ARIZONA

Juvenile injustice: System must re-visit automatic transfer of teens into adult prisons

The public's desire to feel safe drove a policy of automatically transferring some juvenile offenders to the adult system. That was eight years ago. Now there is strong evidence that this get-tough approach simply hardens youthful offenders before turning them loose in your community. For public safety, Arizona needs to change the way it deals with repeat non-violent juvenile offenders. These unappealing kids come with anger and attitude to spare. They seemed ill-suited for a juvenile justice system that was little more than a revolving door in 1996, when voters approved the automatic transfer scheme. The conventional wisdom then was bumper-sticker simple: Do the crime, do the time. But kids ― even "bad" ones ― are more complex than bumper stickers. This newspaper opposed automatic transfer because it took discretion away from judges, who were already transferring the most violent juveniles to adult court. What's worse, it requires that minors with two previous felony convictions go into the adult system, even if their crimes were non-violent.

Once convicted in that system, non-violent juveniles are held with violent offenders in the prison's Minors Unit. When they turn 18, they join the older murderers, rapists and other thugs in the main adult prison. The average age of release for non-violent juveniles is 19, according to research by The Republic and reported by Judi Villa. That gives them a year to learn the criminals' craft from real pros. They are likely to be very apt pupils. Brain researchers say the frontal lobe of the human brain, which governs planning, judgment and impulsiveness, is not fully formed until about age 20. Within three years of release, 29 percent of juveniles who were automatically transferred to prison for a non-violent offense will be re-incarcerated for a violent crime. For purposes of comparison, only 7 percent of non-violent adult criminals return for violent crimes. The overall recidivism rate for the non-violent kids was 52 percent. For non-violent adult convicts, the rate is 25 percent. The figures come from Republic research. We're talking about a lot of kids. Non-violent crimes were the reason 424 juveniles were sent into the adult system in the last eight years. That's nearly one in three who were automatically transferred.

There are other approaches Arizona should consider. Missouri uses a dual jurisdiction system that allows juveniles convicted as adults to be placed in a setting that emphasizes treatment and training. They can be held there until age 21. If they reform, they can be paroled. If not, they are transferred to adult prison. A lot of crimes can be prevented if juvenile offenders are rehabilitated through education, vocational training, drug treatment, impulse control and other life-skills lessons. Arizona's adult prisons aren't designed to do that. Automatic transfer is a failed experiment that ignores the real differences between children and adults. Refining it to focus on reforming youthful offenders does not amount to coddling bad kids. It amounts to protecting public safety.

23 November 2004
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/1123tue1-23.html
 

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