POLICY AIMS TO LOWER NUMBER OF YOUTHS IN JUVENILE HALL

Santa Clara County will stop sending youths who commit non-violent,
low-level crimes to juvenile hall beginning next week because of a growing
belief that incarceration prepares them for a life of crime.

The change gives the county one of the nation's strongest policies aimed at
reducing the number of juveniles who are locked up.

Police officers will be authorized to take youths to the juvenile jail only
if they have sold drugs or committed a serious, violent offense. All others
will be returned to their homes or placed in community programs.

The radical new detention policy is part of a massive overhaul of the
juvenile justice system in Santa Clara County funded by the national Annie
E. Casey Foundation. But the sweeping policy change was not written by
reformers. It was drafted by tough street cops and approved last week by the
county Police Chiefs Association. It reflects the growing consensus among
law enforcement that locking up first-time and lightweight offenders does
not make the community any safer. It may actually increase crime by
fostering criminal behavior in youths

"Incarcerating kids is the easiest way,'' said San Jose Police Chief Bill
Lansdowne. "But once they get in the juvenile justice system, it's very hard
to get them out.''

For years, police have been booking teenagers into juvenile hall who
shoplift, joy ride, fight or are caught carrying small amounts of drugs. The
thinking was, time behind bars gives youths the shock they need to turn
their lives around.

Now, police must take these offenders home or place them with a community
agency -- a policy that could cut the number of teens going to juvenile hall
almost in half. A home with adults, a chorus of police chiefs, prosecutors
and judges now say, is the place where a delinquent youth is most likely to
straighten out.

Joint Effort

More than 100 leaders in Santa Clara County -- including police and
probation officers, judges, prosecutors and advocates for Latino and
African-American youths -- have spent the last year plotting ways to
decrease the number of teenagers entangled in the system. The first major
initiative of the Juvenile Detention Reform project, launched by county
Supervisor Blanca Alvarado, is starting on the streets -- where the initial,
often bristly contact with the law begins. That crucial decision an officer
makes -- whether to cite and release a juvenile to parents or book him or
her -- is often made under duress and with high emotion. And it could well
have lifelong consequences.

These decisions are inconsistent and often depend on geography, timing and
the officer's mood. In Palo Alto, a shoplifter might get cited and released
to his parents. In East San Jose, a youth committing the same offense may be
sent to juvenile hall. In any city, if a teenager mouths off, charges can
escalate, police officers concede.

"I'm the first person to cuss out the cops when I get arrested, and no, I'm
not going to calm down,'' said Anthony King, an 18-year-old first arrested
in the sixth grade for fighting in gym class. Officers are to quick to haul
him into jail, he added, "because I'm young and black. They don't like
people who dress like me.''

But Lansdowne said officers now need to consider the age of the offender,
along with their reaction to the arrest.

"We shouldn't arrest kids because we're mad at them; we should arrest kids
because they are a danger to the community,'' Lansdowne said.

The new rules would standardize the treatment of youths across city
boundaries, with one binding premise: officers must avoid using juvenile
hall if the crime is not a serious one like rape, murder or robbery with a
firearm.

"If one jurisdiction has a hook-'em and book-'em mentality and the
jurisdiction next door has a policy that says release to parents whenever
possible, then the system is not working right,'' said Palo Alto Police
Chief Pat Dwyer, chief author of the new protocol expected to be followed by
13 law enforcement agencies next week.

Change could come quickly, if officers follow the policy and their superiors
hold them accountable for failing to do so.

Chief juvenile prosecutor Kurt Kumli predicts a 40 percent decline in intake
at juvenile hall, based on the number of teens who are being quickly
released because the charges are minor. Lansdowne said in some cities,
similar policies have cut the juvenile hall population in half.

Life of Crime

Law enforcement officers are well aware that petty offenders become lifelong
criminals when exposed to the influence of older, more hardened youths.

"Even though we are not incarcerating these kids for a lifetime,
incarceration has a lifetime effect, lifetime consequences and lifetime
results,'' said Lt. Luther Pugh, a 24-year veteran of the county sheriff's
department. "If we can extend and explore every possible method of keeping
them out of juvenile hall, the ranches and the California Youth Authority,
then down the road they'll be better off and certainly our communities will
be better off.''

Confinement has not proven to be rehabilitative, or a place where teens
"learn their lesson'' and move on, Pugh said.

"If you put a good kid in a bad environment like juvenile hall, he's going
to adapt to that environment,'' said King, who knows from experience. He's
been in the hall 18 times.

Yet the new, stricter policies for detention will make an already gaping
hole in the juvenile justice system even larger.

At present, only one Santa Clara County agency accepts youths who have
committed low-level crimes and can't be sent home because of family
problems. The Bill Wilson Center, which works in collaboration with the
Santa Clara and Sunnyvale police departments, has only 16 beds for
lightweight offenders. Often, arresting officers say they have no
alternative to the hall.

Fabian G., a 16-year-old from Morgan Hill who was first arrested for
fighting at age 12, said the lack of resources is a dangerous, and sad,
reality. When teens go to the hall "they get scared and they don't know what
to do, so instead they get hard and they stop caring. They stop having
feelings and then everything goes bad. They start getting into gangs.''

<