Youth Justice or Juvenile Injustice?

Youth Justice hearing in San Francisco

Mari, PNN Youth in the Media Intern
Tuesday, November 27, 2001;

I walked into The San Francisco City Hall like I have done for the last two years, but as I gave my bag to the security guard so they could check and make sure there wasn't something like anthrax in it, today felt different. The dome that topped City Hall seemed repulsive, it actually made me sick. I was thinking about the young womyn and men sitting inside the Youth Guidance Center (YGC), San Francisco's Juvenile Hall. So while I looked at the golden, marble floors inside City Hall, I was thinking about the dirty, yellowish earwax looking floor of the cafeteria at YGC, all the gold that surrounds city hall, and all the dirty grimy concrete that surrounds YGC.

Today was the day that the Youth Justice Hearing between the San Francisco Youth Commission's Youth Justice Committee and the San Francisco's Board of Supervisors Rules Committee was going to be held on the San Francisco's juvenile justice intake process for youth and alternatives to detention for them.

Right now there is not a central intake process for youth; there is two ways they can enter the system, one is through YGC or Community Assessment Referral Center (CARC). I have talked to my friends who have gone through YGC, and the ones who gone through CARC. All I hear from my friends who have gone through YGC, is that you don't even get treated like a human being, and what I hear from my friends who have gone through CARC is that the staff there listens to you, and that the staff actually wants to help you out.

I myself have never been through YGC. But, when I was 17, I lived in Texas, and over there when you turn 17 if you get in trouble with the law, you go straight to the adult criminal justice system. I was arrested for shoplifting clothes. I was lucky, I shoplifted clothes worth under $50.00, because if I stole more I would have committed a class B misdemeanor, because I would have gone to county jail instead of city jail. I remember signing a paper that if I admitted to stealing , I would most likely be able to go. So of course, I signed it. Well, the store still called the police on me. I was handcuffed, and put in a cop car. Then I was processed and put in a jail cell. I remember how scared I was, how humiliated I felt, and how I wanted to get the hell out of there. It would have nice if someone in that system sat me down and asked me "Why did I shoplift?" Then they would have found out I was dirt poor, and I was living in abusive household, and I was not given money to buy new clothes, for the clothes that my body rapidly growing out of, which usually happens at 17. This event lead me to my major, which is Criminal Justice, and also lead me to work on this issue, so that not another youth ever has to go what I went through.

I am a San Francisco Youth Commissioner, and I have been working on getting this hearing to happen since March. This hearing is the first of many hearings talking about the Juvenile Justice system intake process, and alternatives to detention for youth. This hearing would also be the only hearing that the San Francisco Youth Commission's Youth Justice Committee and the San Francisco's Board of Supervisors Rules Committee would co-sponsor together. This hearing would be the only hearing where youth would be sitting on the panel, and facilitate the hearing. Today is the day where youth get to question the stakeholders who make decisions of youth's lives, for example, Chief Probation officer Jesse Willams. Today would be a historic day in the San Francisco Youth Justice Movement.

So, walked into the Legislative Chambers inside City Hall, and I was so nervous. So many questions were running through my head. What if not enough youth speak at public comment? What if one of the speakers doesn't show up? What if there is a piece of food in my teeth? I then said a silent prayer. This hearing was in the Creator's hands now. Then, Supervisor Matt Gonzales called the meeting to order. The Rules Committee had a few items to deal with before the Youth Justice Hearing was officially called to order.

Then the hearing was called to order by Youth Commissioner Millicent Olawale. The first speaker was up and it was Chief Probation officer Jesse Willams. He was asked a series of questions. One thing he said stuck out to me is that today there is 96 youth who are in YGC. I was thinking 96 youth who have to sleep, eat, and live in YGC today. The next speaker was Gary Beiringer, who is the director of CARC. He and his staff talked about the intake process for a youth who goes through CARC, and what crimes youth commit who get sent to CARC. Then there was James Bell, who is from the Youth Law Center, and he talked about the evaluation report that was done on the San Francisco Juvenile Justice System.

Next, was public comment. Youth from different organizations, such as Youth Making A Change (YMAC) and Experiment in Diversity, got up and spoke on how they feel about the intake process and about alternatives to detention. One youth pointed out there is more money spent on prisons than education. Then Kathy Weinstien, from Mayor's Criminal Justice Council (MCJC), talked about their evaluation report about CARC. Then, there was public comment again. Parents, youth, and adults spoke on the intake process and about alternatives to detention.

Public comment was over. Then, my mind wandered off for a few seconds, I gazed around at the brown stained walls, the nice comfy leather feeling seat I was sitting on. Then the Chair asked for closing comments from the Youth Commissioners, and Supervisors. I said that one of the things the Youth Commission will be doing is taking information from this hearing and make recommendations to the Board of Supervisors, and department heads that deal with the Youth Justice system. Then I as I heard the gavel hit, I thought of the statement I had said earlier in the hearing, "We need to make sure our Youth Justice system is not a system of Juvenile Injustice!"

To get involved in San Francisco's youth justice movement contact the San Francisco Youth Commission's Youth Justice Committee at 415-554-6446 or email youth_com@ci.sf.ca.us, also for just more general info can go to www.sfgov.org/youth_commission