Biden Made Big Promises On Juvenile Justice. Activists Worry It's Not Enough

President Trump brought big setbacks for juvenile justice, advocacy groups say — and although they like what they've heard from President-elect Joe Biden, some activists still worry about what they call an ongoing crisis.

Trump and Biden both have sought political credit at various times for criminal justice reform, but the picture is nuanced; every year, approximately 76,000 children are prosecuted, sentenced, and incarcerated as adults. In 2018, a child was arrested every 43 seconds. Children of color were twice as likely to be arrested than white children.

But practices often touted as getting tough on offenders are especially hurtful when they affect children, advocates say — and changing them must be the first step in any effort to tackle broader changes to the criminal justice system.

....

David Stein, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California Los Angeles studying how economic policy shaped mass incarceration, is skeptical of Biden's plan. He added that the investment in criminal justice reform might only influence local police spending.

"Historically, Joe Biden has really promoted the idea that the problem with policing is inadequate professionalism and thus the solution to that problem is increased resources," Stein said — in other words, money.

He continued: "What that often means is just massive, massive funding for local police who use it to buy tanks and use it to do other kinds of training. But the training doesn't actually make people who are at the other end of the barrel of those police officers — it doesn't make their life better. Oftentimes that type of training is sort of knowing how to swing your baton with greater efficiency."

According to Stein, in order to make things better for vulnerable young Black and brown people, the Biden administration needs to divest from the police and redirect funding towards things that are outside of the formal criminal justice sector, like relief payments, federal job guarantees and robust healthcare.

"Biden can't necessarily shape the behavior of the Los Angeles Police Department on a daily basis ... but one thing he could do is create the economic conditions for the young people who are most likely to interact with LAPD."

The politics, however, are fraught — and some moderate Democrats this election said they felt punished by voters who heard the bumper sticker message "Defund the police" and took it literally, as though it were a call to do away with law enforcement altogether.

Stein said he thinks supporters for new policies must overcome resistance within the establishment and keep the fire under the feet of the new administration in order to make headway.

"I would emphasize what social movements can achieve and what they can win from a Biden administration — rather than what Biden is willing to give as a gift."