New Details on Ingram Arrest Could Impact Sentencing Decision

There are new developments in the case of the teenager arrested again after being released from prison for his role in a deadly pharmacy robbery.  Jevontai Ingram is still in the Oklahoma County Jail after being picked up for breaking the windows of his mother’s car.  Prosecutors are trying to decide if the case would constitute a probation violation severe enough to bridge him into the adult system, which could send him to prison for life.

That decision will likely be based on what led to the altercation between Ingram and his mother Natasha.  Sources tell Fox 25 the argument started when Ingram’s mother locked him out of her apartment and he broke the windows in an attempt to get some of his personal items from her car and leave.

Fox 25 spoke with Natasha Ingram in her Southwest Oklahoma City apartment.  She says she never locked Jevontai out of the apartment and that we needed to ask the district attorney about the case.  Natasha says the juvenile facility did little to reform Jevontai.  “Didn’t help him at all,” she told Fox 25 off camera.

Criminologist Dr. Howard Kurtz says the juvenile system can work, but if teenagers are released back into the same dysfunctional communities where they came from it can be difficult to expect real change in their lives.  “It's a sad, but typical type of story,” Dr. Kurtz told Fox 25 News. 

“Putting them right back in the same environment often is worse than keeping them incarcerated over a period of time.” Dr. Kurtz says state and federal cuts to juvenile programs have left a gap in services that once went to help provide options for children and teenagers who came from social disadvantaged areas.

Dr. Kurtz says the key to keeping future cases, like Ingram’s, out of the news is to start early with programs aimed at proving hope and help to kids in high-crime areas while prosecuting those who break the law.  “You don't just weed out the few bad actors in a neighborhood but then you have to go in and seed the neighborhood and do something good for the community that gets those kids involved and moving in a positive direction.”

Though Dr. Kurtz says there are some kids you will never reach and reaching those that can be changed takes a lot of work.  “You can do it, but you have to have trained staff, time, and money.  You have to reinvest in Oklahoma.”

Posted: Thursday, September 20 2012, 09:58 PM CDT