PLAYING HARDBALL WITH JUVENILE OFFENDERS

By Harold L. Hurtt

During the 1980's, the city of Oxnard, California, undertook a controversial but successful campaign to keep serious juvenile offenders off city streets. Oxnard Chief of Police Harold Hurtt explains why this program was implemented and its lon-term results.

The problem of chronic, serious juvenile crime is one of the growing concerns in communities across the nation. Research has shown, however, that in Oxnard hundreds of serious crimes are committed each year by a very small number of juvenile offenders.

In response to this problem, Oxnard was one of five communities in the country to receive funding from the U.S. Department ofJustice to implement the Serious Habitual Offender (SHO) Program. The year was 1984, and the criminal justice system was just starting to focus its attention on serious juvenile offenders.

We believe these criminals must be held accountable for their actions, and that punishing them for their crimes is absolutely appropriate."

The SHO Program differed from many earlier programs in that it was not focused on rehabilitating criminal juveniles. The basic premise behind the program was that in any given community, there is a very small number of young people committing large numbers of horrible crimes, who are essentially beyond reform or rehabilitation. We believe these criminals must be held accountable for their actions, and that punishing them for their crimes is absolutely appropriate. Protecting the public from these extreme offenders is of the first importance. The number of such violent youngsters is very small -- in Oxnard, a city of 154,000, there are approximately 40 who qualify as SHOs. But these 40 young people commit about half of all the crimes committed by the entire juvenile population in Oxnard.

Who is the Serious Juvenile Offender?
A typical SHO is 16 years old and had his first police contact at age 12. He abuses drugs and belongs to a street gang. He is very often violent and has a history of weapons violations. He's been arrested an average of 16 times.

SHOs in Oxnard have been convicted of murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, arson, child molestation, burglary, auto theft, and various drug offenses, to name just a few. They are very dangerous individuals, who, because of their age, have historically been treated with "kid gloves." In Oxnard, we took off the gloves when dealing with SHOs. These individuals deserve the full attention of the criminal justice system. Remember that very few kids reach this level of criminal activity -- only about one in 1,000 Oxnard youths. A youngster who makes mistakes and commits one or two crimes doesn't qualify. SHOs are career criminals who happen to be under the age of 18.

Looking at the Results
What did we do to these extreme juvenile offenders? We made sure they served full jail sentences for their crimes. Did it work? Look at the results. After jailing a large percentage of our SHOs in the mid-1980s, Oxnard's crime rate plummeted -- murders dropped 60 percent, robberies 41 percent, and burglaries 29 percent (see charts). Even with the end of the SHO Program in the early 1990s, the overall crime in Oxnard is still lower than it was in 1980.

Locking these kids up for a long time was not popular, as can be imagined. However, we believe it made a major difference in fulfilling our number one responsibility: to protect our citizens. We did everything within our power to make sure these kids pay the legal price for their crimes -- they were treated as career criminals because that's what they were. Sadly, we have learned that it is completely possible to be a career criminal by age 16.

Setting Up Prevention Programs
It's also important to focus on prevention and intervention. The Oxnard Police Department implemented several programs to make sure city youth didn't end up as SHOs -- several of which continue today.

Programs such as DARE and Quest strive to build kids' self-esteem and help them stay away from drugs and alcohol, as well as gangs. We've also established after-school programs so latch-key kids have a place to go after school each day. The department has started a Police Activities League which helps put at-risk youth in contact with police officers in a non-confrontational setting through athletics and other programs. Many officers donate their time to be involved in these programs.

The old expression "it takes a village to raise a child" was never more true than today. We at the Oxnard Police Department feel an obligation to do what we can to keep our kids out of trouble, while also doing everything we can to keep our residents safe. Such programs as SHO are, at best, effective short-term solutions. Prevention and intervention will make the final difference for our youngsters as they grow.