PRESS STATEMENT
EMBARGO UNTIL 12:01 a.m., EDT, Oct. 26, 2000
Contact: Tommy McDonald, Communication Works, 415/255-1946
STATEMENT BY MARK SOLER, PRESIDENT
YOUTH LAW CENTER
October 26, 2000
Today the Building Blocks for Youth initiative, a nationwide campaign to promote a justice system that is both fair and effective, releases a comprehensive report examining the growing trend of prosecuting youth in adult court. The report, titled Youth Crime/Adult Time, released at the National Juvenile Defender Leadership Summit in Houston, demonstrates that the process often does not work the way people think it does: instead of prosecuting youth charged with the most serious crimes, it sweeps up many young people for nonviolent offenses. Many of them are sent to jails, to be held with adult inmates. Minority youth often receive the most severe treatment, even when charged with similar offenses as white youth.The report was commissioned by Building Blocks for Youth, a national initiative addressing racial disparities in the justice system and promoting rational and effective juvenile justice policies. Prepared by the Pretrial Services Resource Center, an independent non-profit research and training organization that has worked on pretrial issues for more than 20 years, Youth Crime/Adult Time is based on extensive data from 18 of the largest jurisdictions in the country.
Key findings of the report reveal disturbing aspects in the transfer of youth, especially minority youth, to the adult criminal court. The findings show over-representation and disparate treatment of minority youth, and raise serious questions about the fairness and appropriateness of prosecuting youth in the adult criminal system. Among the major findings from Youth Crime/Adult Time:
- Most determinations to transfer youth to adult court were made by prosecutors or legislatures (85%), not by judges.
- Overall, 82% of youth charged in adult courts were minority youth.
- Minority youth were disproportionately charged in adult court. For example, in Jefferson County, Alabama, African American youth accounted for approximately 3 out of 10 felony arrests, but represented 8 out of 10 felony cases filed in criminal court.
- A majority were released before trial, most within 24 hours of having charges filed, and many were released without bail, all indicating that the charges were not especially serious. When they went to court, a significant percentage of youth were not convicted at all or were transferred back to the juvenile court.
- Nearly two-thirds of all youth who were detained pretrial were held in adult jails where previous research shows that youth are at serious risk of assault and suicide.
- White youth are twice as likely as African-American youth to be represented by private counsel. Youth who are represented by private attorneys were less likely to be convicted and more likely to be transferred back to juvenile court.
- African-American (43%) and Latino (37%) youth were more likely than White youth (26%) to receive a sentence of incarceration (as opposed to a split sentence or probation.)
Youth Crime/Adult Time shows that the system is herding young people into the adult system where they don't belong. Most youth sent to adult criminal court could be adequately handled in the juvenile justice system, where they have opportunities for treatment and rehabilitation.
Along with the report, the Building Blocks initiative is issuing "Calls for Action" for federal, state, and local officials to address this problem. At the federal level, the next Administration and the Congress should pledge to support and strengthen the Disproportionate Minority Confinement provisions in the federal Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act, and should appropriate $100 million for the Department of Justice to address this issue throughout the country. State and local officials should investigate the disparate racial impact of their state laws and policies, particularly those providing for prosecution of juveniles in adult criminal court. They should immediately stop incarcerating young people with adult inmates in jails and prisons. And they should declare a moratorium on building new juvenile detention and corrections facilities until they have addressed the differential impact of the system on young people of color.
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Mark Soler is President of the Youth Law Center and directs the Building Blocks for Youth initiative. The Youth Law Center is a national public interest law firm based in San Francisco and Washington, DC which works on behalf of children in juvenile justice and child welfare systems across the country.To view each of the Building Blocks for Youth reports, including Youth Crime/Adult Time, visit the initiative's website at http://www.buildingblocksforyouth.org
For a fair and effective youth justice system
...a comprehensive effort to protect minority youth in the justice system
and to promote rational and effective juvenile justice policies...