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Statement of Patricia Mendoza
Regional Counsel of the Chicago Office of the Mexican
American Legal Defense and Education Fund
http://www.maldef.org
We at MALDEF have as our mission the creation of access and opportunity for
Latinos in the areas of education and employment. These automatic transfer
laws and their disparate impact on youth of color go against the very core
of this mission as well as against the philosophy underlying the creation of
the juvenile court system in the first place - the rehabilitation of young
offenders. These automatic transfer laws rob minority youth of the second
chance that the juvenile court system would afford them.
As the report points out, many youth placed on adult probation-nearly 2/3rds
of those convicted- will receive less supervision and fewer rehabilitative
services while on the overburdened adult probation caseloads than they would
have under supervision in juvenile court. Further, these non-violent drug
offenders are now saddled with an adult felony conviction that will follow
them for the rest of their lives - and that may act as a roadblock to their
education and employment. In fact, amendments to the Higher Education Act
in 1999 required people applying for federal student loans to report whether
they have had a drug felony conviction. According to the Dept of Education,
21,000 applicants may lose the opportunity for federal aid for the 2001-2002
school year after revealing a drug conviction. How is the goal of
rehabilitation served by that roadblock?
While we do not condone drug offenses or seek a pass for our youth, we do
seek equity. And from this report it is clear that the enormous impact of
prosecution, imprisonment and collateral consequences for young drug
offenders in Cook County is not borne equitably by whites and youth of
color.
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