Juvenile Justice Groups Oppose Gang Prevention Bill

A bill in the U.S. Senate that would provide more than $650 million in gang prevention and suppression funds faces opposition from numerous juvenile justice organizations.

The opponents fault a portion of the bill that would give federal prosecutors the authority to try juveniles as adults.

Currently, only a federal judge may decide whether a juvenile should be tried as an adult in federal court. Backers of the bill say although U.S. attorneys would also make the decision, a judge would still have the final say.

And alleged gang offenders would face swifter punishment since they cannot appeal the decision until the case is over.

In California state courts, prosecutors already have the authority to decide whether certain teenagers should be tried as adults.

The Gang Prevention and Effective Deterrence Act, co-sponsored by Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), would allocate $250 million for community-based gang prevention and intervention programs. It would allocate an additional $400 million for law enforcement activities, including hiring local and state prosecutors, enhancing witness protection and funding law enforcement teams in high-intensity interstate gang areas.

“The indiscriminate killing of individuals, not only gang members but innocent children, infants in cribs, grandmother ... has become all too commonplace, all too anonymous and all too easy to escape a penalty,” Feinstein said. “We felt it was time to provide federal assistance.”

If passed, the bill would increase penalties and establish new federal crimes such as street gang recruitment and multiple interstate murder. The bill is scheduled for a Senate vote in the coming weeks, but critics hope the legislation will stall there. “This is a politically motivated bill that sounds good and may sound tough,” said Marc Schindler, co-chairman of the National Juvenile Justice Coalition, a consortium of more than 80 national nonprofit organizations committed to child safety policies. “But [it] isn’t going to have any positive impact on deterring gang violence and pointing kids in the right direction.”

Juvenile justice groups say giving U.S. attorneys the authority to decide whether to try juveniles as adults would start an unending cycle of abuse, violence and recidivism.

Schindler, who also is a staff attorney for the Youth Law Center, a national public interest law firm, said research has shown nothing but negative results from placing youths in adult facilities as opposed to juvenile centers, which tend to focus on rehabilitation.

The legislation would allow juveniles to appeal a prosecutor’s decision, but Schindler said the appeal would occur after the case, forcing the juvenile to remain within the dangerous adult system throughout the entire appeal process.

Research reports that young people incarcerated with adults are five times as likely to report being raped and eight times as likely to attempt suicide, Schindler said.

“If we are going to do something sensible, that’s effective for society as well as for these children, we have to change our design,” said Los Angeles County Chief Public Defender Michael Judge. “All [this bill] does is tinker with the design. Many of these children will turn out to be people who will be able to function properly in society if they are given safe confinement and proper services. This doesn’t do that.”

Feinstein said the juveniles, who must eventually answer for their actions, would be separated from adults while incarcerated.

“It’s a choice you make when you join a gang, and I don’t think we can keep excusing this activity,” she said. “If you’re going to pack an AK-47 and participate in one of these gangs that kills, kidnaps, carjacks and sells drugs, if you play, you pay. This has got to be stopped.”

Local and national law enforcement organizations applauded the bill for finally putting the gang problem on the national agenda.

“This bill has too many pluses to let a federal requirement kill the bill,” said Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca when asked about the opposition. Baca said he does not think federal prosecution of juveniles is necessary. But he, along with LAPD Police Chief William J. Bratton, backs the bill because of the additional resources it would provide to Los Angeles.

“L.A. is the gang capital of America and you cannot arrest your way out of this problem,” said Baca, who estimates hundreds of millions of dollars are spent in Los Angeles County to fight the growing problem. “This is a real positive step in the right direction, in solving problems before they get too big. The funding will allow a lot of this to be done.”

The bill would provide cities such as Los Angeles a portion of the money allotted to support criminal gang law enforcement teams and grants toward community-based prevention and intervention programs.

Javier Stauring, policy director for Faith Communities for Families and Children, an interfaith coalition of religious leaders committed to children affected by juvenile justice systems, said he has witnessed the ill effects of California’s Proposition 21. The measure, approved by voters in 2000, made it easier for prosecutors to charge juveniles as adults.

“I’ve met many kids going into the adult system under Proposition 21 that have a feeling of despair and a feeling that there is no hope because the message we give them when we try them as adults and give them long sentences is that they are not worthwhile,” Stauring said.

But law enforcement officials say that even with rehabilitation, some youths cannot be reached.

“Not everybody who goes to prison, whether they are 17 or 37, comes out any worse than when they went in,” said Edward Cohn, head of the National Major Gang Task Force, a conglomerate of law enforcement and correctional professionals who specialize in gang prevention. “We’re not going to be able to reach 100% of these people. We just try to reach as many as we can and make positive changes.”