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Juvenile Justice and Presidential Candidates
"For all their opposing beliefs on juvenile justice, this isn't an issue the candidates are choosing to talk about."
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By
Megan Williams
Recent reports show that Latino juveniles are incarcerated at nearly two-and-a-half times the rate of white youth. The problem of minority overrepresentation in the justice system is attracting the interest of researchers and activists, but not the presidential candidates. While they have avoided discussing problems in the system, both Al Gore and George Bush have been quick to take credit for the general decline in the juvenile crime rate -- down 17 percent in Texas and 14 percent nationwide -- but they cite two very different approaches.
In their second debate, Al Gore and George W. Bush touched briefly on the issue of juvenile criminals and what to do with them. It's not a topic you've probably heard much about during this election. But like health care and social security, it's an issue on which the candidates have very different views.
GORE (on tape)
I think we have to start with better parenting. But I don't think we can ignore the role played by guns...
MEGAN
Vice President Gore has said little about what to do with youth after they commit crimes. He has proposed a modern version of reform school as an alternative for troubled youth. But he has not publicized his views on mandatory sentencing or applying the death penalty to young people. George W. Bush on the other hand, supports both mandatory sentencing and applying the death penalty to youth. He made juvenile justice a key issue in the 1995 Texas gubernatorial race against Ann Richards. Bush blasted the incumbent governor for letting youth crime get out of hand in Texas. And true to his word, when Bush reached office, he rewrote his state's juvenile justice code. Ray Sullivan with the Bush Campaign.
RAY (on tape)
Well, the old juvenile justice code, prior to the 1995 reforms never mentioned punishment. It was really based on an Ozzie and Harriet model that bad kids did things like egged houses and broke windows.
MEGAN
The new state code gives prosecutors more discretion in
transferring violent juvenile offenders to the adult system. As governor, Bush doubled the number of prison bed for young people and signed the stiffer penalties to fill them. Bush also points to increased school spending and expanded after school programs for lowering the crime rate.
Unlike his opponent, Al Gore has not had a state arena in which to hone his policies. Most of his comments on the subject have focused on prevention. The Vice President has spoken extensively on the need for increased gun control and responsibility in the marketing of violent media -- trying to remove both the means and the temptation for violence from the eyes and ears of young people. Although Gore is often labeled pro big government, on this issue, he places the emphasis on individual responsibility. Dagoberto Vega is a spokesman with the Gore Campaign.
DAGOBERTO (on tape)
In general, the Vice President has always stressed the role that fathers play in families. He believes strengthening that role can help prevent youth violence in our society.
MEGAN
Last year, Gore did cast a dramatic, tie-breaking vote to pass gun control legislation as part of the 1999 Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act. Ironically, the move earned him criticism from the ACLU for supporting a highly punitive bill in the name of gun legislation. For all their opposing beliefs on juvenile justice, this isn't an issue the candidates are choosing to talk about. But Mark Solar of the National Youth Law Center says that's good politics.
MARK (on tape)
There is a question of what kind of issues that public can identify with and understand. The issue of gun control is one that people can understand when they see Littleton and other states, they're in the media, coverage of victims' families...Everyone in the country can participate. Same is true of violence in the media, everyone sees it, has access to it. Something that's in everybody's mind. What happens in juvenile facilities is not in everybody's consciousness. I think if most people in their local communities walked into their local juvie facility and talked with kids there, sat in cells where the children are kept, they'd be appalled.
MEGAN
At Washington DC's Latin American Youth Center, crime and its
consequences are everyday issues. These are young people who watch their peers go in and out of jail. They have strong opinions about whether its life inside or outside the prison walls that's the problem.
LATIN AMERICAN YOUTH CENTER KIDS (on tape)
You can't say that you won't. When I was younger, I was like, I'm never gonna drink, never smoke, never do drugs. But I did that stuff and I learned...
MEGAN
The center operates a city-sponsored Youth Court, where teenagers judge their peers as a alternative to the juvenile justice system. Sixteen-year-old Joshua Lopez is a member of the court and helps find creative penalties for non-violent youth offenders.
JOSHUA (on tape)
I don't think the punishments, the youth should go to jail because that's not going to teach them anything. It just puts them in a hostile environment. I think they need to get into programs, get education. Maybe they could give that kid a job.
MEGAN
The kids of Youth Court know the reality behind the candidates' political promises. They know too well the complexity of punishment and rehabilitation. The youth only wish the candidates would take it as personally as they do.
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