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By Keith J. Allen
Arizona Daily Wildcat
November 4, 1996
What may be the hottest proposition on Tuesday's election ballot is proposed by the governor and could affect Arizona's children.
Proposition 102, also known as the "Stop Juvenile Crime Initiative," calls for persons 15 years old or older to be tried as an adult for crimes such as murder, rape, armed robbery, other violent crimes, or who are chronic offenders.
"If you commit an adult crime, you should do adult time," wrote Gov. Fife Symington in a letter published Thursday in the Sierra Vista Herald/Bisbee Daily Review.
He also wrote, "We need these reforms because of the juvenile justice system's weak approach to crime. Too many of those who commit severe crimes are not dealt a fitting punishment."
The proposition also calls for county attorneys to establish community-based alternatives for dealing with less serious juvenile offenders and that the public have access to certain records and proceedings of juveniles accused of unlawful conduct that are now confidential.
But those who oppose the proposition think it is too vague, that it could hurt Arizona's children or that it is being used as a political move by the governor.
"The initiative is extremely vague," said Nadine Ross, executive officer's assistant at Parent and Children Together. She said one example of this is the term "chronic offenders" that is used in the proposition's wording.
The proposition could also take the judicial decision-making process for parental custody of a child away, Ross said. She said the initiative would put that decision in the hands of the Legislature.
"It (the initiative) would put the decision in the hands of 90 instead of the hands of one judge," Ross said.
The Department of Economic Security would have authority to decide custody issues without the "guarantee of objective, Superior Court review of their decisions," according to Children's Action Alliance statements.
Currently, a Superior Court judge must review the necessity of temporary custody of abused or neglected children within five days of removal from their homes, according to the statements.
"It's scary," Ross said.
According to Sandra D. Kennedy, Democratic state senator from Phoenix, the proposition would automatically refer an accused juvenile to an "overcrowded" adult court system.
Also, the Children's Action Alliance stated that in a Florida study, juveniles prosecuted as adults were "more likely to commit additional crimes than juveniles kept in juvenile court."
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