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Building Blocks for Youth

Americans oftentimes hear of disparate treatment between white and black adult defendants in criminal cases. The contention is that minority defendants are treated less favorably in the criminal justice system than are their white counterparts. Indeed, since the creation of the United States, this has been the case. Even with the reforms of the past half century, the disparity between whites and minorities hangs on.

A significant number of studies on conviction and sentencing trends in the American judicial system demonstrate that minority defendants are convicted at a proportionally higher rate than are white defendants. Likewise, minority inmates are sentenced to longer terms of incarceration than are their white counterparts.

When the juvenile justice system is considered, the same disparities between white and minority defendants and inmates is evident. Quite like the adult system, white juveniles obtain lighter sentence. And, minority offenders tend to receive far harsher treatment. What is even more of a concern is the reality that white offenders tend to get more support assistance than do their minority counterparts. A white offender is able to easier access counseling and related services than are minority offenders.

In recent years, a number of not-for-profit organizations and associations have been established. The goal of these groups is to try and bring a sense of evenhandedness to the juvenile justice system. These not-for-profit organizations were established to fill a void. Historically, the juvenile justice system largely has been ignored. Since the 1950s, little attention has been to reforming the juvenile justice system. Public officials have not made the juvenile justice system reform an agenda item. Consequently, coalitions and the like have stepped in to fill the obvious void.

An example of one such organization is Building Blocks for Youth. Building Blocks is committed to working to ensure a sense of equality, justice and order in the juvenile justice system.
Building Blocks as an initiative is an alliance of children and youth advocates, researchers, law enforcement professionals and community organizers that seeks to
1. Reduce overrepresentation and disparate treatment of youth of color in the justice system;
2. Promote fair, rational and effective juvenile justice policies.

The initiative's partners include the Youth Law Center, American Bar Association Juvenile Justice Center, W. Haywood Burns Institute, Juvenile Law Center, Justice Policy Institute, Minorities in Law Enforcement, National Council on Crime and Delinquency, and Pretrial Services Resource Center.
Building Blocks is supported by grants from an extensive number of foundations dedicated to social action and community betterment. One of the main benefactors of Building Blocks is the MacArthur Foundation, one of the key underwriters of the Public Broadcasting System.
Organizations like Building Blocks do everything from provide legal representation to lobby governmental leaders for reform of the system. It is likely that more and more of these organizations and associations will surface during the next decade as the disparity between the races increases. Indeed, absent an overhaul of the juvenile justice system itself, it is likely that no significant change will occur in the treatment of white and minority juvenile offenders.

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