Kiddie Killers and Baby Battery, Pt. III

From an article on bias in the juvenile criminal justice system...

"There is a tremendously disproportionate number of African-Americans and Hispanics in detention centers where we know the majority of the population in those counties is not minority," said an irritated Assemblyman William Payne, D-Essex.

This is true and it mirrors the high rates of incarciration for people of color generally in the Garden State. The majority white populations of these counties live in extraordinarily affluent areas (Glen Ridge, Montclair, etc.) compared with their urban peers (yes, that means you, Newark, Irvington, East Orange, etc.) presumably where the majority of these young inmates are being drawn from. The same is true in other counties with an urban center, not just Essex, all across New Jersey.

So what to do?

One of the problems seems to be that police are allowed to exercise discretion when diverting youths into the juvenile justice system, but often times, they opt not to use this program for young people of color.

"For minor charges and for some first-time offenders, police can act without an accused having to go to court. The process is supposed to work with the police officer discussing the offense with the youth, a parent or guardian, and with the victim. As a result, the youth may pay restitution or do community service.

Delinquency, vandalism and disorderly behavior are the sort of charges the program targets."

If I were a betting man, I'd say that one of the proposed solutions will suggest a new plan that deals with all young people in a uniform fashion, so individual police biases don't have an opportunity to play a role in the decision-making process.

This is wrong! And it's how we got to the place we're at today with mandatory minimum sentences.

After seeing rich white defendants going free because of their community connections, highly paid lawyers and general ability to make a judge feel like you're not a danger to society, bright politicians got "tough on crime" with mandatory sentences, based on the weight of the drugs involved, handcuffing a judge's ability to tailor a sentence based on the totality of the defendant's involvement, and not just the weight of the drugs they were caught with.

Is it possible that police and politicians could just become aware that this bias exists and then try to avoid it in the future? I doubt it. But I know one-size-fits-all sentences do nothing to ensure that justice is served.

So what will New Jersey pols do? We'll have to wait and see...

Back to the Future

First, I would like to say thanks to my friends, Max and Joe, for adding my new blog to their links and for giving me a shoutout. Much obliged, old friends.

And now for things that seem rather obvious to me, but I'm sure there's a good reason The Pew Research Center conducts these polls. Among the results from "How Young People View Their Lives, Futures and Politics: A PORTRAIT OF “GENERATION NEXT”...

• About half of Gen Nexters say the growing number of immigrants to the U.S. strengthens the country – more than any generation. And they also lead the way in their support for gay marriage and acceptance of interracial dating.

• Voter turnout among young people increased significantly between 2000 and 2004, interrupting a decades-long decline in turnout among the young. Nonetheless, most members of Generation Next feel removed from the political process. Only about four-in-ten agree with the statement: “It’s my duty as a citizen to always vote.”

• Asked about the life goals of those in their age group, most Gen Nexters say their generation’s top goals are fortune and fame. Roughly eight-in-ten say people in their generation think getting rich is either the most important, or second most important, goal in their lives. About half say that becoming famous also is valued highly by fellow Gen Nexters.
  

Hell ya, getting rich and famous is important! I mean, damn, have you ever watched the VH1 Show, The Fabulous Life of...? I'd put up with the paparazzi, gossip and tabloids just for the free swag you get at the awards shows and film festivals. What a racket!

Seriously tho, as someone who pretty much bridges the generation gap between the kids surveyed by Pew (18-25 year olds) and the group immediately older (Gen X), most of these results seem self-evident to me, but then again, I work with these kids, read most of the mainstream media reports about these surveys and I personally hold most of the majority views. And when I don't, the kids are wrong. Like here:

A strong majority (75%) say today’s youth are more likely to have casual sex than were young people 20 years ago. Only 7% of Nexters say their generation has less casual sex and 17% say they have about the same amount. Seven-in-ten Nexters say today’s youth resort to violence to solve conflicts more often than the previous generation. And nearly as many Nexters say they engage more often in binge drinking (69%) and illegal drug use (63%) when compared to their predecessors.

