The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office (HCAO) has begun expanding which juvenile cases qualify for youth diversion, citing new research that shows the approach reduces repeat offenses and keeps more young people out of court.
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“We receive over 3,000 case submissions a year for juvenile offenses. We average about 65 per week,” said Morgan Kunz, criminal division director for the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office. “For a long, long time, we’ve diverted between 30 and 40% of the cases submitted to us.”…