Congress Examines Federal Implications of the Jena 6 Case
Feature Story by Janel Johnson - 10/23/2007
National legislators are reacting to the recent Jena 6 incident with calls for a renewed federal commitment to civil rights enforcement.
Leaders have cited racial disparities and conflicts in the Jena 6 case as well as other cases across the country as evidence of continuing racial biases in the criminal justice system.
According to a July 2006 study released by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, approximately a tenth of all Black men ages 20-35 are incarcerated in prison. For every 100,000 black men in America, 3,145 are in prison, compared to 471 white men out of 100,000 being incarcerated.
"We have not a broken system of justice in this country, but a non-existent system," said Rep. Jackson-Lee, at a Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Conference panel discussion on the Jena 6 case.
Some civil rights leaders say that the level of attention the Jena 6 case has attracted means that there is an opportunity to have a national conversation about the criminal justice system. Congressman John Conyers, D. Mich., who sponsored the panel discussion, stated that the Jena 6 case could serve as the occurrence that "will help move the social interest of the U.S. forward."
The Jena 6 case refers to the prosecution of six black teenage boys from Jena, Louisiana, five of whom were originally charged with attempted murder, for the December 2006 beating of a white classmate. The beating followed a string of racially charged incidents sparked by the hanging of a noose on a tree that was supposedly reserved for white students.
On October 16, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the implications of Jena 6 and other incidents of racial tension.
The hearing was emotional as committee members asked tough questions of Donald Washington, the U.S. Attorney for the region of Louisiana where Jena is located, regarding critiques that the federal government should have done more to stop the events in Jena from escalating.
Washington said in his testimony that the Justice Department rarely brings cases against juveniles, and when it does they are not open to the press or public. "The decision to decline the case was in accordance with long- standing Division policy and principles of federal prosecution of juveniles. As a general matter, federal juvenile prosecutions, which are referred to as delinquency proceedings, are pursued infrequently and only when the Attorney General certifies that certain statutory conditions have been met," said Washington.
Many committee members were unsatisfied with Washington's answers. Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee criticized Washington for not getting involved in the case by saying "I want you to tell me why you, the first black [Western District of Louisiana] U.S. district attorney, did not do more, and I want to know what you're going to do to get Mychal Bell out of jail!"
In the months since Jena 6 captured national attention, there have been more hate crimes and incidents of racial tension, including a noose hung on the door of a black professor at Columbia University and an video on the internet of White kids mimicking the Jena 6 incident.
Many civil rights groups said that the re-emergence of racial tensions around the country provide the U.S government with the opportunity to educate Americans about hate crimes. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), one of the leading national organizations committed to eradicating prejudice and bigotry, said in a written statement to the committee, that local governments and communities need better tools to handle hate crimes when they occur.
"The inadequate response to the intimidating tactics and escalating violence in Jena provides lessons for school administrators and community leaders on the need to confront racial and ethnic tensions directly and constructively – and to defuse them before they can lead to confrontations and reprisals," said ADL's statement.
