Crime, punishment and options for teens

Policies that promote incarcerating youth who commit crimes and the money spent on the war in Iraq came under fire Saturday at a forum on the juvenile justice system.

Money that could be going to mentoring programs or those offering alternatives to incarcerating youth is instead being diverted to failed causes, several speakers said.

"It's a tragedy when our kids are given less funding than our wars," said Jessalyn Nash, co-founder of the Sebastopol nonprofit agency Restorative Resources.

Tom Bieri, executive director of Social Advocates for Youth, criticized what he labeled the "correctional-industrial complex."

"On some level it feels good to hit back at those who hurt us, but it doesn't help us as a society," Bieri said.

Saturday's forum was held to explore alternative ways of addressing youth crime beyond locking up youthful offenders.

Nash, the forum's keynote speaker, said 7,000 young people are incarcerated in the California Youth Authority system.

She decried those numbers as well as a pattern of what she called "institutional racism."

Nash is a proponent of restorative justice programs in which perpetrators come face to face with their victims and focus on restitution, not punishment.

She said such programs have been successful in keeping youngsters from committing new crimes.

Santa Rosa City Council members Veronica Jacobi and Susan Gorin, and Sonoma County schools chief Carl Wong were among the officials who met with about 100 activists and observers at the Charles DeMeo Teen Center to discuss juvenile justice.

A similar forum last year focused on the effects of mental illness on youth crime.

Saturday's speakers addressed the need to work with young people before they get into trouble.

"If we start mentoring our children and stop putting them in jail, we can make a difference for our community," said Crystal Alexander, who is with Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Sonoma County.

The pressure to join gangs is not much different from the corporate pressure to fit in, said Dyan Foster, executive director of Routes for Youth.

That pressure is "no different in the neighborhood. The water cooler just isn't there," she said.

Following the discussion, forum participants separated into smaller groups to brainstorm ways to prevent youth crime.

The forum was sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Sonoma County and the Sonoma County Juvenile Justice and Deliquency Prevention Commission.

You can reach Staff Writer Derek J. Moore at 521-5336 or derek.moore@pressdemocrat.com.