, including murder, robbery, and sex offenses.
The issue is further complicated by the fact that state officials are considering slashing funds to juvenile courts if too many youths are sent to Ohio’s detention system.
For O’Malley, the issue comes as the number of violent carjackings committed by youths has ballooned in recent years.
“[They] have exploded in the last year,” O’Malley told the committee. “Those who carjack do so multiple times, between five and 20 times.”
In 2019, there were 282 carjackings in the city. Those have spiked to 433 last year, a jump of 54 percent. This year, 128 have occurred.
Take the case of Tamara McLoyd, who was on probation from Lorain County juvenile court for a home-invasion robbery when authorities say she killed Cleveland Police Officer Shane Bartek during a carjacking Dec. 31.
In December, four women were carjacked in Little Italy. In one incident, a Case Western Reserve student, was shot. A 14-year-old boy was arrested.
O’Malley said many of the crimes are committed by small groups of youths. They have been caught on surveillance cameras beating random, innocent victims. And most of the offenses, O’Malley said, involved guns.
Last year, prosecutors filed more than 550 gun charges against youths. That compares to about 450 filed the year before.
“When you point a handgun at someone, you have crossed the line,” O’Malley said.
The carjacking trend appears to focus on Dodge Chargers, the fast, powerful cars that youths are stealing and speeding into intersections, only to spin the wheels out of control.
Youths do the same with dirt bikes and all-terrain vehicles, as they ride in groups and clog streets and intimidate drivers and pedestrians.
“Someone is going to get killed,” O’Malley said. “When people get comfortable engaging in chaotic behavior, it will go to the next level.”
Thomas O’Malley, the chief administrative judge in Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court, told the committee that it is difficult to decide which youths should be held in the detention center and which should be released.
If a crime was committed with a gun or it involved serious violence, the youth will be placed in the detention center.
Polensek and his fellow City Council members Richard Starr of Ward 5 and Stephanie Howse of Ward 7 said much more needs to be done to find the underlying issues involving the spike in violent youth crime.
“I don’t think we need to come out with another piece legislation regarding juvenile punishment until we fix the system that is broken,” Starr said.