|
|
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Walter Perkins
Chicago Urban League
(773) 451-3524
http://www.cul-chicago.org
Statement By James W. Compton, President & CEO, Chicago Urban League In Response To Findings Of The New Building Blocks For Youth Study, "Drugs And Disparity: Racial Impact Of Illinois' Practice Of Transferring Young Drug Offenders To Adult Court."
Chicago, IL, April 25, 2001 - James W. Compton, president & CEO of the Chicago Urban League, an organization committed to achieving equal opportunity and parity for African-Americans and other communities of color, and the poor, in every phase of the American life, today released the following statement regarding the findings of the report Drugs and Disparity: The Racial Impact of Illinois' Practice of Transferring Young Drug Offenders to Adult Court, which reveals that Illinois' transfer laws have created some of the most severe disparities when it comes to the treatment of black youth.
"As an organization dedicated for 85 years to the elimination of racial discrimination, the Chicago Urban League is deeply concerned about racial disparities in the application of Illinois' automatic transfer laws. Those laws require that any 15 or 16 year old who is charged with a drug crime that occurs within 1000 feet of a school or a public housing project be automatically transferred to an adult court, where sentences are harsher and the likelihood of admission to state prison is greater."
"Illinois transfer laws arise, no doubt, from the legislature's color-blind concern to address the debilitating impact of illegal drugs on the state's public schools and public housing communities. But in practical application, the impact of these laws is discriminatory, negative, and anything but color-blind as is shown in the study just released by the Building Blocks for Youth Initiative."
"The Building Blocks study is consistent with research done by other leading civil rights organizations. This research shows that Illinois has some of the most racially disparate criminal justice outcomes in the US. Thanks largely to these institutional disparities, there are neighborhoods in Chicago where considerably more than half the Black male youth possess felony records."
"By sending more and more Black youth to prison, state officials are contributing to the incapacitation of future Black generations and deeply exacerbating persistent problems of crime, poverty, addiction, and hopelessness in the Black community."
"For these and other reasons, the Chicago Urban League strongly supports proposals to repeal sections of the Illinois transfer laws that continue to have a racially disparate impact on our youth. Further, the League looks forward to joining with other organizations in the formation of a grassroots campaign to promote a fairer and more effective approach to juvenile justice."
# # #
James W. Compton is president & CEO of the Chicago Urban League.
Established in 1916, the mission of the Chicago Urban League is to eliminate racial discrimination and segregation and to work for the achievement of equal opportunity and parity for African Americans, other minorities and the poor in every phase of American life. The League's work is focused in three primary areas: education, economic development, and community empowerment.
For more information, call (773) 285.772 or visit the Chicago Urban League's site at http://www.cul-chicago.org.
|
