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Justice for teens often white-only

Minority youths victims of racism, report says

Wednesday, April 26, 2000

By CANDY HATCHER Mail Author
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

What happens to a youth accused of a crime in America depends on his color. If he's black or Hispanic, a national report released yesterday showed, he's far more likely to be arrested, held in detention and convicted than if he's white.

The report, "And Justice for Some," details a double standard that exists in nearly every state's juvenile justice system, including Washington's.

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Black youths are six times more likely to be incarcerated than whites, even when they are charged with the same crimes and have never been in detention before. Those charged with drug offenses are 48 times more likely than whites to be sentenced to juvenile institutions. And on average, when they are prosecuted as adults and sent to prison, they stay there 61 days longer than whites convicted of the same crime.

At each stage of the process, from the time police interview a child until he is sentenced, "it gets more racist," said Michael Jones, researcher for the National Council on Crime and Delinquency. "America has to confront its very ugly problem."

Seattle already is. The city, which has known for years that Washington's juvenile justice system treated minority youths more harshly than white youngsters, is a model for the rest of the country in addressing the disparity, youth advocates say.

Seattle police have begun keeping track of all contacts officers have with youths. Community leaders and public officials plan to use the data to get a better understanding of what factors influence decisions to arrest youths or intervene, and what happens afterward.

In addition, a group of judges, prosecutors, public defenders, police and politicians plans to study three Seattle neighborhoods to determine how to help children and curb juvenile crime.

They will use teenagers to survey students, teachers, parents and residents in West Seattle, Rainier Valley and Central Area neighborhoods about youth and crime.

The plan -- part of the national Building Blocks for Youth movement to reform juvenile justice -- involves recruiting children from those neighborhoods to figure out the strengths of each community and how they can improve.

For example, they might find, as Phoenix did, that keeping basketball courts and other recreational facilities open late at night significantly reduces crime in the neighborhood.

Seattle is one of the few places in the country "doing something about the problem to address it," said James Bell, a Youth Law Center attorney working with the group.

King County benefited from studies during the past decade by a University of Washington sociologist that showed racial disparities in the justice system. Professor George Bridges found that black youths who commit crimes are more likely to be depicted as having character flaws -- and therefore deemed less amenable to treatment or rehabilitation -- than white children.

The result, his studies showed, was harsher sentencing for black youths.

But yesterday's report, sponsored by the Justice Department and six of the country's leading foundations, showed the problem is nationwide.

Among the findings:

  • In every crime category, a substantially greater percentage of black youths were detained than white youths.

  • White youths charged with violent offenses are incarcerated for an average of 193 days, but blacks are locked up an average of 254 days and Hispanics are jailed an average of 305 days.

  • Black youths are much more likely than white youths to be sent to adult court, even when charged with the same offenses.

  • Nationally, 7,400 youths were sent to adult prisons in 1997. Three-quarters were minorities.

    Mark Soler, president of the Youth Law Center and leader of the coalition that organized the national research, said the data show that "young people of color don't get the benefit of the doubt."

    Soler asked the Justice Department to commit $100 million more to study and fix racial disparities and require states to spend a quarter of their federal juvenile justice grants on the issue.

    The coalition wants states to stop putting teenagers in jail and prison with adults -- a practice shown to increase suicides and assaults and more serious crimes. And it wants to halt plans to expand juvenile detention centers and prisons until states have addressed the double standards.

    The group -- including the NAACP and National Urban League -- also has asked lawmakers to condemn Congress' efforts to minimize the problem.

    A juvenile justice reform bill in the Senate doesn't mention minorities when it addresses "overrepresented" groups in the criminal justice system, Soler said. Under the bill, he said, an "overrepresented" group could be males.

    The report comes at a time when high-profile violence, like Monday's shooting of several youths following a scuffle in Washington, D.C., at the National Zoo's annual black family celebration -- is driving lawmakers to increase juvenile punishment even as the rate of crime by young people decreases.

    Nationally, juvenile crime has been falling. King County's juvenile crime rate in 1999 was at its lowest level in more than a decade. But the number of youths in detention had increased every year until 1999.

    Since 1992, 47 states, including Washington, have expanded their laws to punish more juveniles as adults not only for murder but also for drug crimes, weapons possession and burglaries.

    "We're taking youngsters -- children -- and putting them in the worst location," said William Spriggs of the National Urban League.

    "It reverses a long trend in American policy not to have children imprisoned with hardened adult criminals."

    P-I reporter Candy Hatcher can be reached at 206-448-8320 or candyhatcher@seattle-pi.com

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