California=s Proposition 21 Nonsense
Congratulations are in order to all of those who fooled a sufficient number of California voters, resulting in the passage of Proposition 21 by a wide margin. Pete Wilson=s brainchild had the support of virtually every Atough on crime@ public official, most of whom know what the facts are about juvenile crime and chose to simply lie to the public.
In this day of media dominance, scenarios and anecdotal evidence are constantly substituted for reality. The rare case is cited as the rule and evidence of a Agrowing trend@ or in some cases an Aepidemic.@ If the average voter would have bothered to dig a little (and anyone with access to the internet can do this), they would have discovered the following:
Ø After rising in the 1980s, juvenile arrests for violent crime have declined substantially during the past decade in California and everywhere else; what has risen is adult violence (compare what Timothy McVeigh did with the recent school shootings!);
Ø Recent school killings are the exception to the rule and in fact school violence actually declined during the past decade;
Ø Both the juvenile and the adult system has consistently been extremely harsh (tougher than any other western democracy in fact - our incarceration rate is number one in the world) toward young offenders, so there was no need for a Proposition 21 (or any other Aget tough@ legislation);
Ø Those juvenile offenders who are sent to the adult system have consistently been mostly non-violent offenders and their recidivism rates have been greater than similar offenders left within the juvenile justice system - in other words, treating them as adults has made things worse;
Overall, Agetting tough@ on juveniles has consistently been counterproductive, despite the Alaw and order@ rhetoric of public officials. What will now likely happen (as history has shown) is that a sort of Abait and switch@ con job will have taken place. Voters, overly fearful of youth crime (statistically speaking you are far more likely to be victimized by an adult), will expect the system to now target the most violent and the most dangerous offenders (the Abait@). However, since the system is already tough on violent offenders, eager prosecutors will search in vain for more dangerous youth to get tough with and, finding few candidates, will Aswitch@ and begin to target the less serious young offenders - the only ones left.
The police will also (like the infamous CRASH officers in LA?) target anyone who resembles as Agang member@ (and guess what color of skin they will have?) and refer them to those eagerly awaiting Amacho@ prosecutors, who can turn to the voters and tell them how Atough on crime@ they are (in order to help them get re-elected, rather than genuine concern for victims). Or they will try and target gang Arecruitment,@ as if members are recruited like high school athletes are recruited by colleges. As anyone with any experience with gangs can tell you, this style of recruitment is the exception rather than the rule.
Meanwhile, voters will remain fearful, largely because violent crime dominates the newspaper headlines and the 11 o=clock news, because Aif it bleeds, it leads.@ This is despite the fact that violent crime (especially murder) is the least likely crime to be committed.
Who benefits from referendums like Prop. 21? Certainly not the average citizen, whose tax dollars will be diverted away from good prevention programs and into an already bloated Acriminal justice industrial complex.@ Expenditures on this system has passed the $200 billion per year mark, up from a paltry $10 billion 30 years ago! No, citizens, you will not gain any benefits. Those operating this huge system (plus the politicians who want your votes) will gain more funding to add to their already large crime fighting empire.
If there is one consolation for Californians it is that you are not alone, for every other state (including my own state) has been on this Aget tough@ rampage and has made it easier to target our youth. All of which makes it easier for adults to avoid looking themselves in the mirror and seeing the harm they have caused. But, after all, kids have no power and find it hard to fight back.
In case the reader wonders why someone from another state is so interested in what happens in California, I should mention that I was born in California and my elderly parents still live there. I am as concerned as anyone about their safety. The passage of Prop. 21 (like that other fiasco, AThree Strikes and You=re Out@) will do absolutely nothing to make them feel safer.
Written in 2000 and submitted to the Los Angeles Times, but not printed.
Update: Despite its image as a Aliberal@ state, California leads the country in the incarceration rate for juveniles, just ahead of Nevada. For excellent critiques of California=s juvenile justice policies see the web site of the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice (www.cjcj.org).