NEWS RELEASE
EMBARGO UNTIL 12:01 a.m., EDT
October 26, 2000

Contact: Tommy McDonald, 415-255-1946

New Report Finds Growing Trend of Prosecuting Youth in Adult Court Casting Too Wide a Net; Many Youth Charged with Non-Violent Offenses

In 85 Percent of Cases, Prosecutors and Statutory Exclusion Laws, Not Judges, Waived Youth into Adult Court; Racial Disparities Found in the Process

The report, Youth Crime/Adult Time: Is Justice Served?, was commissioned by Building Blocks for Youth, a national initiative addressing racial fairness in the justice system and promoting rational and effective juvenile justice policies. The study was prepared by the Pretrial Services Resource Center, an independent non-profit organization that has worked on pretrial issues for more than 20 years. Based on extensive data from 18 of the largest jurisdictions in the country, the report covered 2,584 cases, which were all of the felony cases in the criminal courts of the jurisdictions involving juveniles during the first six months of 1998.

Although prosecution in adult court has traditionally been reserved for youth charged with the most serious offenses, several findings in the report suggest that cases brought against youth prosecuted as adults are either not particularly serious or not strong. For example, a substantial portion of those prosecuted as adults were charged with non-violent offenses, many were released soon after their arrests, and many were not convicted at all or were transferred back to the juvenile court. Yet the consequences of adult prosecution are significant. Two-thirds of the youth who were detained before trial were held in adult jails, and one-third of those were held in the general population with adult inmates.

"The system is herding these kids into the adult system where they don't belong. Most of the youths sent to the adult system could be better served in the juvenile system," said Mark Soler, President of the Youth Law Center and head of Building Blocks for Youth. "This report shows that many of these cases did not hold water once the evidence was scrutinized."

The report found that judges make very few of the decisions to prosecute youth as adults. In 45 percent of the cases in the study, prosecutors exercised authority to file charges against youth directly in adult court, and in 40 percent of the cases, state statutes mandated that youth be prosecuted as adults. Judges made the decision to prosecute youth as adults in only 15 percent of the cases.

The report also found that minority youth, particularly African-American youth, were over-represented and received disparate treatment at several stages of the process, especially in cases involving drug and public order offenses. Of all the cases in the study, 82 percent involved minority youth African-American youth represented over half of the cases.

"We are calling on leaders at every level of our society to take immediate actions in light of the dire findings of this report," said Rick Dovalina, National President of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). "This report reveals very disturbing aspects about the transfer process and we must take concrete steps to ensure that justice is served for all of our children, not just some of them."

"While we believe that youthful offenders must be held accountable for their actions, the fact that these youths are often housed with and exposed to adult offenders before and during their trials is troubling," said Kweisi Mfume, President and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). "We are subjecting children to the same penalties as adults with little or no hope education or any form of rehabilitation. This is tantamount to throwing away their lives and giving up all hope for their future."

Building Blocks for Youth, civil rights leaders, and youth advocates call on the next President and the Congress to commit at least an additional $100 million for the Department of Justice to address this issue throughout the country. They also urge strengthening federal law to reduce the disproportionate involvement of minority youth at all points in the justice system and prohibit the incarceration of children in adult jails and prisons.

Among the other key findings of the report:

• Overall, 82 percent of the youth charged in adult court were minority youth.

• Drug cases were filed against African-American youth at five times the rate of White youth (17 percent vs. three percent).

• Nearly two-thirds of the youth who were detained before trial were held in adult jails.

• White youth were twice as likely as African-American youth to be represented by private counsel. Youth represented by private counsel were less likely to be convicted and more likely to be transferred back to juvenile court.

• African-American (43 percent) and Latino (37 percent) youth were more likely than white youth (26 percent) to receive a sentence of incarceration (as opposed to a split sentence or probation.)

An embargoed copy of Youth Crime/Adult Time: Is Justice Served? can be viewed at a private web location as of October 16, 2000 at http://www.buildingblocksforyouth.org/ycat/. The report will be made publicly available on October 26, 2000.

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