Leaders of Nation's Three Largest Criminal Justice Groups Cite Pending Senate Juvenile Crime Bill As Fatally Flawed

Washington, D.C. -- As the Senate's Youth Violence, Judiciary Subcommittee gets set to tinker with a minor state record-keeping mandate in S.10 ("Violent and Repeat Juvenile Offender Act of 1997"), other dangerous provisions in the bill have provoked unprecedented opposition from criminal justice leaders who usually find themselves on opposite sides of the bar on policy issues.

William L. Murphy, President of the National District Attorneys Association (NDAA), Gerald Lefcourt, President of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL), and Ronald Goldstock, Chairman of the American Bar Association's Criminal Justice Section (ABA-CJS), denounce the legislation as "ill-conceived and ill-considered," and decry the Senate's unwillingness to confront problems with the bill as a whole. Their opposition follows from their joint article on a common criminal justice agenda, "Justice That Makes Sense."

S.10 elicits broad-based condemnation. "It is reckless for the bill to create a bevy of un-elected Special Federal Juvenile Prosecutors, armed with unprecedented 'unreviewable discretion' to prosecute anyone 14 or over for any alleged violation of federal law, no matter how non-violent," notes William L. Murphy.

Murphy, Lefcourt and Goldstock also strongly agree with the criticism, recently voiced by U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist, that this bill wastefully federalizes juvenile justice in America, in a manner insensitive to the states' longstanding constitutional prerogative in this area, and their vastly superior experience.

"This poor excuse of a hearing on one controversial provision of the bill doesn't begin to address what is altogether wrong with the measure considered as a whole" says Murphy. "The unwieldy record-keeping proviso is just the tip of the iceberg. Indeed, Monday's hearing is akin to rearranging chairs on the deck of the Titanic."

Gerald Lefcourt, president of the NACDL concurs: "What's going on is window-dressing. To avoid disaster, the Senate Judiciary Committee should promptly reverse course and take all of S.10 back to the drawing board."

"The irony is that S.10 would likely worsen the juvenile crime problem," says Ronald Goldstock, chair of the American Bar Association's Criminal Justice Section. "The bill does not provide for crime prevention through intervention. Instead, it seeks to change current law to allow for the explosive mixing of youth and adult offenders in adult jails and prisons. Not only is this approach destined to lead to increases in the rape and suicide rates for youthful offenders, but those who survive will return to society having attained a diploma from crime school."

The Senate is attempting to impose on the states cumbersome new record-keeping requirements as a condition of access to much-needed federal grant money to combat local juvenile crime. This new mandate -- to keep and maintain, and make publically available, records for all juvenile arrests, not just convictions -- is costly and onerous. But it is hardly the worst of the bill's features. Other troubling features of the bill include these:

• Undermining Federal Courts and Trampling States' Rights
  S.10 would turn specialized federal courts into "juvie courts." It would abolish the current judicial role that exists now in almost all cases, relative to the ultimate decision as to whether a juvenile should be transferred into adult federal court. S.10 replaces hearings before judicial officers with the unprecedented "unreviewable discretion" of Special Federal Juvenile Prosecutors, to prosecute as an adult in federal court anyone 14 years old or older, for any alleged violation of the federal law, no matter how non-violent. The bill's title, "Violent and Repeat Offender Act," is a misnomer.
  
  

• Creating Juvenile Crime
  Contrary to the sound advice of nine out of ten police chiefs, S.10 makes no provision for youth intervention and crime prevention. The Coalition to Prevent Juvenile Crime, a non-partisan group of prosecutors, police and corrections officials, has said the bill would result in "more severe crimes being committed on the streets."
  
  

• Endangering Juveniles and Society Through Mixing of Kids With Adult Inmates
  S.10 would abolish the law's current requirement that juvenile and adult offenders not be mixed in pre-trial detention and incarceration facilities. It would change the law to allow adult inmates to engage in "intermittent" physical contact with youths, which could mean physical contacts every day for "short" periods of time. It would allow sound contact between juveniles and adults for up to 72 hours -- time enough for kids to be taunted, harassed, and threatened by predatory adult offenders. Studies show an alarming increase in the rape and suicide rates for kids mixed with adult inmates in this manner; and they show that those who survive such mixing with adults emerge from the experience much more likely to commit additional, and worse, crimes.

The three criminal justice leaders joined in concluding: "What America needs is fair and efficient juvenile crime policy, not the irresponsibly dangerous rhetoric and policy we see in S.10. H.R. 1818, a bi-partisan bill that passed the House overwhelmingly last July, is a far better measure. It is sensitive to the prerogatives and experience of the states. It helps states by funding intervention and prevention programs. It retains the prohibitions against mixing juvenile and adult offenders in detention or incarceration facilities. And it preserves a sensible judicial role in the process by which a federal prosecutor seeks to have a juvenile prosecuted as an adult in federal adult court."

Monday's hearing of the Youth Violence Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee will take place at 2:00 pm EST on March 9, in Dirksen Senate Office Building Room 226.

The opinions expressed in this release are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the official positions of the organizations they represent.

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