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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (April 1, 2016)
Commentary Page 12 Street Roots • April 1-7, 2016 Misguided measures revisited: Charging youths as adults would later succeed in the community - in fact, the opposite was more likely, given the life-long impact of an adult conviction. n 2011, Partnership for Safety and Justice In 2016, the news is not all bad. During the and the Campaign for Youth Justice five years since we released “Misguided published “Misguided Measures.” We Measures” and the two decades since examined Oregon’s Ballot Measure 11 (1994) Measure 11 passed, persistent efforts by and how, by government officials and advocates have exposing youth eliminated significant harms caused by the to the adult ballot initiative. Release of the first installment criminal justice of our youth justice update, “Misguided system and Measures Revisited: Part 1 - Keeping Youth extreme Out of Jails,” recounts Oregon’s efforts to mandatory keep young people safe after they have been minimum charged as adults - specifically, ending the sentences, it has practice of confining youth in adult jails. caused avoidable While this initial update recognizes harm and significant progress, the two remaining degraded our system of justice. Today, this segments of our new report will document more than 20-year experiment with a “get on-going challenges faced by Oregon’s youth tough” response to crime continues to have justice system. The three briefs of this series, devastating consequences for young people, together, will examine: families, and communities, while doing little 1. The successful effort to keep minors out to help crime victims or increase long-term of adult jails. public safety. 2. The ongoing and devastating impact of How do youth end up in Oregon’s adult Measure 11 on young people and its justice system? disproportionate impact on youth of color. In Oregon, the main driver of youth into 3. The need to address the long-term the adult criminal justice system is Ballot Andy Ko is the consequences of adult criminal convictions for Measure 11 (1994). Measure 11 required that executive director o f the youth. any person age 15 or older charged with a Partnership for Safety Part 1 of our update concludes with two specified felony, ranging from second-degree and Justice, a assault to aggravated murder, be automatically concrete policy recommendations aimed at statewide, nonprofit improving both the outcomes for justice- advocacy organization tried in adult criminal court. This one-size-fits- dedicated, to m a k in g ^att xutc pu sU ed ju d ges, w h o are e x p e c te d to b e involved youth and ensuring the safety of all Oregons approach to' : impartial, out of the decision-making process Oregonians. These are practical solutions that crime and public safety and handed all discretion over to prosecutors, can be implemented immediately - and more effective and just. whose job it is to get a conviction. Under should, given what we know today about Measure 11, prosecutors decide which adolescent development and the prevention of teenagers will be treated as adults and which future criminality. will not, simply by charging them differently. In our original report, we described a range Recommendations of harms caused by Measure 11, from its 1. Enact statewide legislation to ensure that disproportionate impact on young people of youth facing adult criminal charges never see color to the danger faced by teenagers in the inside of an adult jail cell. State lawmakers counties where they were still being held in should enact legislation that requires counties adult jails. We also described what Measure to place youth in juvenile detention when 11 had not done. Statistically, it had not made pretrial confinement is unavoidable. While Oregonians safer, and it had not increased the most counties no longer detain youth in adult likelihood that minors convicted as adults BY ANDY KO C O N T R IB U T IN G C O L U M N IS T I n e Z ò n le ’s FARMERS’ MARKET WEDNESDAYS 2-7PM P TO $5 MATCH WITH EBT CARD We’re passionate about helping our community access healthy food that they can trust. By shopping our market, you’ll get extra food dollars while supporting local farmers and community. 3029 SE 21st Ave. btwn Powell & Division jails, informal local policies can easily shift based on fiscal pressures, changes in the political climate, and a host of other factors. State legislation will ensure the consistent treatment of youth across Oregon. 2. Expand supervised release, so that certain youth who are charged as adults can be managed in the community as their cases move through the court system. When youth can be maintained under supervision in the community, in a safe and stable environment where they pose no danger to victims or the general public, outcomes are usually better for the young person, their families and their communities. Eliminating pretrial detention is also less costly for taxpayers and can promote greater public safety in the long-run, as the . young person reaches adulthood. The more long-term concern that must be addressed is the underlying destructive policy of charging young people as adults. Teenagers are different from fully developed adults. That’s established science. Even among people who reject science, most know a teenager and would have to agree that young people are different. The proof is even in language: How many thousands of times a day do teenagers around the world hear, “Oh, grow up!” Even harder to deny is that, deep down, every adult knows that he or she is a very different person from her or his adolescent self. And that is the problem: Measure I l ’s requirement that certain 15-, 16-' and' 17-year- olds face mandatory minimum sentences of 5 years and 10 months up to 25 years makes very little sense in terms of what we know about the judgement and emotional makeup of teenagers - and even less sense still given the cost of incarceration, impact on the young person’s future functioning in society and long term public safety. The challenge in reforming Measure 11, as it applies to young people, is to bring some sense to how we respond to crimes committed by youth - to hold these young people appropriately accountable, while not condemning them for what they are not: adults.
