Today, 39 million Americans are less than 10 years old. This demographic after-effect of the "Baby Boom," is frequently called the "Baby Boomerang." The children in the boomerang will be entering their most crime-prone years by the turn of the century.
Many criminal justice experts believe that the "Baby Boomerang" contains the seeds of a new crime wave. A disproportionate amount of street crime is committed by youths aged 16 to 24.
One California police chief recently quipped that, unlike New York Mayor Giuliani, he was not taking credit for the drop in crime because he did not want to be blamed for an increase if and when it comes. How we deal with young children today will go a long way toward determining what type of society we will have tomorrow -- including whether we will in fact experience a frightening new crime wave.
Many of these boomerang children are living in dysfunctional families, in dangerous communities. They lack access to the necessities of life, including a sufficient diet, adequate health care, and a good education. All too often, they are "latchkey" kids -- left home alone for too many hours because their parents must work late.
Congressional Response -- Federal Prosecutorial Bureaucracy?
Congress is approaching this important issue with a notable lack of wisdom. The Washington "answer" -- massive federalization of the nation's juvenile justice system into a wasteful and cruel, additional criminal bureaucracy, cabined only by boundless federal prosecutorial discretion.The House has passed juvenile crime legislation that would send juvenile offenders as young as 13, including many who commit non-violent crimes, to adult facilities for both pre-trial and post-conviction incarceration. H.R. 3 would give federal prosecutors "unreviewable discretion" to impose federal adult prosecutions and incarcerations upon young children.
An almost identical bill, only more expansive, will be considered by the full Senate when Congress reconvenes January 27. S.10 would give federal prosecutors unreviewable discretion to subject kids as young as 14 to adult federal prosecution and "mixing" with the adult prison population both pre-trial and post-conviction, for any alleged violation of the U.S. Code.
Although opposed by many prominent leaders, S.10 stands a decent chance of passing. If it does, it will gut the juvenile justice system we know. It will also destroy the federal courts as we know them. Goodbye, courts of limited jurisdiction, in which the non-political, Article III judges administer justice. Hello, federal "juvie courts," run by an imperial federal prosecutor.
Mixing It Up
Under S. 10, children who commit even non-violent offenses (e.g., theft or drug possession) will find themselves "mixed" in prison with older, stronger, adults: murderers, rapists, and robbers. These adults are hardly the strong male role models too often absent from the lives of our most disadvantaged youths. They are a distinctive type of "strong role model" -- the dangerous type.Studies show that the risk of suicide for a juvenile in an adult prison is 7.7 times higher than the risk for one in a juvenile facility. This is largely because sexual assaults and inmate violence are endemic to adult prisons.1 Youthful offenders caged in this incendiary environment are but "fresh meat" for the most predatory inmates.
An example of what to expect from this proposed legislation is found in the case of Rodney Hulin, Jr. At 16, he was convicted of arson in Texas. Though nobody was hurt, Hulin was sentenced to eight years in an adult prison. Within days of his transfer, the youngster was raped and sodomized. His request to be placed in protective custody was denied. According to the warden, Hulin's abuses did not meet the "emergency grievance criteria." For the next several months, Hulin was repeatedly beaten by older inmates, forced to perform oral sex and robbed. Each time, the warden denied his request for protective custody.
After 75 days in the facility, Rodney Hulin hanged himself. After four months in a coma, he died. In testimony before Congress, Hulin's grieving father sadly observed: "Sending young children to adult prisons will not make our streets any safer. Sending children to be beaten, raped, and robbed does not deter crime."
