Contact: Mark Soler, Marc Schindler, Michael Finley, Youth Law Center 202/637-0377
MARK SOLER, PRESIDENT
YOUTH LAW CENTER
WASHINGTON, DC
APRIL 25, 2000
Today the Building Blocks for Youth initiative, a nationwide campaign to promote a justice system that is both fair and effective, releases the most comprehensive report ever completed on racial disparities affecting youth in trouble. The report, titled “And Justice for Some,” documents that minority youth receive more severe treatment than white youth at every major decision point in the justice system, even when they are charged with similar offenses.
The report looks at decisions to charge youth in juvenile court, to detain them before trial, to transfer them to adult criminal court, to incarcerate them in juvenile facilities, and to incarcerate them in adult prisons, in each case comparing minority youth and white youth charged with similar offenses. The results are the same. As a consequence, minority youth suffer a “cumulative disadvantage” when it comes to justice in this country. Moreover, recent legislative and policy trends throughout the country make it clear that these disparities will continue for the foreseeable future unless political leaders and public officials take significant action at the federal, state, and local levels.
This is the second major report issued this year by the Building Blocks for Youth initiative. The first, issued in January and titled “The Color of Justice,” found that in California youth of color are more likely than white youth to be transferred to adult criminal court, and to be sentenced to prison, even when charged with similar offenses. Today’s report covers the entire justice system, and contains national data as well as data from the states.
The national data are often startling. For example, among youth with no prior admissions to state facilities, the overall admission rate for African-American youth is more than six times the rate for white youth. More specifically, among youth charged with violent offenses and with no prior admissions, the admission rate for African-American youth is nine times the rate for white youth. Among youth charged with property offenses and no prior admissions, the admission rate for African-American youth is four times the rate for white youth. For drug offenses, the admission rate for African-American youth is 48 times the rate for white youth.
The data are similar for average length of stay in state facilities. Among youth charged with violent offenses, African-American youth are incarcerated an average of 85 days longer than white youth, and Latino youth are incarcerated an average of more than 140 days longer than white youth. Among youth charged with drug offenses, African-American youth are incarcerated an average of 90 days longer than white youth, Latino youth an average of 160 days longer than white youth.
There is something terribly wrong with our justice system. Justice by race is no justice at all. This report paints a devastating picture of a system that has totally failed to uphold the American promise of “equal justice for all.” Justice for some wasn’t enough at the start of the civil rights era, and it’s not enough now. Our message to state and federal leaders is clear: address this problem now.
Consequently, with the report the Building Blocks initiative is issuing “Calls for Action” for federal, state, and local officials to take significant action now to address this problem. At the federal level, the 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 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.
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 Washington, DC and San Francisco which works on behalf of children in juvenile justice and child welfare systems across the country.
