Authorities detained an average of 14 adolescents a day this year in the county. One way to drive that number down is to educate parents about how the legal system works, they say.
That's why on a recent weekday a representative of the District Attorney's Office gave a workshop at Castle Park High School in Chula Vista for dozens of teachers, students and parents.
"The goal is to prevent" crime from occurring in the first place, said Jesse Navarro. "And the key to that is in the home."
The theme of the workshop was why juveniles are sent to San Diego County's two facilities, Juvenile Hall in Kearny Mesa and the East Mesa Juvenile Detention Facility in Otay Mesa. Navarro sprinkled his talk with tips for the parents to help keep their children from ever setting foot there.
The majority of the parents on hand had roots in Mexico and was not familiar with how the judicial system treats minors in the United States. Navarro noted that nearly half of the adolescents detained this year were of Hispanic origin.
Last year, 6,243 minors were booked in the county, of which 4,838 were prosecuted. This year the total detained had dropped to 5,085 as of mid-December, of which 3,704 had been prosecuted, Navarro said.
"These numbers are too high," said Navarro.
The three main reasons for the detentions were assault, burglary and offenses related to drug abuse.
In fact, organized criminals search out adolescents, paying them practically nothing to sell illegal drugs in schools and neighborhoods or to even smuggle them from Tijuana, he said.
"Criminals are recruiting young people through gangs," Navarro said. "Regrettably, it's something we see every day."
Last year, some 76 per cent of juveniles booked in a county facility were involved in gangs, according to a recent SANDAG report, which noted that there are nearly170 gangs, with nearly 7,700 members.
Navarro said that organized criminals recruit children as young as 14 years old, considering them "cheap labor," and pay them sometimes as little as $400 to distribute a drug.
"The reasons (the teens) do it vary. Sometimes ignorance or economic necessity pushes them to commit these types of crimes," he said. "In other cases the gangs lure them with lies or intimidate them and demand that they cooperate."
Criminals target young people who cross the border daily to help them smuggle drugs into the country.
"The youngsters don't think about the consequences," he said. "These are federal crimes with severe sentences."
If that weren't enough, the SANDAG report noted that 62 per cent of females and 59 per cent of males that were processed in any county jail in 2010 had tested positive for a drug, such as marijuana, methamphetamine, cocaine or heroin.
"It's clear that substance abuse and gangs remain major challenges in our region," SANDAG Director of Criminal Justice Research Dr. Cynthia Burke said in a press release. "We are seeing gangs diversify into drug trafficking, human trafficking, pimping, and prostitution. Illegal use of prescription drugs is a growing concern, as well as the uptick in heroin use."
That's why authorities plan to continue giving workshops, such as the recent one at Castle Park High, to alert the community about these dangers.
"Society is constantly changing," said the principal, Virginia Sandoval Johnson. "That's why it's important to give these types of talk so that parents understand how the system works."
Alexandra.mendoza@sandiegored.com
