Sunday, August 6, 2006

In the wake of "emergency" crime provisions that allow police unprecedented access to youths' records that historically have been kept confidential, the District should be reminded of the many young lives that have been turned around because the juvenile justice system gave them a second chance.

Consider 17-year-old Alan, who struck a police officer while on probation but spent only one night in jail and avoided a permanent record. Reggie, also age 17, was involved in a senseless fight over girls in which someone was stabbed, but he served no jail time, and records of his youthful offenses remain confidential.

In the District, the cases of Alan and Reggie would supposedly justify the crackdown on youth and the erosion of the confidentiality of delinquency records. But those young men grew out of their delinquent behavior and into exemplary lives in part because they received a second chance.

"Alan" Simpson, profiled in a Justice Department publication titled "Second Chances," joined the military and later spent 18 years in the U.S. Senate. "Reggie" Walton became the nation's first deputy drug czar, a prosecutor for the U.S. attorney's office in the District and, last year, a federal judge. Walton said, "The principal benefit I derived from the juvenile justice system was the confidentiality of my record, which meant that my youthful indiscretions didn't prevent me from getting a football scholarship to college or from becoming a lawyer."

Some worry that recent incidents indicate a dramatic rise in crime that justifies the crackdown on young people. In fact, juvenile crime has dropped sharply over the past decade, even faster than adult crime. Between 1995 and 2005, total juvenile arrests in the District fell by 30 percent while adult arrests decreased by 7 percent. While a small rise in robberies is cause for concern, 100 additional arrests in a city with more than 500,000 people is more of a ripple than a tidal wave, especially considering that young people account for less than 10 percent of total arrests for crime.

There are many ways the city could choose to deal with crime in its troubled neighborhoods. Some of the $66 million increase in police spending, for example -- an amount larger than the proposed budget for the University of the District of Columbia, the Department of Parks and Recreation, or D.C. public libraries -- might be invested in job training, youth development programs and education so that the city's young people grow up with more opportunities than challenges to their development.

-- Kristin N. Henning

Washington

-- Ronald E. Hampton

Washington

The writers are, respectively, deputy director of the Juvenile Justice Clinic at Georgetown University Law Center and executive director of the National Black Police Association.