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Public Policies Targeting and Impacting Youth

National and local public policies have recently been focusing on the criminalization of youth rather than youth empowerment. Even though the U.S. government claims to emphasize education for youth, the reality for poor youth of color indicates the strong support of juvenile crime initiatives (or incarceration) rather than advancing or promoting educational opportunities. Many of the juvenile crime initiatives increase punishment for youth and expand possible youth-related offenses that can be punishable under the law. This change in the juvenile system is exemplified in laws that allow criminal prosecutors to assert their option, according to the law, to prosecute juveniles as adults. Public policies state youth cannot walk or gather in public spaces, such as the shopping mall, in groups of more than three people. More significantly, some of the major funders or supporters of these public policies that criminalize youth are U.S. corporations, some of whom are also connected to the business of the prison industrial complex (i.e. Chevron Corporation).

In California in November 2000, the voters overwhelmingly passed the Juvenile Crime Initiative, known as Proposition 21 on the voting ballot. A significant portion of this legislation focused on “gangs,” who are consistently conceptualized as youth of color by the media and the police, or “gang-related” activities.9 The policy strived to instill harsher sentencing for juvenile crimes, such as life sentences for home robbery and witness intimidation and the death penalty in some cases. Furthermore, the policy required youth who are fourteen and older to be tried as adults in criminal trials for crimes involving murder and specific sex offenses. Some of the major financial contributors in support of Proposition 21 10 are U.S. companies or corporations, such as the following: Pacific Gas & Electric Company in San Francisco ($50,000); Union Oil Company of California ($50,000); Chevron Corporation ($25,000); San Diego Gas & Electric ($25,000); and TransAmerica in San Francisco ($25,000). The ramifications of Proposition 21 has been an increase in youth being incarcerated, who are disproportionately youth of color and poor, and having other states adopt similar anti-youth policies.

Other states have adopted anti-loitering policies. For example, in a shopping mall in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the following policy was implemented: “Loitering or congregating in groups in excess of five (5) persons without the supervision of a parent or guardian over 21 years of age is not permitted. On Saturdays, groups without a parent or guardian cannot exceed three (3) persons. This rule also applies to weekdays during the school year when school is not in session.” The Southwest Organizing Project in Albuquerque, New Mexico surveyed over 200 high school youth regarding this specific policy and over 40% stated they had been harassed by mall security. A 1999 lawsuit filed by the mother of a female Latina teenager and a Latino student from the University of New Mexico alleged racial targeting of Chicano/Latino youth by the security staff.11

Public policies not specifically intended to target youth do result in impacting youth. For example, the militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border has a devastating impact on youth. On May 20, 1997, eighteen-year old Hernandez was fatally shot by Camp Pendleton Marine in Redford, Texas. The Marines were part of a counter-drug surveillance team. Hernandez was a U.S. citizen12 and tending to his goats during the fatal shooting incident.13 In addition, Amnesty International (AI) has reported “The phenomenon of unaccompanied children, some as young as nine or ten, making their way to the USA, is a quiet but alarming tragedy. Each year, thousands of children enter the USA on their own, illegally.”14

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Footnotes
9 It is imperative to acknowledge youth of color are perceived as “gang members” and white youth, particularly if wealthy, are not considered “gang members” but rather “individuals” or “groups.”
10 The cost of this initiative is near $1 billion.
11 “Fed Judge Denies Injunction Against Coronado Mall.” 1999. Albuquerque Journal, November 15.
12 Even if Hernandez was not a U.S. citizen, the brutal and fatal shooting is a human rights violation.
13 U.S. Congress. House. Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Immigration and Claims. 1998. Oversight Investigation of the Death of Esequiel Hernandez, Jr., 105th Congress, 2nd session. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. [Y4.J 89/1:ES 2].
14 Amnesty International. 1998. United States of America: Human Rights Concerns in the Border Region with Mexico. Amnesty International (AI Index: AMR 51/03/98).

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