Get serious about youth gun possession but provide help in the community

THE King County prosecutor's recent call to incarcerate all youth who are found to be delinquent for possessing a firearm is a costly and unnecessary solution to a serious problem. The public would be better served by improving access to proven methods of prevention in the community that are both cost-effective and protect public safety by reducing crime.

In his column, Prosecutor Dan Satterberg suggests that detention is necessary in order for youth to "spend time with counselors and engage in research-based programming designed to get them to see the consequences of their actions, and to take responsibility for their own decisions" ["Armed and juvenile: getting serious about teenagers with guns." Opinion, Sept. 20].

These same services work in community settings if they are made available to youth. The Washington State Institute for Public Policy, a highly respected, nonpartisan research unit, found that community intervention programs are cost-effective means of reducing crime.

For example, multidimensional-treatment foster care reduces recidivism rates by 22 percent with a cost-benefit to taxpayers of more than $75,000 per participant. Functional family therapy during probation reduces recidivism by nearly 16 percent, with a cost-benefit to taxpayers of nearly $32,000 per participant.

Providing at-risk youth with stable home and educational environments and ensuring access to necessary mental-health and chemical-dependency treatment are smarter and more effective ways to improve public safety and protect taxpayer dollars. Given Washington's economic crisis, we simply cannot afford to mandate incarceration, when more financially sound community options will successfully reduce crime.

Existing laws allow judges to sentence youth to detention on the first delinquency adjudication for firearm possession where doing so is appropriate. These laws also allow judges to review individual cases to determine when a youth, and the public, may be better served by the provision of services — like those described above — in the community.

Our Legislature will be facing a number of difficult decisions regarding public safety and the ongoing economic crisis in the upcoming session. There is no need to distract from more pressing issues by expending resources on legislation that would mandate incarceration of youth in all cases.

Just how unnecessary this legislation would be is borne out by crime statistics. According to data provided this month by Washington's Sentencing Guidelines Commission, juvenile crime rates overall — and juvenile violent crime in particular — have declined in recent years.

Even when unlawful possession of a firearm is looked at by itself, the suggestion of an escalation in crime does not hold up to scrutiny. To date in 2009, there are 20 counties with zero delinquency adjudications for unlawful possession of a firearm. Fourteen more counties have less than 10.

In King County, only 27 youth out of the 191,000-plus youth who reside here have been found to be delinquent for firearm possession in 2009. In fact, in every single Washington county the number of youth found to be delinquent for unlawful possession of a firearm is less than a fraction of 1 percent of the youth population.

Despite these statistics, the call for mandatory incarceration of youth is made under the guise of an "escalation of youth violence." Predictions of an impending youth crime wave were also made in the 1980s and 1990s. Those theories have since been discredited.

The foremost proponent of the notion that laws should be passed making it easier to incarcerate young people, John J. DiIulio Jr., has admitted he was wrong to do so. In a 2001 interview during his service as director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives during the Bush administration, DiIulio reflected on the push to incarcerate youth and stated, "If I knew then what I know now, I would have shouted for prevention of crimes."

We should do the same.

Beth Colgan is managing attorney for Columbia Legal Services' Institutions Project.