Media Alert: Public Supports Juvenile Justice Reform, Polls Find

For immediate release Feb. 7, 2007

Oregon reform efforts bolstered by national poll results

Results of a new national poll showing strong public support for rehabilitation and treatment of juvenile offenders over incarceration mirror findings from an Oregon study, according to David Rogers, executive director of the Oregon-based Partnership for Safety and Justice.

The National Council on Crime and Delinquency survey found that 92 percent of those polled believe that the decision to transfer youth to adult court should be made on a case-by-case basis.

In Oregon, the Partnership supports pending legislation to have youth who are charged with a Measure 11 crime receive an automatic hearing where a judge would determine whether juvenile court or adult court is the best approach for achieving accountability, public safety, and the rehabilitation of the juvenile. Currently, Oregon automatically treats 15-, 16- and 17-year-olds as adults in criminal court when charged with a Measure 11 crime.

The national poll also found that seven out of 10 respondents believe that putting people under age 18 in an adult correctional facility will make them more likely to commit future crime.

“Oregon voters agree juvenile offenders should be treated differently,” Rogers said. “By a two-to-one margin, voters in Oregon thought youth sentenced under Measure 11 should be able to go before a judge after serving half of their sentence. The judge would evaluate whether the youth has been working hard and successfully transforming and could allow the youth to serve the remainder of his or her sentence under conditional release in a more appropriate, alternative corrections program.”

This proposal, known as “second look,” has also been introduced as a bill before the Oregon Legislature.

The Oregon poll was released last January, and the national NCCD poll was released today.

The Partnership is spearheading a Justice for Youth Campaign to change how juvenile offenders are treated. Rogers said juveniles should be treated differently than adult offenders because research has shown that:

• young offenders prosecuted in the adult criminal system are more likely to re-offend compared with youth handled within juvenile justice systems;
• the adolescent brain – particularly the part that controls judgment, impulse control, and moral and ethical reasoning – is not fully developed until the age of 19 or 20 and most youth age out of criminal behavior;
• youth held in adult facilities are eight times more likely to commit suicide than youth in juvenile facilities, and five times more likely to be the victim of rape.

“If our goal is truly a safer society, then we need to refine how we deal with youth who commit crimes,” Rogers said. “We have a chance to turn these young lives around, but we make our jobs a lot harder and cost the public a lot more money if we just throw adolescents in with adults and hope for the best.”

Partnership for Safety and Justice is a statewide advocacy organization that promotes safe and sensible solutions to criminal justice issues.

The National Council on Crime and Delinquency, founded in 1907, is a nonprofit organization which promotes effective, humane, fair and economically sound solutions to family, community and justice problems. NCCD conducts research, promotes reform initiatives, and seeks to work with individuals, public and private organizations and the media to prevent and reduce crime and delinquency.