La Voz de Aztlan
Los Angeles, California
January 2000

California Proposition 21 Will Incarcerate More Latino Children

Proposition 21 officially called the "Gang Violence and Juvenile Crime Prevention Act" should be more properly called the "Juvenile Injustice Initiative. It is a legacy of the anti-Mexican and anti-immigrant ex-governor of California Pete Wilson. During his governorship, he not only pushed for building more prisons but also funded heavily the effort to get Proposition 21 on the March 7 ballot.

Proposition 21 will be on the ballot through the funding not only from Pete Wilson but also through large donations from major oil companies like Amoco, Chevron. Unocal 76 and Exxon. In addition Barron Hilton of the Hilton Hotel chain contributed large amounts of money to make it possible to collect the necessary number of signatures to qualify the initiative to appear on the ballot. They spent more than $1,000,000 to qualify the initiative. Prosecutors and politicians wrote it to help boost Pete Wilson’s presidential chances in 2000 which flopped after a strong counter offensive by La Raza.

The overall effect of this proposition if it passes would be to increase the number of Latino youths in prison by making it easier to try children in adult courts. It would make it possible to sentence a child as young as 14 years old to a life term in prison. It would throw juveniles into cells with hardened adult inmates. It would be an incredible injustice committed against children, many without yet a matured sense of right and wrong.

Proposition 21 will make it easier to criminalize not just Latino children but also all youths of color by changing the focus of the juvenile justice system from rehabilitation to punishment and by increasing the chances that young Latinos might become hardened criminals. This anti-youth initiative contains the worst of many crime bills that were rejected by the state legislature in the past.

The initiative is racist plain and simple. Already most people in California prisons and juvenile facilities are people of color. More then 71% of prisoners in California’s Department of Corrections and 86% of wards in the California Youth Authority—are people of color.

We must build more schools and not more prisons. The educational system is failing our children and young people. We must shift the emphasis of the juvenile criminal system towards rehabilitation and education and not to drastic punishment such as locking up a child for the rest of his life. If you are a voter in California, vote no on Proposition 21.

Hector Carreon is the founder and publisher of La Voz de Aztlan and resides in Whittier, California. He was born in the Mexican state of Chihuahua and moved to Aztlan at the age of 5 years. Hector is a graduate in Civil Engineering from California State University at Long Beach where he was a founding member of the Society of Mexican-American Engineers and Scientists (MAES). He served honorably for two year as a Vietnam-era soldier in the U.S Army's 2nd Armored Division and is a graduate of the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund's Advanced Leadership Program. Hector Carreon can be contacted at La Voz de Aztlan