forwarded by Michael Hoover > Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 08:17:17 -0500 > Subject: [fla-left] FW: MCCOLLUM IS AT IT AGAIN! > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > Hyde/McCollum Juvenile Injustice Bill, H.R. 2037, a danger to children > Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde (R-IL) and Subcommittee on Crime > Chairman Bill McCollum (R-FL) have introduced a new juvenile justice > bill, H.R. 2037, which will be considered on the House floor next week. > This > new juvenile "injustice" bill presents dangers to children by: > > 1. Trying more children as adults > H.R. 2037 allows federal prosecutors rather than judges the discretion > to try children as adults, lowers the age to 13 in some cases at which > children can be tried as adults in the federal system, and broadens the > scope of federal crimes for which juveniles can be tried as adults. > This provision would mean that more children would be placed in adult > jails, > and children could be placed in the same jail cells with adults. This > places children at serious risk of abuse and assault, and flies in the face > of > current studies which indicate that trying children as adults increases > rather than decreases youth crime. > > Placing children at risk of assault and abuse in adult jail H.R. 2037 > allows children to come into contact with adults in adult jails in the > federal system. Children as young as 13 years old would be allowed to be in > the same jail cells with adults. Allowing contact between juveniles and > adults in adult jails would place children at risk of assault and abuse, as > children are eight times more likely to commit suicide, five times more > likely to be sexually assaulted, and twice as likely to be assaulted by > staff in adult jails than in juvenile facilities. > > 2. Imposing new mandatory minimums sentences for children > H.R. 2037 imposes new mandatory minimum sentences for children who are > convicted of certain offenses. These new draconian mandatory minimums would > likely impose harsher penalties on youthful offenders than adult criminals > guilty of the same offenses. For example, any juvenile who discharges a > firearm in a school zone would get a minimum 10 year sentence. An adult > charged with the same offense would not be subject to the same mandatory > penalty. > > 3. Opening juvenile records > H.R. 2037 requires juvenile records of juveniles who are convicted of > felonies in the federal system to be maintained in the same manner as > adult records. Also, H.R. 2037 requires that all juvenile records be > available for background checks with no protections to assure that the > records would not be made widely available. Under H.R. 2037, juveniles' > records could be shared with law enforcement, courts, the FBI, and schools, > including schools in which the child is seeking to enroll. Opening juvenile > records and allowing for broad dissemination of these records would have > devastating consequences for the future employment and education of many > children.
