PRESS RELEASE

EMBARGOED UNTIL APRIL 25, 2001, 10:00 AM CST (11 EST)

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Laura Jones (202) 737-7270, or cell: (202) 425-4659
Jason Ziedenberg, (202) 737-7270 or cell: (202) 210-2489

Racial Disparity in Illinois Drug Prosecutions:
99% of Cook County YouthTried As Adults Are African-American or Latino

Illinois Record Called Worst in Nation

Washington D.C.- Of the 393 youth automatically transferred to adult court in Cook County, Illinois during 1999-2000, over 99% were African American or Latino, and 99% of the youth imprisoned for a drug crime from Cook County were non-White according to a new study.

The study, Drugs and Disparity: The Racial Impact of Illinois' Practice of Transferring Young Drug Offenders to Adult Court, was commissioned by the Building Blocks for Youth Initiative, a national effort to promote a fair and effective youth justice system, and prepared by the Justice Policy Institute. The study analyzed data from state criminal justice agencies in Illinois and national corrections databases. It concludes that Illinois' practice of automatically sending 15 and a 16-year-old youth charged with drug crimes to adult court has produced one of the most racially disparate outcomes in the nation. Of the 259 youth automatically transferred to adult court from Cook County for a drug crime last year, only one was White.

"The racial disparities uncovered by this report are appalling and cry out for correction," says Paul Simon, former U.S. Senator from Illinois, and director of Southern Illinois University's Public Policy Institute.

The study notes that the 1999 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse reports that White youth aged 12-17 are more than a third more likely to have sold drugs than African-American youth, and the National Institute of Drug Abuse survey of high school seniors for 1998/1999 shows that White students use cocaine at 7 to 8 times the rate of African American students, and heroin at 7 times the rate of African American students.

Illinois' automatic transfer laws mandate that 15- and 16-year-old youth charged with a drug offense that occurs within 1,000 feet of a school or public housing project are automatically excluded from juvenile court. While African American youth make up 15.3% of Illinois' youth population, African American youth are 59% of youth arrested for drug crimes, 85.5% of youth automatically transferred to adult court, 88% of the youth imprisoned for drug crimes statewide, and 91% of youth admitted to state prison from Cook County.

"This law as currently written and enforced is toxic to black children," says Dr. Carl Bell, President and CEO of the Community Mental Health Council in Chicago.

The data clearly show that the enormous impact of prosecution, imprisonment and collateral consequences for young drug offenders is not borne equitably by youth of different races and ethnicities, says Jason Ziedenberg, Senior Policy Analyst with the Justice Policy Institute, and author of the study, Illinois' 16-year experiment with automatic transfer for drug offenses does not affect suburban or rural White youth in a way even remotely comparable to the way it affects urban minority youth.

Other significant report findings include:

...Between 1986 and 1996, the number of White youth entering Illinois prisons increased by half while the number of African American youth entering prison more than tripled.

...Over half of the juvenile drug transfer cases had never received juvenile court services before and over one third (34%) had no previous juvenile court convictions. While youth of color are over-represented in juvenile corrections facilities, jails and prisons for drug crimes across the country, no jurisdiction we've studied exhibits the degree of disparity we found in Illinois, says Mark Soler, coordinator of the Building Blocks for Youth Initiative.

Previous Building Blocks studies have shown that nationwide, young people of color face some of the harshest justice system disparities when they are prosecuted for drug offenses. For example, among youth who have not been sentenced to public correctional facilities previously, the rate of commitment for drug offenses for African-Americans was 48 times that of Whites, and for Latino youth was 13 times that of Whites. The proportion of adult prison admissions for youth convicted of drug offenses was three times greater for African-American youth than White youth. The mean length of stay in state correctional facilities for drug offenses was 90 days longer for African-American youth, and 160 days longer for Latino youth.

"It is shocking that, in Cook County, Latino's are tried as adults 13 times more likely than Whites for drug crimes," says Angela Maria Arboleda,  Civil Rights Policy Analyst, National Council of La Raza. "When Latino youth are tried as adults, too often they are denied the opportunity to receive substance abuse treatment and job training that would better prepare them to contribute to society."

The report comes a week after the Bush administration announced that they would enforce a previously ignored law that would deny federal financial aid to college students with drug convictions. The changes to the enforcement of the Higher Education Act last week could mean that as many as 20,000 college applicants could lose their chance for federal aid. Last year, over 8,000 applicants were denied student aid for revealing that they had a drug conviction.

An embargoed copy of the executive summary of Drugs and Disparity: The Racial Impact of Illinois' Practice of Transferring Young Drug Offenders to Adult Court can be viewed at a private web location at: www.buildingblocksforyouth.org/Illinois, with the username: Illinois and password: 99. The full report will be available to the public on April 25h at www.buildingblocksforyouth.org, and will be released formally at a press conference including people from the faith community, civil rights leaders and juvenile justice experts.For more information on the press conference, contact Laura Jones or Jason Ziedenberg at (202) 737-7270.
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Jason Ziedenberg
Senior Policy Analyst
The Justice Policy Institute Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice
1234 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, C-1009
Washington, DC., 20005
Phone: (202) 737-7270
Fax: (202) 737-7271
www.cjcj.org
Email: jzdc@cjcj.org