The Human Face of Crime Statistics : Gangs: So many young people are caught up in a brutal system that leaves them bewildered and gives them little or no chance for a fair hearing.

The citizens of Los Angeles are outraged at the ever-mounting crime statistics resulting from gang violence. This message has been conveyed to the police and district attorney, who have vigorously pursued and prosecuted gang members.

Gang crime took on a whole different meaning for me two years ago, when I became a part-time volunteer chaplain at Central Juvenile Hall. Up to that point I had spent 20 years as an educator, most of my dealings being with white middle-class teen-agers and young adults. I did have an appreciation for the increased incidence of crime in our community, coming from 10 years of service as a chaplain with the Los Angeles Police Department.

Nothing, however, could have prepared me for the shock I experienced as I stepped through the gates at “juvie,” a facility housing more than 800 male and female offenders whose ages range from 10 to 18. Seeing children in jail is an experience I will never be comfortable with.

One quickly realizes that many of these boys and girls are indeed charged with serious felonies. But so many?

There is also the realization that, while many of these young people probably have committed the crimes for which they are charged, others have been caught up in a brutal system responding to an outraged citizenry’s call for vengeance.

To call this a brutal system hardly conveys the reality. Maybe a comparison will help. If one of your children was arrested and charged with a criminal offense, you would probably react in a predictable manner. You would seek the services of a competent attorney and obtain the immediate release of your son or daughter from custody. You would expect to speak with your child’s attorney on a regular basis to discuss the progress of the defense case. The hoped-for outcome would be to see that your child receives the best available representation.

Contrast this situation with what happens to many of the youngsters I encounter. They usually come from minority backgrounds where, in many instances, English is a second, poorly understood language. Many of these children do not even understand why they are in jail. Court-appointed attorneys are theoretically representing the interests of these boys and girls, yet the attorneys carry such heavy caseloads that they seldom respond to the calls or questions of their young clients. The district attorney, following his sworn charge and desiring to stay in elected office, pushes for convictions. After all, that is what we in the community have demanded. We want criminals off the streets and behind bars. Unfortunately, some of these children are not very criminal.

All of this took on the terrible face of reality one day in the summer of 1989, when I met Jose. He had been arrested in December, 1987, and charged with murder. While he was in jail his one remaining parent, his mother, died. Jose was denied permission to attend her funeral--in my opinion an outrageous act of insensitivity. His case dragged on for more than a year-and-a-half before going to trial.

Thanks to the services of a competent court-appointed attorney, Jose was nearly acquitted: 10 jurors favored acquittal but two did not. The district attorney decided to retry the case.

Every attorney I have spoken with indicates amazement at the refiling of this case. An examination of the facts in the case raises serious questions about why it was even tried in the first place, yet the district attorney’s office is willing to commit tens of thousands of dollars to another trial.

Jose is now into his third year in jail, still awaiting the start of his second trial. At times he becomes near-suicidal as he thinks about the losses he has suffered, both in terms of family and the years of a youth spent in jail, along with the prospects of facing yet another trial with a third court-appointed defense attorney.

Most of the time he speaks of the hopes and dreams of any young person. He hopes for the day when he can complete his education, begin a career and start to think about marriage and a family of his own. All I can do is pray that this maddening brutality ends and that Jose’s dreams become reality.

You may be asking yourself, “Well, is he guilty or not?” Obviously, I am motivated by a conviction of his innocence. However, that is not the question. The question remains whether or not Jose, and others like him, can receive a fair and impartial hearing in such a system.