Building Blocks for Youth

News Release Contact: Joyce L. Johnson
Embargo until 12:01 a.m., EDT 202-942-0244
October 26, 2000  

CWLA Responds to Release of Youth Crime/Adult Time, Is Justice Served?

CWLA Calls on the Next Administration and Congress to Address Continued Evidence of Disparate Treatment of Minority Youth

Washington - The Child Welfare League of America, in response to the new report Youth Crime/Adult Time, Is Justice Served?, will call on the next Administration and next Congress to strengthen protections for minority youth at all points in the justice system, from police contact to incarceration. Shay Bilchik, executive director of CWLA and former administrator of the U.S. Justice Department's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, said "It is essential that each youth entering the justice system benefit from individual review of his or her case. Utilizing laws that try to fit every youth into the juvenile or adult justice systems based solely on a formula of offense plus age, cannot meet the needs of young offenders or the public. Further, this new study on transfer of juveniles to adult court clearly demonstrates yet another point in the justice system that disproportionately affects minority youth."

Mr. Bilchik noted that Congress has considered legislation in its last few sessions that would significantly weaken the Disproportionate Minority Confinement (DMC) protection of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act. He stated that CWLA will urge the new Administration and the new Congress to preserve existing protections for juveniles and support state efforts to address the DMC issue.

The new report was released today by Building Blocks for Youth, a national initiative of the Youth Law Center and several child advocacy, law enforcement and research organizations. Mr. Bilchik said, "These findings demonstrate that the disparate treatment of minority youth continues to exist in the justice system. At the decision point of whether or not to transfer a juvenile to the criminal justice system, all parties are required to ensure fairness for each child when determining what is in the best interest of public safety, the community, and the juvenile(and that does not always happen. The next Administration and Congress must support state and community efforts to better understand racial disparities where they exist and implement necessary reforms."

The Child Welfare League of America is an 80-year-old association of more than 1,100 public and private non-profit agencies that help abused, neglected, abandoned and otherwise vulnerable children and youth and their families.

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