Opposition Is Right
Prominent members of the Senate Judiciary Committee strongly oppose the pending bill. In the minority view, published in the Committee Report on S. 10, Senators Leahy, Kennedy, Biden, Kohl, Feingold and Durbin wisely write:
This bill chooses sound bite over sound policy. It reacts to the headlines about remorseless young criminals committing horrific crimes with a hodgepodge of so-called "get tough" fixes, an amalgam of good and bad ideas on how to spend federal funds, and one-size "Washington-knows-best" approach to juvenile crime that will undoubtedly worsen the juvenile crime problem.2These dissenters point out that studies, for decades, have shown juvenile offenders who survive sentences in adult prisons return to society as much more hardened criminals. They have far higher rates of recidivism than those placed in juvenile facilities. In fact, that is exactly why, in the early part of the century, the states created juvenile detention centers. The idea was to protect society, in a cost-effective manner, by rehabilitating wayward youths; and, to protect young offenders from atrocities like those visited upon Rodney Hulin.
S. 10 also forces the states to conform to federal policy in the usual way -- through the pull of the federal purse strings. This is akin to the political blackmail Congress used to force the states to "abolish" parole in 1994 to be eligible to receive federal funding for prison construction.
Under the over-broad sweep of this legislation, most of the youths transferred to adult venues will be first-time, non-violent offenders who are the vast majority of juveniles arrested each year. These are the youngsters most likely to be rehabilitated and turned into productive members of society by traditional state juvenile justice services.
Most people do not realize that less than 1 percent of juvenile arrests are for murder or rape. Of the 2.7 million juvenile arrests annually, 95 percent are for non-violent offenses. Our secure juvenile facilities are packed with children convicted of non-violent crimes. There are more than enough beds for the few chronic and violent offenders.
Only about 600 juveniles each year are convicted of homicide in the entire country. Moreover, violent juvenile arrests are down 12 percent since 1994. Violent crime rates for juveniles were down a remarkable 25 percent in 1995 alone.3
Approaches by State and Local Governments Are Noteworthy
An important reason juvenile violence is dropping is because local communities are attacking the problem with a smart, cost-effective mix of pro-active enforcement and prevention, consistent with the character and traditions of the particular local community.In Boston, for example, there has been only one juvenile homicide in over a year. This is mainly because probation departments have become more active in the community, after-school recreational centers have been opened, and police have aggressively enforced gun laws and become more involved with their communities.
'Permanent Campaign' Corrupts Justice, Squanders Scarce Tax Dollars
If state and local programs such as Boston's work, why are so many in Congress willing to go lock-step in the wrong direction? The reason is we live in the age of the "permanent campaign." Too many politicians take irresponsible advantage of the public's fear of violent juvenile crime. They want to be "tough" in the voters' eyes at any cost -- even the welfare and lives of children.Drive-by shootings are real and horrific. But it is not the drive-by types who will bear the brunt of this insensible legislation. Most juveniles charged with homicide are transferred to adult court. It is the first-time, non-violent offenders most in need of compassionate intervention who will be unduly ensnared and most damaged.
Finally, I cannot help but think that these "get-tough" measures would not become law if the racial composition of our juvenile facilities reflected the population at large. The overwhelming majority of youthful offenders who are incarcerated are black or latino. White youths who get arrested for the same offenses are far more likely to be diverted to community-based placements and private drug treatment programs. It is minority youths from our low-income communities who will pay the highest price.
Congressional Threat and Democracy's Hope: It Is Up to Us
Ignoring the warnings from experts across the political spectrum, the legislation would perversely nourish the potential seeds of crime in the Baby Boomerang. It will do so at great societal cost, in terms of the tax dollars squandered on an unnecessary and unwieldy federal juvenile crime bureaucracy; and the wasted opportunity to rehabilitate youthful offenders, for society's benefit.If the boomerang crime wave occurs, we will inevitably see some future "political leader," seeking to appear "tough" in an election year, propose even harsher punishments and more prisons as the quick-fix. Until America rises up and demands an end to this societal self-destruction, we will have no one to blame but ourselves for our plight.
Get involved. Tell your Senators to resoundingly vote "No" on
S. 10. Call the Senate Switchboard Operator, at (202)224-3121, to be connected to your Senators' offices.
2. Report of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Together With Additional, Minority and Supplemental Views to Accompany S.10 ("Violent and Repeat Juvenile Offender Act of 1997"), October 9, 1997, at 144.
3. Id. at 144, et seq.