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Trauma and Wasted Tax Dollars: San Mateo County’s Juvenile Legal System
by Rebecca Kieler and Beth von Emster, co-founders of In Our Care SMC
A juvenile’s lengthy prosecution by the District Attorney concluded Thursday in a case that garnered significant media attention. The case raised serious questions about how San Mateo County juveniles are prosecuted.
Of primary concern was the DA’s doomed effort to transfer this youth to the adult criminal legal system. As the judge detailed in denying the DA’s transfer petition, this case was utterly inappropriate for the adult system — among other factors, the youth had no prior contact with the criminal legal system, was a model resident at the youth detention center, and had the robust support of a loving family and extensive friend network. The DA publicly acknowledged that the youth acted without intent to cause harm.
The DA has tried eight times to transfer kids to adult court and, to date, has lost seven of those attempts. Those failed actions cause significant trauma for everyone involved — most importantly for the victim’s family, whose expectations were raised for an outcome that could never realistically be achieved. The young defendant, his family, and the community at large also have suffered because of these ill-conceived attempts.
Beyond the emotional toll, each of these seven failed petitions has imposed enormous costs on the San Mateo County taxpayer for court time, judges, court staff, DA’s Office, Probation Department, and defense counsel, among other expenditures.
Youth with criminal charges belong in a juvenile court system created for them rather than the adult legal system. The data overwhelmingly shows that youth kept in juvenile court have much better outcomes – they are more likely to succeed in their rehabilitation and stay out of legal trouble upon release than kids transferred to the adult system. Reducing recidivism benefits everyone in our community and improves the public safety we all want.
Rest assured that the juvenile system imposes robust consequences for conduct that is found to violate the law. This youth, for example, spent over two years behind bars and continues to serve time on home confinement, electronic monitoring, and probation.
DA Wagstaffe is an elected official whose management of cases should reflect the values of the community. Please join us in demanding that the DA stop filing petitions for transfers from juvenile to adult court by writing, calling his office, or signing our petition. Transfer filings are wasteful and cause deep harm to the people involved on all sides. Justice is better served by pouring those wasted resources into meaningful victims’ services and proven rehabilitation programs. By doing so, San Mateo County can focus on creating a legal system that prioritizes true rehabilitation and community well-being over well-documented failed punitive measures.
“It’s easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” – Fredrick Douglas
Rebecca Kieler and Beth von Emster are co-founders of In Our Care SMC, a community organization that supports our youth in the legal system and works to support a just and rehabilitative juvenile system.
One more reason to get Wagstaffe out. He’s always posturing on how ‘tough’ he is rather than seeking justice.