Long Beach Hate Crimes Trial Bares Juvenile Justice Flaws

LOS ANGELES--An accused terrorist, a serial killer or a Mafia hit man is entitled to one, some or all of the following: arraignment, the setting of bail, the immediate appointment of a public defender or the opportunity to retain a private attorney, and a trial by a jury of their peers. An accused juvenile offender, even a 12-year-old, is not automatically entitled to any of the above protections. The Byzantine standard of justice for juveniles is glaringly apparent in the trial of 10 black teens in Long Beach, Calif.

The teens are accused of savagely beating three adult white women on Halloween night in that city. The group, which included a 12-year-old, have been incarcerated since the attack. There is no bail or release (every defense motion for release has been denied). An adult judge and not a jury is trying the teens.

Eight of them have been hit with an added hate crime charge. That has drawn public attention to the case, and tossed an ugly glare on the punitive and archaic way kids are handled in the criminal justice system.

The plight of the Long Beach defendants, however, is hardly unique. A steady bloat of newspaper and television reports of drive-by shootings, drug shootouts and gang wars, most of them involving young blacks, terrified many Americans and convinced them that young people -- especially young black males -- are out of control. The media loosely labeled them teen "super-predators." That ignited loud public protests that the juvenile justice system is far too easy on them. Though juvenile crime has actually taken an nosedive overall in the past decade, state legislators and the federal government jumped in with a slew of get-tough measures that transformed the juvenile justice system from a protective, rehabilitative system into a carbon copy of the punitive, lock-'em-up adult system. But, at the same time, the new laws stripped juveniles of many of the protections that adults have.

During the past decade, more than 30 states have loosened or eliminated laws requiring juveniles be tried and sentenced in juvenile courts. In California, prosecutors have virtually unlimited power to try teens as adults. Latino and black young people have been hit hardest by the crackdown on juveniles. Numerous studies have found that black teens are treated far more harshly than white teens who commit the same crimes. Similar differences were found in Ohio and Texas. In a report in 2001, the Justice Policy Institute, a criminal justice reform advocacy group, found that black youths in California are 12 times more likely to be tried as adults then white youths. According to Justice Department figures, blacks make up nearly 70 percent of juveniles tried in adult courts, and a staggering 75 percent of those tried for drug offenses nationally, even though white and black youths use drugs at about the same rate.

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