Minority youths are more likely to face trial as adults

A WHITE KID SELLS A BAG OF COCAINE at his suburban high school. A Latino kid does the same in his inner-city neighborhood. Both get caught. Both are first-time offenders. The white kid walks into juvenile court with his parents, his priest, a good lawyer-and medical coverage. The Latino kid walks into court with his mom, no legal resources and no insurance. The judge lets the white kid go with his family; he’s placed in a private treatment program. The minority kid has no such option. He’s detained.

There, in a nutshell, is what happens more and more often in the juvenile-court system. Minority youths arrested on violent felony charges in California are more than twice as likely as their white counterparts to be transferred out of the juvenile-justice system and tried as adults, according to a study released last week by the Justice Policy Institute, a research center in San Francisco. Once they are in adult courts, young black offenders are 18 times more likely to be jailed-and Hispanics seven times more likely-than are young white offenders. "Discrimination against kids of color accumulates at every stage of the justice system and skyrockets when juveniles are, tried as adults," says Dan Macallair, a co-author of the new study. "California has a double standard: throw kids of color behind bars, but .rehabilitate white kids who commit comparable crimes."

Even as juvenile crime has declined from its peak in the early 1990s, headline grabbing violence by minors has intensified a get-tough attitude. Over the past six years, 43 states have passed laws that make it easier to try juveniles as adults. In Texas and Connecticut in 1996, the latest year for which figures are available, all the juveniles in jails were minorities. Vincent Schiraldi, the Justice Policy Institute’s director, concedes that "some kids need to be tried as adults. But most can be rehabilitated."

Instead, adult prisons tend to brutalize juveniles. They are eight times more likely to commit suicide and five times more likely to be sexually abused than offenders held in juvenile detention. "Once they get out, they tend to commit more crimes and more violent crimes," says Jenni Gainsborough, a spokeswoman for the Sentencing Project, a reform group in Washington. The system, in essence, is training career criminals. And it’s doing its worst work among minorities.

注(1)本文选自By Anamaria Wilson Time; 02/14/2000, Vol. 155 Issue 6, p68, 1/3p

注(2)本文习题命题模仿对象1997年真题text 5(其中因1997年真题text 5只有4个题目，所以本文第4题模仿参照对象为1999年 Text 4的第4题。)

1. From the first paragraph we learn that _________.

[A]the white kid is more lucky than the minority kid

[B]the white kid has got a lot of help than the minority kid

[C]the white kid and minority kid has been treated differently

[D]the minority kid should be set free at once.

2. According to the passage, which of the following is TRUE?

[A]Kids shouldn’t be tried as adults.

[B] Discrimination exists in the justice system.

[C]Minority kids are likely to commit crimes.

[D] States shouldn’t pass the laws.

3. The word "skyrocket" (Line 13, Paragraph 2) means ________.

[A]rising sharply

[B]widening suddenly

[C]spreading widely

[D]expanding quickly

4. It can be inferred from the last paragraph that ________.

[A] something seems to be wrong with the justice system

[B]adult prisons have bad influence on the juveniles

[C] juveniles in adult prison are ill-treated

[D]the career criminals are trained by the system

5. The passage shows that the author is _________ the present situation.

[A] amazed at

[B]puzzled by

[C]disappointed at

[D] critical of

答案：CBAAD