Courts, Parents Called Too Soft on Delinquents : Juveniles: Draft report by oft-ridiculed task force recommends hard-line stance toward budding criminals as a way of building youths’ self-esteem.

After three years and $735,000, the state Task Force to Promote Self-Esteem has braved lampooning in “Doonesbury” and persistent snickering around the Capitol to come to an old-fashioned conclusion: Spare the rod, spoil the child.

In a draft of its final report, to be released in January, the task force concludes that the California juvenile justice system has contributed to low self-esteem and a high crime rate by being too easy on delinquents.

While California imposes some of the nation’s harshest jail sentences on budding criminals, it is still too soft and has “neglected the offender’s need to accept responsibility for his or her choices and behavior,” says the draft.

“When a youthful offender gets arrested for a relatively minor crime, such as petty theft or vandalism, penalties are almost never imposed. The child is counseled . . . or merely sent home to his or her parents,” the report says.

“The message that the system gives this youngster is that society is not really serious about expecting people to obey the law, and that very little, if anything, happens when a juvenile breaks the law. . . . As a result, today’s juvenile justice system inadvertently encourages some youthful offenders to continue criminal behavior.”

The answer, the report says, is to get tough from the very beginning and “attach a reasonable sanction to every criminal act, regardless of how minor.” Forcing a rookie criminal to face the consequences would make him accountable and, thus, enhance his self-esteem, the report suggests.

The hard-line advice is perhaps the biggest surprise in the proposed final report, circulated and discussed at a meeting Monday of the California Task Force to Promote Self-Esteem and Personal and Social Responsibility.

Task force members also pointed out that their report concludes--albeit indirectly--that Californians need to become more effective parents, and suggests that classes in child-rearing be part of the public school curriculum.

The report culminates three years of hearings and discussions by the 25-member panel. A number of the members are proponents of the “human potential movement,” which started work in 1987 to explore the suspected link between low self-esteem and social ills such as substance abuse, teen-age pregnancies, school drop-outs, gang violence and the poverty cycle.

The brainchild of Assemblyman John Vasconcellos (D-Santa Clara), the state effort has been ridiculed around the country as a California classic: a touchy-feely “New Age” effort to grapple with some of society’s most endemic problems.

The most persistent lampooning came in a series of “Doonesbury” comic strips, in which cartoonist Garry Trudeau chronicled the imaginary task force appointment of actress and out-of-body traveler Barbara Ann (Boopsie) Boopstein.

But Vasconcellos, who concedes his task force was first received as a “flaky” effort, said Thursday that the laughter has died amid a wide-spread appreciation for the state’s landmark investigation into self-esteem.

As proof, Vasconcellos said that 46 of the state’s 58 counties now have similar self-esteem task forces; state government and citizen groups in New Mexico, Florida, Colorado, Virginia and Washington also are moving to establish such panels.

“What’s emerged that I didn’t foresee is the enormous readiness of many, many people to give this serious attention,” said Vasconcellos, who emphasized that the panel included traditional conservatives as well as members of the “human potential movement.”

Not everyone has been impressed with the task force effort, however. One member of the panel on Thursday said the proposed final report is heavy on self-improvement buzz words--such as trusting, affirming accountability, esteeming--but very light on practical methods of improving self-esteem.

Yuppie Evangelism

“I feel this is a bunch of yuppie evangelism,” said David Shannahoff-Khalsa, neuroscience researcher and founder of the Khalsa Foundation for Medical Science in Del Mar. “It is superficial in content, and I don’t think that it has the depth of understanding to make a difference.”

Shannahoff-Khalsa, a yoga devotee, said he was disappointed that the panel would not include in its final report guidelines for yoga breathing techniques, which he says helps relieve stress, fear, addictions and dyslexia.

But another task force member, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Capt. Raymond Gott, said he was satisfied with the report’s recommendation to get tough with juvenile offenders, a view he cultivated among his colleagues by recounting the failures of the court system.

“I cranked a little real world in there, didn’t I?” asked Gott, head of the Sheriff’s Department’s anti-gang units.

“Every time a kid crosses the line and violates the law, he or she should have to pay a price,” he said.

Likewise, Gott referred to portions of the task force report that gently suggested Californians should be more attentive parents. “The reality is, and for a variety of reasons, people aren’t parenting effectively,” he said.

“Parents have abrogated their parental responsibility to anyone who will assume it,” he said. “They’ve given up to the neighborhood, the schools, to television and to the gutter.”