Despite what these kids think, I believe drinking and drug use have stayed relatively stable since the 70s. Many indicators of the most harmful effects of such behavior have moved in a positive direction. Drunk driving and teen pregnancy are both down significantly since the 1980s, so I think this reaction reveals more about what messages teens have internalized about themselves, based on the myriad of newspaper accounts of underage drinkers being busted and the hype of the national youth anti-drug campaign, etc. than they do about the actual behavior of actual teens. And I just can't see how there's less sex now, with all the saving yourself 'til marriage pledges in the red states and knowledge of safer sex measures, STD transmission and testing, etc. in the blue ones, than there was in the heady days post-birth control and pre-AIDS.

Still, it's gratifying to see so many young people open to ideas that seem abhorent to the generations above them. I hope it portends for a bright, more accepting and less discriminatory future for all Americans, including the next, Next Generation.

As the Bob Marley song goes, "Time Will Tell".

Chief Junkie Rehnquist

From this piece on Slate.com, it turns out the former Chief Justice was quite the little pill-popper for many years until he was hospitalized in the early '80s to get clean. So why are we talking about it today? Money quote:

The Rehnquist story deserves a third airing today if only to illustrate the ugly double standards that excuse extreme drug use by the powerful, especially if their connection is a prescribing doctor, and condemns to draconian prison terms the guy who purchases his drugs on the street.

Even though it's been over a year since the former Chief Justice died, this point deserves to be made until all those silly drug laws go the way of Alcohol Prohibition.

What's any of this have to do with kids? As a former professional drug policy reformer, I've always felt that kids get the shaft the worst when it comes to so-called "drug education", which prefers to indoctrinate and scare kids away from drugs, rather than giving them appropriate information and allowing them to make informed decisions -- for better or worse.

I've always held that given the best information available, people will, more times than not, make the best choices. And when they don't, well, that's freedom.

As bad as addictions are, felony drug convictions, I think, are worse. If people can avoid overdose deaths, they may one day recover from their addictions and go on to great things, as Justice Rehnquist so aptly demonstrates.

Mike Males is a Youth's Best Friend...

I've been a big fan of Mike Males ever since I came across his fantastic book, Framing Youth: 10 Myths About the Next Generation, while I was buying the books I was actually required to read during one of my last semesters at UW-Madison. Today, he has a brilliant op-ed in the NY Times, for the moment, you can read it here:

Mike's main point about drug use has always been that the real problems associated with it belong to an older generation than the news media and millions of dollars of commercials would have you believe. As a statistician, he has the numbers to back his claims up. (Although I hear that 87% of statistics are made up. Get it?)

But I digress. As a drug policy reformer (now retired) and an advocate for the rights (and responsibilities that go with them) for young people, it's very refreshing to see his thoughts in the paper of record. Money quote:

As David Musto, a psychiatry professor at Yale and historian of drug abuse, points out, wars on drugs have traditionally depended on “linkage between a drug and a feared or rejected group within society.” Today, however, the fastest-growing population of drug abusers is white, middle-aged Americans. This is a powerful mainstream constituency, and unlike with teenagers or urban minorities, it is hard for the government or the news media to present these drug users as a grave threat to the nation.

The problem with not accurately understanding the nature of America's drug problem, is that any solutions that are proposed will not get at the root of the problem and we'll continue to spend millions of dollars on humorous, but ultimately, ineffective commercials. Everyone wishes to reduce the number of overdose deaths, addictions and arrests, but focusing on young people with failed programs like D.A.R.E., fails to address the heart of the drug problem. Grown-ups can't handle their drugs and they use multiple drugs at rates that are unheard of amongst young people. So get it together old folks, now that you've got your prescription drug benefit that me and my generation (not to mention, our kids) will be paying for, there's no excuse not to use responsibly!

To my readers:
This is my third attempt at a blog, the first two being very short-lived, so I hope this topic, which I care deeply about, will compel me to write more. We'll see how it works in a few days.