Stopped by police in Arkansas: who goes to juvenile court, and what the code makes officers do first

Arkansas does not have a separate juvenile courthouse. Cases involving minors are heard in the juvenile division of the circuit court in each county, under the Arkansas Juvenile Code, which the Arkansas Judiciary publishes online. A delinquency case (the juvenile version of a criminal charge) is the normal path for anyone under 18 accused of conduct that would be a misdemeanor for an adult, and for anyone 15 or younger accused of a felony.

The exceptions are about serious felonies and older teens. The code lets a prosecutor choose between the juvenile division and the criminal division when a juvenile is at least 16 and the conduct would be any felony, or when a juvenile is 14 or 15 and the charge is one of a short list that includes capital murder, first-degree murder, kidnapping, aggravated robbery, rape, first-degree battery, and a terroristic act. For a 14- or 15-year-old accused of certain other felonies, the prosecutor can instead ask the juvenile court to transfer the case or to designate the teen an extended juvenile jurisdiction offender, which means a juvenile disposition with an adult sentence held in reserve. A teen facing that designation has the right to a jury trial and can waive it only in writing after talking with a lawyer.

The U.S. Supreme Court decided in In re Gault (1967) that a young person facing juvenile court has real constitutional rights: notice of the charges, a lawyer, and the right not to be made to testify against themselves. Arkansas writes the street-level version of that into its juvenile code. An officer who takes a juvenile into custody must advise them of their Miranda rights (the right to stay silent and to have a lawyer) in the juvenile's own language, and may not question them until that is done.

The code then lists three things that stop questioning. The officer may not question a juvenile who has indicated that they do not wish to be questioned, that they want to speak with a custodial parent or guardian and have that person present, or that they want to talk to a lawyer first. Saying any one of those, calmly and clearly, is enough. If the custodial parent cannot be found or refuses to come, the code says a lawyer must be appointed. A juvenile can give up the right to a lawyer only in writing, signed by the juvenile, and never at all while in the custody of the Division of Youth Services.

Arkansas builds a reset into the system. Under the juvenile code, records of delinquency adjudications are expunged when the person turns 21; the code defines expunge as destroying or sealing the record. A judge can also expunge other juvenile records at any time, and a complaint that ended in a completed diversion agreement can be wiped from the file. Records of a teen designated an extended juvenile jurisdiction offender are handled under separate rules, so ask the lawyer on the case what applies.

Curfews in Arkansas are local, set city by city or county by county. The state does not have a single youth curfew. The clearest sign of that is in the state's own child labor page, which forbids a 16-year-old's overnight shift if it would violate any local curfew ordinance. Look up your own city's rule before you need it.