Series on ‘Kids in Custody’

* I started to cry before I even finished reading “A Nation’s Children in Lockup” (Aug. 22), the first in your series about “Kids in Custody.” It was all of my feelings and thoughts about the juvenile justice system explained perfectly. The system is cruel, hardhanded and insensitive and is destroying our children’s lives. Not only that, but it is not prepared to deal with the problem. We don’t put enough resources into meeting the needs on all ends. We rely too much on incarceration, not enough on prevention.

I was a Criplette (female Crip) in the early 1970s in South-Central Los Angeles. When I read about the turmoil our youth are facing today, the nasty names people call them, their massive imprisonment, how we ignore them and use them as a political issue, I ache and think: “This could have been me.” Easily. Because of my experiences I understand that nothing the juvenile justice system can do can serve as a deterrent.

What saved me was my mother, a youth center counselor, a church pastor and our dean of girls. They convinced me that I could do better.

My aunt started a youth center, the Al Wooten Jr. Heritage Center, in 1990. Located in South-Central, it is named after her 35-year-old son, killed in a drive-by shooting. When my aunt wrestled to find a solution to the problem of gang violence, she didn’t think about prisons. She didn’t know the statistics, but she could see that the tough penalties, popularized in the 1980s, were not working.

At one point there were about 250 Teen Posts in Los Angeles County. Today there are only about five. I suppose the funding taken from the Teen Posts was reallocated to build more prisons and feed more prisoners. A better solution?

NAOMI BRADLEY

Inglewood

* I was appalled by your article. I am an attorney who works exclusively in the juvenile justice system and I take offense at your gross mischaracterization of how it works. It is true that it is a system that needs to be changed but not in the way your article is suggesting.

It needs to become more punishment-oriented and tougher. The rehabilitative nature of this system is not preventing crime but rather sending criminals the wrong message. The current system is based on a pyramid-type approach. Before a juvenile can be sent to CYA he/she must first have failed at other lesser restrictive possibilities. Sometimes this means they have six, seven or more prior arrests before they become “eligible” for CYA.

The reality of the system is that it is far too soft. The Youth Authority and camp programs take these criminals off the streets away from an unproductive environment and place them in a situation where they are forced to go to school and rewards them for studying. Sounds pretty terrible.

MICHAEL R. MALLANO

Hermosa Beach

* More police are not the only answer. Until we begin to work on the root causes of crime, our society will be overrun with “Gregorys” (“Gregory’s File: A Childhood of Neglect, a Life of Crime,” Aug. 23). Let’s wake up, America; we spend more annually to house prisoners than we do to educate our youth. It seems to me that we need to get our priorities straight! BARBARA S. DEUTSCH

Santa Barbara

* We’re never going to break the cycle of poverty and abuse that produces criminal children until we are allowed to talk about the politically incorrect idea of limiting the population.

Need welfare money? Then use contraceptives. Making more kids will no longer mean bigger welfare checks or additional benefits. Neglect or abuse the children you already have? Won’t or can’t support the babies you’ve already made? Use contraceptives, go to jail or get surgically sterilized; your choice.

We’re taking a hard line at the wrong end of the problem by imprisoning children whose first crime was being born to unfit parents, a dangerous, hostile environment and a government ill-equipped to provide cradle-to-grave support.

ANNIE CAROLINE SCHULER

West Hollywood

* We need to do something more for kids like Gregory then just read about them on the front page. How about legalizing drugs? Use the taxes to help the poor, control the market, cut out the drug lords and abolish gangs. Legalization of alcohol saved society in the ‘30s.

The White House is intent on saving our society, but politicians need to think logically. Sure, we’d like to abolish drugs, wipe the slate clean and dust our hands of it, but reality says never. Control the problem however you can, and I say control it by owning it. Let’s make the drug market a government-run business and really start helping kids like Gregory all over America.

PATRICIA BRUGMAN

Pasadena