North Carolina editorial roundup

Recent editorials from North Carolina newspapers:

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May 21

StarNews of Wilmington on juveniles being charged as adults :

North Carolina is now the last state in the Union that prosecutes 16- and 17-year-olds as adults. (New York, the only other holdout, is now phasing out the practice.)

That could soon change, however, as a brave, bipartisan band of Tar Heel legislators seems on the verge of raising the age of juvenile prosecutions. They need to hold their ground, though, and hold the courage of their convictions.

“Raise the Age” has drawn support from a remarkable number of conservative Republicans, notably state Chief Justice Mike Martin.

The reasons are clear: Locking teenagers up with hardened criminals only makes them worse.

Studies by the national Centers for Disease Control show that 16-year-olds and 17-year-olds are far more likely to offend again - and wind up in the prison system again - if they are tried as adults rather than being diverted to a program tailored for juveniles.

Not only are teens more likely to be abused and exploited by older, larger criminals. It’s well known that prison often serves as a “crime college,” where young offenders, with little else to do, soak up the tricks and techniques of more experienced crooks and dealers.

Raising the age was a major proposal of a 65-member court reform commission named by Chief Justin Martin. The state sheriff’s association has come around on the proposal. And the latest version is sponsored by state Rep. Chuck McGrady, a Hendersonville Republican.

McGrady’s version would require all young people in the juvenile justice system to participate in educational programs; currently, there’s no requirement that juveniles in adult prisons do so. Since 42 percent of juvenile complaints come from school systems, it only makes sense to make young offenders keep up with their schooling and, one hopes, finish high school.

The McGrady bill points young offenders into juvenile programs that work to wean them from gang activity; no such programs exist in “grown-up” jail.

There’s just one catch: The cost. Currently, just 11 North Carolina counties have juvenile-oriented programs, such as New Hanover County’s Teen Court. In the rest of the state’s counties, teens are funneled into adult courts.

Changing that would cost extra money, for new assistant district attorneys, for one or two new juvenile detention facilities and other expenses. That will cost money.

For that reason, the state Senate version of “Raise the Age” applies only to teens accused of misdemeanors. The House version (HB 280) passed by a 104-8 vote Wednesday. It covers both misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies, which account for more than 90 percent of young offenders.

New Hanover County’s two Republican representatives, Ted Davis and Holly Grange, both were sponsors of the bill. Pender’s Chris Millis and Brunswick’s Frank Iler voted for it. Good for them.

Senators are trying to control costs, but that’s a penny-wise, pound-foolish approach that could keep on turning more teens into career criminals. The House should hold its ground.

This isn’t about being hard on crime vs. being soft on crime. This is about being smart on crime.

Oftentimes, locking ’em and throwing away the key doesn’t work. North Carolina needs to take a smarter approach.

Online: https://www.starnewsonline.com/

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May 21

Winston-Salem Journal on new device that will help babies with esophageal atresia:

Cook Medical, which has a strong presence in Winston-Salem, has just received FDA authorization for a device to help babies with esophageal atresia, a birth defect of the esophagus.

All the work was done right here at Cook’s labs in The City of Arts and Innovation. This is what our blossoming biotech industry is all about.

Esophageal atresia is a rare birth defect in which the esophagus does not develop normally. The upper and lower portions of the esophagus lack the connection they normally have, according to the folks at Cook. Traditionally, the only treatment option to repair the malformation has been surgery.

But Dr. Mario Zaritzky, a pediatric radiologist at the University of Chicago Medical Center, collaborated with Cook on the development of a new, minimally invasive approach. They’ve created the Flourish Pediatric Esophageal Atresia device, which uses rare earth magnets that are inserted into the upper and lower ends of the infant’s esophagus. Over everal days, the magnets stretch both ends of the esophagus, after which the tissue connects to form an intact esophagus, Cook officials say.

Sixteen patients have been successfully treated with this device.

“The idea was to create a minimally invasive procedure that could possibly be an alternative to surgery in selective pediatric cases,” Dr. Zaritzky said in a press release.

Being a rare malformation, there may not be much for Cook in the way of a profit for this new treatment. But it will provide relief for a whole lot of tiny patients and their parents. And the technology could lead to further innovations.

Cook is based in Indiana, but its strong local office can rightly take credit for this fine effort.

“This technology was fully developed at our Winston-Salem Endoscopy division,” Scott Sewell of Lewisville, Cook’s vice president of Technology Acquisition & Development - Endoscopy, told the Journal’s editorial department in an email. “As a 30-year employee of Cook Medical, my company and I are very proud to bring this alternative solution to a baby having to endure numerous possible operations.”

Cheers to Cook for helping these babies.

Online: https://www.journalnow.com/

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May 23

The Fayetteville Observer on budget fixes for the worse:

That’s a pretty deep hole for the county commissioners to fill. Finding $27 million to balance the budget won’t be easy.

It doesn’t feel any less daunting when you do the math: $27 million is only 6 percent of the county’s $430 million budget for the fiscal year that ends on June 30. And nearly $10 million of it is a paper loss, of sorts: It’s what the county would lose from the decline in property values in this year’s countywide revaluation. Raising the tax rate slightly to compensate for the decline in property values - creating a “revenue neutral” budget - is not especially controversial. Sure, some taxpayers will holler, but most will understand, especially if their next tax bill is about the same as the last one.

That leaves about $17 million in unexpected budget pressures, including increased operating costs, higher health insurance premiums for county employees, greater demands for services and depletion of a mental health reserve fund. It doesn’t help that $17 million is only 4 percent of this year’s budget. It’s still a lot of money. Filling the whole gap would boost the tax rate by 13 cents per $100 in property valuation. That would unleash a taxpayer howl that the county commissioners don’t want to hear. For any one of them, especially those who may seek re-election next year, it could be a political career-ender.

But are the alternatives that appear to be on the table really acceptable? Closing down a branch of the public library? Closing two Health Department clinics? Shuttering a domestic violence shelter? Dropping funding for four community organizations and cutting others in half?

Each of those actions will hurt the people who need them most - the poor and the unemployed, or underemployed. The library plays a key role in job training. It holds job fairs and helps people gain the skills they need for many jobs. It’s where they go to create resumes and to research job possibilities. The Health Department’s medical and dental clinics provide care to those who can’t otherwise afford it and who aren’t covered by insurance. Closing the clinics will leave them out of luck, or sitting in endless lines at the hospital emergency room, where they will get the most expensive care possible, mostly underwritten by taxpayers anyway. And shut a shelter for victims of domestic violence, when help for abused spouses and children is already in short supply? Doesn’t that qualify as unconscionable?

When governments get into this sort of bind, someone invariably suggests that leaders do what Mom and Pop would do: Sit down at the kitchen table and reconcile income with expenses, trimming appropriately. But this isn’t Mom and Pop. This is a nearly $450 million corporation and needs to be run as such. Giving people jobs isn’t the core purpose of commissioners’ lives. County Manager Amy Cannon began an initiative two years ago to streamline the county’s organizational structure and to make departments more efficient. Several county departments have already been reviewed and recommendations are being implemented. That process needs to accelerate. So does a review of possible outsourcing of work that is currently done by staff. How much more can be automated? Is it time to ask county employees to contribute a bigger share of their health insurance premiums? And what county departments can be combined with other, similar government departments, primarily the city, to achieve greater economy of scale?

We’d like to see the commissioners aggressively pursue all these options before closing down key functions like libraries and shelters. And maybe have the guts, too, to go a fair bit farther than a revenue-neutral tax rate. Government is about serving the people, after all.

Online: https://www.fayobserver.com/