When Joey returned to the section, he asked the guards to place him in an isolation cell. Heavy metal sheets completely covered the bars, preventing other detainees from throwing feces into the cell but also blocking all natural light. There is no evidence that treating children as adults reduces crime. Similarly, studies of violent juvenile crime in Idaho, Florida, and New York have found that making it easier to try youth as adults does not deter violent juvenile crime. In fact, California already has the option of transferring the most serious offenders to adult court.
Transfers now take place in court, in front of a judge, with the opportunity for a fair hearing.
Proposition 21 would make such transfers mandatory in some cases and give prosecutors the final word in many others. Giving prosecutors unfettered discretion over who is charged as an adult is particularly unwise. These overly broad powers can easily lead to other abuses of discretion, particularly when prosecutors charge youth of color. In Minneapolis and its suburbs, for example, only 28 percent of youth charged as adults are white even though white youth make up 55 percent of violent youthful offenders. Minority youth constitute less than one-fifth of the area's population but 72 percent of all youth charged as adults.