DON'T TEACH OUR CHILDREN CRIME

Under the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974,
the states agreed to humanize their often Dickensian juvenile justice
systems in exchange for increased federal aid. This promising
arrangement collapsed in the 1990s during hysteria about an
adolescent crime wave that never materialized. The states intensified
all kinds of punishments for children and sent large numbers to adult
jails where, research has shown, they are more likely to be battered,
traumatized and transformed into hard-core, recidivist criminals.

Congress is in the process of reauthorizing the law, and it ought to
bar the states from housing children in adult jails, except for the
most heinous crimes. Sadly, the updated version of the law, recently
introduced in the Senate, falls short of that goal. But it does
include a number of farsighted measures that discourage the placement
of children in adult jails during the pretrial period and expands
protections for children charged as adults.

The need for these measures is alarmingly evident in a report issued
last year by the Campaign for Youth Justice, an advocacy group. The
report found that as many as 150,000 people under the age of 18 are
held in adult jails in any given year. More than half of young people
who are transferred into the adult system are never convicted as
adults -- and many are never convicted at all.

The Senate bill takes a comprehensive approach to these issues. It
would considerably tighten rules aimed at keeping children out of
adult jails during pretrial periods. Children arrested for truancy,
running away or other offenses that would not be criminal if
committed by an adult would not be placed in juvenile jail unless
absolutely necessary.

It also would require the states to work toward reducing racial and
ethnic disparities in the juvenile justice system. It increases
federal funding for technical assistance and for drug treatment,
mental health care, mentoring and after-care programs that keep
children out of the juvenile system in the first place. The bill
advocates an evidence-based approach to hand out the money.

Jailing and criminalizing young Americans causes a lot more crime
than it punishes or prevents. This bill represents an important step
toward rational and compassionate justice for troubled children.