[Controlunittalk] FW: [WISC_CHR] Juvenile Justice Faith Sign on Letter

Tue Nov 20 11:56:38 EST 2007

Please forward widely

Naima Black

STOPMAX Coordinator

American Friends Service Committee

1501 Cherry Street

Philadelphia, PA 19102

215-241-7137

nblack at afsc.org

From: Sara Ibrahim 
Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2007 11:43 AM
To: Naima Black
Subject: FW: [WISC_CHR] Juvenile Justice Faith Sign on Letter

FYI - 

From: WISC_CHR at yahoogroups.com [mailto:WISC_CHR at yahoogroups.com] On
Behalf Of Bill Mefford
Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2007 8:58 AM
To: WISC_CHR at yahoogroups.com; Standish, James; suetaylor1 at juno.com;
Heather Gonzales; Greg Mitchell; Gene Guerrero; Nkechi Taifa;
cure at curenational.org; Pat Nolan; Addie Richburg; David Whettstone; Cory
Smith; Susan Severin; Barrett Duke; tshellabarger at usccb.org; S.
margretta Dwyer; tylersmith at idpi.us; janiceelizabethryan at verizon.net;
Lucreda Cobbs; Tom Porter; Gabriel Schlabach; Robert Francis; Elizabeth
Denlinger; lswanson at uua.org; Sr. Carol McClenon;
allie.holsen at gsadvocacy.org; Bigam, Kate (RAC); dxc at frc.org; Ruth
Flower; Rianna Barrett; Julie Kudrna; Liz Ryan
Subject: [WISC_CHR] Juvenile Justice Faith Sign on Letter

Dear Faith in Action Colleagues,

Attached is a sign-on letter which will be sent to House and Senate
leadership, the House Education and Labor Committee, and the Senate
Judiciary Committee. We are urging action to be taken on reauthorizing
the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act as soon as possible.
Deadline for signing on is COB Friday November 30. Let me know if you
have any questions. 

Below is a NY Times editorial detailing the need for reauthorization of
the JJDPA. 

Thanks so much

<<JJDPA Faith letter.doc>> 

NY Times

November 20, 2007

Editorial

Raising Children Behind Bars 

The Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974 created a
far-sighted partnership between the federal government and the states
that agreed to remake often barbaric juvenile justice systems in
exchange for federal aid. Unfortunately, those gains have been steadily
rolled back since the 1990s when states began sending ever larger
numbers of juveniles to adult jails - where they face a high risk of
being battered, raped or pushed to suicide. The act is due to be
reauthorized this year, and Congress needs to use that opportunity to
reverse this destructive trend. 

As incredible as it seems, many states regard a child as young as 10 as
competent to stand trial in juvenile court. More than 40 states regard
children as young as 14 as "of age" and old enough to stand trial in
adult court. The scope of the problem is laid out in a new report
entitled Jailing Juveniles from the Campaign for Youth Justice, an
advocacy group based in Washington. Statistics are notoriously hard to
get, but perhaps as many as 150,000 young people under the age of 18 are
incarcerated in adult jails in any given year.

As many as half of the young people who are transferred to the adult
system are never convicted as adults. Many are never convicted at all.
By the time the process has run its course, however, one in five of
these young people will have spent more than six months in adult jails. 

Some jails try to protect young inmates by placing them in isolation,
where they are locked in small cells for 23 hours a day. This worsens
mental disorders. The study says that young people are 36 times as
likely to commit suicide in an adult jail than in a juvenile facility.
Young people who survive adult jail too often return home as damaged and
dangerous people. Studies show that they are far more likely to commit
violent crimes - and to end up back inside - than those who are handled
through the juvenile courts.

The rush to criminalize children has set the country on a dangerous
path. Congress must now reshape the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention Act so that it provides the states with the money and the
expertise they need to develop more enlightened juvenile justice
policies. For starters, it should rewrite the law to prohibit the
confinement of children in adult jails. 

Sincerely,

Bill Mefford

Director of Civil and Human Rights

General Board of Church and Society

The United Methodist Church

100 Maryland Avenue NE

Washington DC 20002

(202) 488-5657

__._,_.___ 

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