Police in Vine Grove, Kentucky collared three individuals who may have been moments away from committing a burglary early Friday morning, but they didn't have them in custody for long. According to WAVE-TV in Louisville, police noticed a suspicious vehicle, but when officers approached the car sped off, leading to a brief chase through the small town. Eventually four people bailed out of the car, but officers were only able to keep three of them at the scene. 

The three juveniles were arrested but the man fled into nearby woods and got away.

Police say two of the juveniles were wearing ski masks. They also had burglary tools and a stolen weapon. The juveniles’ legal guardians were contacted after the arrest and they were returned home.

A stolen gun and burglary tools wasn't enough to keep these teens in custody? To make matters worse, police say that those arrested match the description of suspects in a string of burglaries in the area. So why on earth were they released to their parents instead of being taken into custody? 

The Vine Grove police haven't given a reason, but officers might not have had much of a choice. Across the country stories like this are becoming more common, in part because juvenile facilities are declining to accept underage suspects, even when law enforcement requests they be placed into custody. 

Something similar happened this past week in Charlotte, North Carolina. Last Tuesday a victim reported that his car was stolen at gunpoint by two individuals. The following day, police spotted the stolen vehicle and attempted to pull it over, but the driver ended up taking off instead; leading police on a pursuit that led into neighboring Gaston County before crossing back over into Mecklenburg County. As the CMPD reported on Facebook: 

The pursuit ended when the two juvenile suspects jumped and ran from the vehicle in the area of Hickory Bluff Court. Both suspects were taken into custody and officers recovered a handgun near the stolen vehicle. 

Secure custody orders for the juvenile suspects were applied for and denied by the North Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice. 

A stolen vehicle, a gun, and two kids who aren't even old enough to legally drive, much less possess a firearm. And they too ended up being sent home instead of cuffed and taken to juvenile detention. 

This is insanity. I've noticed a growing number of very serious cases involving juveniles over the past couple of years, including several smash-and-grab burglaries of gun stores, and all too often these crimes result in nothing more than a slap on the wrist and a brief probationary sentence. 

Just a few days ago we reported on one of those cases; a teen carjacker in Cuyahoga County, Ohio who was sentenced to a year of probation despite a criminal history that involved several gun possession cases. Just three weeks after the teen received his probation sentence, he was allegedly behind the wheel of a stolen car when it crashed into another vehicle. The 55-year-old woman whose car was hit by the stolen vehicle was seriously injured, while an 18-year-old woman who was a passenger in the stolen vehicle was thrown from the car and died from her injuries, and a 17-year-old girl in that same vehicle suffered extensive injuries. 

The goal of the juvenile justice system may be rehabilitation, not just incarceration, but how are we rehabilitating these kids when we send them back home to their parents instead of forcing them to face the consequences of their actions? We're not talking about teens getting busted for tee-peeing a house, egging a car, or even swiping a soda from a gas station. These are life-altering (and in some cases, life-ending) crimes. It's time the criminal justice system take them seriously.