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BUILDING BLOCKS FOR YOUTH
*SPECIAL EDITION* ON-LINE NEWSLETTER

10/26/00

"Youth Crime/Adult Time: Is Justice Served?" Released Today

The Building Blocks for Youth initiative released "Youth Crime/Adult/Time: Is Justice Served?" today in Houston, TX at the National Juvenile Defender Leadership Summit. This report follows "And Justice for Some," a comprehensive study that details that youth of color experience more severe treatment than their white peers at every stage of the juvenile justice process. "And Justice for Some" received widespread media coverage and has helped encourage advocacy efforts around the country seeking to address racial inequities in the juvenile justice system.

"Youth Crime/Adult Time: Is Justice Served?", prepared for the Building Blocks for Youth initiative by the Pretrial Services Resource Center, reveals disturbing aspects in the transfer of youth, especially minority youth, to the adult criminal court and raises serious questions about the fairness and appropriateness of prosecuting youth in adult court. Major findings of the study, which examined 18 of the largest urban jurisdictions in the country, are:

• Most determinations to prosecute youth in the adult criminal court were made by prosecutors or legislatures (85%), and not by judges (15%).
• Overall, 82% of youth charged in adult criminal courts were minority youth.
• Minority youth were disproportionately charged in adult criminal court. For example, in Jefferson County, Alabama, African-American youth accounted for approximately 3 out of 10 felony arrests, but represented 8 out of 10 felony cases filed in criminal court.
• A majority of youth were released before trial, most within 24 hours of having charges filed, and many were released without bail, raising serious questions of whether the initial charges were particularly serious.
• Nearly two thirds of all the youth who were detained pretrial were held in adult jails, where previous research shows that youth are at serious risk of assault and suicide.
• White youth are twice as likely as African-American youth to be represented by private retained counsel. Youth who are represented by private retained attorneys were less likely to be convicted and more likely to be transferred back to juvenile court.
• African-American (43%) and Latino (37%) youth were more likely than White youth (26%) to receive a sentence of incarceration (as opposed to a split sentence or probation).

To obtain an executive summary, the full report, "Calls For Action", the press release, and fact sheets on transfer, visit the Building Blocks for Youth initiative's web site at: www.buildingblocksforyouth.org.

Recent Building Blocks for Youth initiative reports:

• "The Color of Justice: An Analysis of Juvenile Adult Court Transfers in California"
  Prepared by the Justice Policy Institute, this report is the first analysis of racial and ethnic disparity in the transfer of youths to adult court and sentencing to California Youth Authority facilities in California. This study reveals that minority youth are 8.3 times more likely than white youth to be sentenced by an adult court to imprisonment in a California Youth Authority facility.
• "And Justice For Some: Differential Treatment of Minority Youth in the Justice System"

Prepared by the National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD) - the nation's oldest criminal justice think-tank - the report is the most complete and up-to-date comparison of state and federal data on arrest, referral, detention, case processing waiver to adult court and incarceration, providing a comprehensive view of the treatment of youth of color in the justice system. Among the key findings, the report shows that African American youth with no prior admissions were six times as likely to be incarcerated in public facilities as white youth and that Latino youth were three times as likely as white youth to be incarcerated.

Building Blocks for Youth

Building Blocks for Youth is an alliance of national and community-based children's advocates, researchers, and law enforcement professionals that seeks to protect minority youth in the justice system and promote rational and effective justice policies. The partners in this initiative are the Youth Law Center, American Bar Association Juvenile Justice Center, Communication Works, Juvenile Law Center, Justice Policy Institute, Minorities in Law Enforcement, National Council on Crime and Delinquency, and Pretrial Services Resource Center.

For the latest Building Blocks for Youth initiative reports, fact sheets, and materials, visit the Building Blocks for Youth initiative web site at: www.buildingblocksforyouth.org and subscribe to the initiative's on-line newsletter. To subscribe, send an email to: info.bby@erols.com.

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