Hispanic Youth at Risk of
Unfair
Treatment in the Court System
Danielle DePari
A report issued by The Building Blocks for
Youth, which is a national campaign in advocation of a fair justice system
for youth, highlights the inequalities of the justice system for Hispanic
youth. This report explicitly defined the ways that Latino youth are treated
in the courtroom.
When it comes to the justice system, it
appears that this system is not one that is equipped for a culturally diverse
and predominantly Hispanic population. One major barrier in justice for
Hispanic youth in the court system is a lack of bilingual staff. Many Hispanic
youth and parents speak only Spanish, and this presents unfair treatment and a
lack of understanding in the court system. When in jail, there is often a
nonexistent bilingual staff, who are not culturally competent. This leads to
harsher treatment for Hispanic youth who are incarcerated. Also, the court
system often utilizes stricter punishment on those who they believe are
affiliated with gangs. Often times, Hispanic youth are incorrectly stereotyped
as being gang members, and therefore receive harsher punishment. These are
just a few of the various disparities presented to Hispanic youth who are in
the justice system.
It appears that White youth are at a higher
advantage then their Hispanic counterparts when charged with a crime. For
youth who are charged with a drug related felony, Hispanic youth are 13 times
as likely to be incarcerated then White youth. For violent crimes, Hispanic
youth are 5 times as probable to be incarcerated then White youth. When in
jail, durations have found on average to be substantially longer for Hispanic
youth then for White youth. It has even been found that in 46 of 50 states,
youth have higher incarceration rates then White youth. These statistics do
not represent those Hispanics who are not recorded accurately as Hispanics in
the data, and this makes this issue even more critical.
Evidently, the justice system needs to
eliminate racial profiling and also halt the use of unfair stereotyping. Also,
the justice system must be sure that Latino youth are given the chance to
accurately depict their race in data collection, in order to analyze the most
accurate data possible. Meanwhile, the Latino community must pull together to
raise the awareness about this issue, in order to absolve it completely. This
can be done in several ways. The Building Blocks for Youth program
recommends organizing community members to influence the justice system to be
responsible for Latino youth. In addition, Hispanic youth must be included
when creating public policies in order to ensure they are being treated
fairly. This issue is one that is new to awareness, but can be eliminated if
the Latino community pulls together to stop it.
| ASPIRA,
a national non-profit organization, is very concerned about this issue
as our primary work is with Hispanic youth.
For more information, contact Hilda
Crespo, Vice President of Public Policy and Federal Relations, at the
ASPIRA Association, 202-835-3600 ext. 114. |
