In almost any American courthouse there is the same maddeningly familiar scene: young black men flanked by their mothers huddled outside criminal court listening.
“You don't have to convince me,” lawyers explain. “If you say you didn't do it, I believe you. But if you take this to trial, I can't guarantee that anybody else will believe you.” The lawyer fidgets and checks his watch, impatient to get to the next appointment. Defending low-income people is after all a volume business. “We've got a good deal on the table. Take the plea. You're a first offender. You'll get probation or a light sentence.”
Grasping for any small hope, the mother speaks. “Later on can he get this expunged?”
Knowing how to close a deal, the lawyer pounces. “Absolutely. And once you do that, as far as the Court is concerned, it will be like this case never happened.” True, of course, but so deceptive.
Such is the means by which many young black men are railroaded into the criminal justice system. Once there, they face a lifetime of under-employment, joblessness and intermittent incarceration.
More than 40% of this country's 2 million prisoners are African American. In his book, Marked, author Devah Pager notes that “young black men are more likely to go to prison than to attend college, serve in the military, or in the case of high school dropouts, be in the labor market.”
This time bomb threatens to decimate the black community and bankrupt the entire American nation.
The problem starts when we criminalize youthful indiscretion. I don't condone the behavior that lands our children in court: fighting, vandalism and petty theft. And some punishment certainly is appropriate. But the punishment must be proportionate. Should a teenager who gets into a fist fight really have to spend the next 40 years of his life as a ward of society? What about the 14-year-old who vandalizes an unoccupied school bus? Should his lifetime job options be limited to either burger flipper or drug dealer? Even juvenile convictions can and do eliminate most other options.
Momentary assurance of swift and severe punishment can't justify the lifetime cost to society of black men who won't attend college, may not qualify for military service, and whose pathetic job outlook will reduce the prospect of supporting a family to just another pipe dream.
There are ways to avoid these outcomes. First, we've got to insist on better behavior from our children and young adults. Young men must mentor boys, and older men must mentor young men. Every religious order must fully engage in this aspect of God's work. This process will underscore the need for personal responsibility.
Next, we've got to vote, and vote smartly. In troubled communities prosecutor elections may be more important than the presidential race. We can't tolerate prosecutors who build political careers by “throwing-the-book” at children whose crimes are more ignorance than evil.
Finally, we must understand the unforgiving nature of a society where everything you've ever done or said is destined to permanently rest in a private data base. Those data bases make expungement irrelevant. By the time a judge order the sealing of court records, private data bases already have recorded, and often sold that information to employment screening firms. The child who suffered a momentary lapse of judgment can't escape it, and will never stop paying. The child will pay by under achieving. Society will pay far more by subsidizing that under achievement.
It would be nice if society were more forgiving. Technology has taken away that option. Now, it's up to us to take the bold actions that will turn the tide for our children.
