Children’s Defense Fund Opposes Proposition 6

A Step Backwards for California Children 
 

Proposition 6, an initiative on the California ballot this November, is a misguided and costly effort to increase funds for law enforcement and prisons at the expense of children and their communities. Falsely touted by proponents as the "Safe Neighborhoods Act", Prop 6 re-writes or adds more than 50 criminal laws and statutes in order to criminalize children at younger ages and unfairly target at-risk youth.  Instead of investing in evidence-based strategies to reduce crime, Prop 6 takes California communities in the wrong direction by increasing the arrest and incarceration of at-risk youth who are then less likely to stay in school and become productive citizens.  If passed, Prop 6 would put more children behind bars and spend billions of tax-payer dollars on programs that are not proven to make neighborhoods safer.

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Five Key Reasons Prop 6 Would be Devastating to CA Children

Prop 6 Tries More Children as Adults

Prop 6 Criminalizes At-Risk Youth

Prop 6 Dismantles Promising Crime Prevention Efforts

Prop 6 Eliminates Community Representation on Juvenile Justice Coordinating Councils

Prop 6 Wastes Billions on Ineffective Programs, Threatening Funds for Tried and True Children’s Programs

Prop 6 Changes the Law to Try More Children as Adults

Prop 6 changes current law to ensure that more children, as young as 14 years old, are tried and sentenced as adults if they are charged with certain gang-related crimes.  There are often underlying factors that cause a child to become involved with gangs. Thus the court system needs the discretion to assess the child, review the child’s conduct and determine appropriate consequences. 

Trying and convicting children as adults is not only an ineffective crime prevention strategy, it is morally and scientifically unsound. A federal report by Centers for Disease Control (CDC) found that youth sentenced to adult prison commit more crimes, and more serious crimes, after release compared to their counterparts in juvenile systems. Children who commit crimes before the age of 18 are different than adult criminals. They n lack the capacity and maturity to evaluate the consequences of their actions.  Research has found that adolescent brains are not fully formed, and children are less able than adults to make appropriate judgments, assess risks, and control their impulses. 

Prop 6 Criminalizes At-Risk Youth

Prop6 is especially dangerous for young people who are fighting to stay on the right track because its sweeping revisions target at-risk youth.  Prop 6 puts rehabilitated youth at risk of new jail sentences of up to three years for such minor offensives as failing to provide local officials with the address of each residence where they regularly reside.  Another code subjects families receiving federal housing assistance to yearly criminal records checks for all residents, including children.  If a child has been arrested for certain crimes and moves home, the entire family is placed at increased risk of homelessness. 

Effective crime prevention must include a diverse and interconnected range of programs proven to reduce the likelihood of a young person joining a gang or committing a crime.  Programs such as early childhood education, parent training, after-school programs, mentoring, mental health services, and substance abuse prevention services, have all been demonstrated to prevent youth from committing crimes and joining gangs.  Most importantly, youth intervention strategies must be developed with the assistance and support of the community.

Prop 6 Dismantles Promising Crime Prevention Efforts

Prop 6 dismantles the progress being made through the California Gang Reduction, Intervention and Prevention Program (CalGRIP), a new program created by Governor Schwarzenegger and the California legislature last year that works with communities and law enforcement to reduce crime.  CalGRIP, targets millions in state and federal funds toward local anti-gang efforts, including job training, education and intervention programs.  CalGRIP combines the funds from multiple programs in order to direct and coordinate spending on intervention, suppression and prevention. 

Prop 6 Eliminates Community Representation on Juvenile Justice Coordinating Councils

Prop 6 explicitly removes community members from local Juvenile Justice Coordinating Councils which provides oversight and helps allocate public funds dedicated to specific communities for prevention and early intervention programs. In order for these funds to be spent on the most effective programs, community members need to be included in the decision making process.  Prop 6 also gives county probation departments full control over Youthful Offender Block Grant thus excluding mental health, drug and alcohol and other county departments from applying for these funds to serve local youth.

Removing community representation from County Juvenile Justice Coordinating Councils is a direct contradiction to effective crime prevention and spending. In order for funding to be spent on the most effective programs, community members need to be included in the decision making process as a part of a diverse and interconnected range of programs and community based assessments proven to reduce the likelihood of a young person joining a gang or committing a crime.  Programs such as early childhood education, parent training, after-school programs, mentoring, mental health services, and substance abuse prevention services, have all been demonstrated to prevent young people from committing crimes and joining gangs.  

Prop 6 Wastes Billions on Ineffective Programs, Threatening Funds for Tried and True Children’s Programs

Prop 6 burdens California tax-payers with new laws that put more children in prison and increase prison sentences, instead of preventing children from committing crimes.  The funding for proven prevention programs such as drug treatment and mental health services is minimal compared to the massive, unnecessary annual earmarks for prosecution, jails and temporary prisons. 

The largest increase in spending, over $100 million each year is for a program called “Citizens Options for Public Safety,” a program reviewed by the state’s independent Legislative Analyst and found to have “no definable goals” and “no identifiable results.”  Prop 6 renews funding for this program each year without accountability or evaluation of its effectiveness.  

Prop 6 also wastes approximately $500 million, or more, on the construction of new prison facilities.  This spending is in addition to the billions the court has ordered the state to spend on upgrades to prisons and prison health care facilities.  California already spends 10% of its budget on the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.  Prop 6 would increase that amount significantly, pushing state spending on prisons higher than total state spending on the University of California and California State University systems combined. 

The newly required spending under Prop 6 also jeopardizes funding for critical children’s programs because it pulls hundreds of millions of tax-payer dollars each year from the state’s General Fund, which funds programs that serve foster youth, children with special needs, low and extremely low income children, children’s health coverage, and other needed services.  Further stretching the General Fund when California faces a record deficit puts these already underfunded programs at risk of losing even more money. 

Children’s Defense Fund stands in strong opposition to Prop 6 because it is a step backwards for California children and communities. To find out how you can get involved www.votenoprop6.com