Incarcerating Our Youth is Not the Answer

CAHRO's responsibility is to support efforts using creative solutions to address community problems and promote an inclusive society.  On the flip side we have to oppose measures that will exacerbate societal issues and strip the rights of a segment of the community.  We feel that we have no alternative, but to take a stand against Proposition 21, " The Juvenile Crime and Gang Violence Prevention Act."
Proposition 21 will go a long way toward making criminals of young people who make the mistake of joining a gang because of the neighborhood they live in, the friends they grow up with, their search for identity, or because they want to rebel against authority.  It also makes it much easier to incarcerate young people, brand them forever for a crime they commit as a young boy or girl, or execute them for committing specified sex crimes or murder.  An additional provision allows children as young as the age of 14 to be incarcerated in adult prisons.  More specifically, Proposition 21 removes prohibitions against revealing the names of young people who commit crimes and prevents the sealing of their records once they reach maturity.  Crimes committed as a minor will count towards the "three strikes" initiative making it possible for a young person who is into tagging (placing graffiti on walls), and gets caught three times to be sent to prison for the rest of his or her life.

Anyone reading this proposition would assume youth violence and crime is reaching staggering proportions and menacing society but the opposite is occurring.  Any police department will tell you that youth crime is decreasing.  Youth crimes have been declining steadily since the early nineties and youth violence is at its lowest level in thirty years.  We hope those who are old enough to vote are not so blinded by a few highly publicized school incidents that they are ready to strip young people of their rights and privileges.

The Legislative Analyst and the California Department of Finance are charged with providing an objective estimate of the potential financial impact of voter initiatives.  They estimate that the increased number of youth tried and incarcerated as a result of this proposed law will cost the State of California hundreds of millions of dollars and local governments tens of millions of dollars annually.  These funds will have to come from somewhere and that somewhere is likely to be from the most important expenditure of state government, education, because it makes up a large proportion of state spending.  California call ill afford to decrease its support for schools to incarcerate those it should be educating.

We call on our readers to work against this initiative and request human relations and human rights commission to urge your city councils and county boards of supervisors to pass resolutions against Proposition 21 so that they can use their budgets to support young people who need guidance and help rather than sending them to adult prisons where they can be further victimized.

Much of the information provided in this article was contributed by Adam Gold, Executive Director of C-Beyond.  For more information on this initiative and how you can work to defeat this proposition, please contact C-Beyond at 925-676-6556 or email cbeyond@igc.org.  You can also log onto these website for more info: www.cbeyond.org, or check out these other websites:
www.colorlines.com/waronyouth or www.nojuvenileinjustice.org.