What Latino
Communities Can Do
Here are a few ideas for Latino Communities to
take action now to eliminate the disparate treatment of Latino and
Latina youth in the justice system:
Get organized at the local level
Youth, parents, and other concerned community
members who come together to educate and organize themselves can more
effectively pressure the justice system to be accountable to Latino
communities for the way the system treats its youth. Include
representatives of various community groups, including faith-based
organizations and youth who have experience with the justice system.
Involve the growing, youth-led grassroots movement to stop the
incarceration of youth of color across the country.
Advocate for youth voices
Call for a real voice for youth in the area of
policy development and implementation. Use the United Nations Convention
of the Rights of the Child as a basis for including youth as active
participants in the systems and decision processes that affect them.
Outreach to your community:
- Host community meetings that present facts
regarding the problem of disproportionate representation of Latino
and Latina youth in the community and accounts of the experiences of
Latino/a youth in the system. Help those who attend the meetings to
develop action plans to address the problem and then to implement
those plans;
- Encourage community members to become
educated on how the criminal and juvenile justice systems work and
on effective approaches that serve to reduce youth crime;
- Encourage community members to serve as
cultural competence trainers, interpreters, and bilingual staff
members in juvenile justice and law enforcement.
Reach out to schools
Work closely with schools to implement
prevention programs, including structured out-of-school activities for
youth both after school hours and during the summer.
Involve the legal community
Encourage culturally competent, bilingual
attorneys to provide representation for Latino and Latina youth and
their families.
Initiate a support hotline
Create a hotline for Latino and Latina youth and
their families that provides information and referral services on
juvenile justice issues in both Spanish and English
Organize Latino advisory groups
Form Latino advisory groups to guide policy
making and implementation in the law enforcement and justice systems.
Call on federal, state and local public
officials to:
- Appoint Latinos and Latinas to state advisory
bodies, such as the state advisory group required under the federal
juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA). Demand that
public officials ensure Latino and Latina youth who have experience
in the justice system be appointed to these advisory groups and
provide support for their participation;
- Develop and use databases that include
information on both race and ethnicity. Encourage community members
to participate in research, increasing the likelihood that the data
collected will be representative. Pursue collective understanding of
the terms Latino and Hispanic. Suggest how definitions
should be applied when data are collected;
- Expand and increase funding of community
programs that provide alternatives to detention, alternatives that
provide sufficient, high-quality, culturally competent in-home and
community-based services for at-risk youth and for youth offenders,
both pre- and post-disposition. Require that service delivery
systems are held accountable for results through the use of
performance-based outcomes;
- Implement non-cooperation agreements between
the justice system and the Immigration and Naturalization Service
(INS) to protect immigrant youth from being held in INS detention
facilities, and from being deported and/or permanently separated
from their families;
- End the widespread secure detention of
immigrant youth in INS facilities;
- Conduct oversight hearings on how the state
collects data on Latino and Latina youth in the justice system;
- Require by state law the use of certified
interpreters/translators at all juvenile court proceedings;
- Implement a seamless delivery of services to
youth who are at risk for involvement with the justice system.
