Justice for Latino and Latina Youth?
Feature Story by Menna Demessie - 7/26/2002
A new report released by Building Blocks for Youth (BBY), "?Donde Esta la Justicia? A Call to Action on Behalf of Latino and Latina Youth in the U.S. Justice System," documents disparities in the criminal justice system evidenced by harsher sentencing and ineffective legal representation for Latino youth.
The report stressed key findings from the failure of the system to provide adequate bilingual services for fair and equal representation in the court of law to consideration of immigration status of Latino and Latina youth resulting in deportation, incarceration, and permanent separation from families.
"When immigrant children who have not committed a crime are locked away in secure juvenile detention centers and even adult jails, that is an injustice," said Marisa Demeo, Regional Counsel from the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF).
Additionally, the report concludes that current means for collecting and accessing data are inadequate, resulting in under-counting and inaccuracies in reporting disproportionate representation and disparate treatment of Latino and Latina youth in the U.S. justice system.
"One of our basic demands is that data be kept in a uniform and consistent way on Latino youth in the juvenile justice system. The system will never be fair to our children if it cannot even provide an accurate picture of how they are faring," said MALDEF President and General Counsel Antonia Hernandez.
Organizations that have publicly voiced their support of the report's objective include MALDEF, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC).
