LEAGUE OF UNITED LATIN AMERICAN CITIZENS   National Office
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LULAC asks “Where is the Justice?”
Latino Youth are Overrepresented in the Judicial System

 

Washington, DC -- The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) commends the Building Blocks for Youth Initiative for issuing “¿Dónde Está la Justicia? A call to action on behalf of the Latino and Latina Youth in the U.S. juvenile justice system,” a report that highlights the inequalities Latino youth face in our judicial system. The report demonstrates the fact that Latino youth receive more punitive treatment than their non-Latino white counterparts, even when charged with the same offenses.

“The numbers of Latino youth in the juvenile justice system is very disturbing.” LULAC National President, Hector Flores said. “Fair treatment under the law is the fundamental basis of a judicial system. This report clearly documents a bias against Latino youth. If this bias continues then justice is not served and people will loose respect for the system. For a long time there has been a practice of selective law enforcement and this report underscores what we have known for a while,” added Flores.

• At every stage of the judicial process Latino youth have a cumulative disadvantage over non-Hispanic whites. For example, in Los Angeles between 1996 and 1998, Latino youth were not only arrested 2.3 times as often as non-Hispanic white youth, they were prosecuted 2.4 times as often as non-Hispanic white youth and imprisoned 7.3 times as often.

o Latino youth are often placed at an unfair advantage because of language barriers. Frequently they lack bilingual counsel and interpreters making it very difficult for youth to understand their rights and the judicial procedures. Often, Latino youth are misunderstood and wrongly placed in immigration detention centers, despite their immigration status.

o Stereotyping Latino youth as gang members is another common mistake that leads to harsher treatment.

• Most states under-count available data because they inaccurately identify Latino youth, frequently counting them as non-Latino whites. “Whether intentional or not, this under-counting has resulted in masking the overrepresentation problem. LULAC understands that the only way to correct a problem is to shine the light of public scrutiny on it,” explained LULAC National Executive Director, Brent Wilkes.

LULAC urges public officials and policy makers to aggressively address the disparate treatment of Latino youth in the judicial system. LULAC will work hard at the local levels to pressure each juvenile facility to address the disproportionate minority confinement problem. LULAC plans to set up Latino advisory groups to monitor and advise judicial systems to reduce the bias problem using lessons learned from successful programs in Multnomah County, Oregon and Santa Cruz County, California.

The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) is the oldest and largest Latino civil rights organization in the United States. LULAC advances the economic condition, educational attainment, political influence, health, and civil rights of Hispanic Americans through community-based programs operating at more than 700 LULAC councils nationwide.