Towards a Culture of Justice

“…la reforma mas importante es la cultural y mental, pues no basta  con la creacion de nuevas normas o insticuciones para resolver nuestros problemas…se requiere una cultura juridica alternativa, con una nueva forma de pensar el derecho, mas justa, mas digna, mas humana.”  

-M.D. Jose Luis Eloy Morales Brand (2006)

Because I‘m living in a foreign country, I am more conscious of culture – both my own and other people’s—than I usually am in Los Angeles.  Through food, music, language, and day-to-day life, I am constantly encountering different aspects of life and culture in Oaxaca.   

While I’ve been observing within the juvenile prosecutor’s office here, I have been noticing subtle differences in the culture of their organization that stand in contrast to the culture of the prosecuting agencies in Los Angeles.  Although it is too early to draw definitive conclusions, there are interesting aspects of the language, values, and orientations of the juvenile prosecutor’s office here that lead me to believe that there is a different kind of culture being developed within this office – one that is rooted in an understanding of adolescent development and the idea that juveniles who commit crimes deserve another chance.  

These differences are apparent through the language prosecutors use to describe juveniles being charged with crimes.  They refer to them as adolescents, or youth, here.  (In contrast to my conversations with prosecutors in Los Angeles, I have not heard prosecutors here refer to youth as “monsters,” “scum,” “predators,” or other derogatory terms).  In almost every conversation I have had with members of the juvenile prosecutor’s office here, I have heard references to international human rights treaties and the importance of protecting the rights of children accused of crimes.  (Many of these are treaties that the United States has not signed because our juvenile justice policies violate the terms of the treaties).

The prosecutor’s office here also seems to have infused within its members an understanding of adolescent brain development, and a belief that it would not be right to hold an adolescent to the same standard as an adult because adolescence is a time for maturing and developing.  (In the U.S., although the Supreme Court finally decided that it was not right to allow the death penalty for juveniles because of research about adolescent brain development, juveniles are still regularly prosecuted as adults).  The prosecutors here also seem to believe that it is important to give young people the chance for redemption – for rehabilitation -- and for the chance to move forward with their lives without facing stigma or other negative consequences such as strikes, priors, or convictions that appear on their records as a result of their contact with the juvenile justice system.  

If you have not had many interactions with prosecuting agencies in the United States, the values I have described above may not seem unusual.  They seem like common sense in a lot of ways.  If, on the other hand, you have interacted with prosecutors in the U.S., you will probably agree that the core values I am describing are very different than the core values of many prosecuting agencies in the U.S., or at least in L.A. 

The quote that appears in Spanish above is from an article written by M.D. Jose Luis Eloy Morales Brand in a discussion about judicial reforms for adolescents in the Mexican state of Nueva Leon.  Loosely translated, he is saying that “…the most important reform is cultural and mental, it is not enough to create new norms and institutions to resolve our problems…it requires an alternative judicial culture, with a new form of thinking about law, more just, with more dignity, more humanity.”  This makes a lot of sense. 

Without the actors who make the law come to life, the law itself is essentially meaningless.  The way it is enforced gives life to what otherwise would just be words on paper. To truly reform a legal system, deep cultural shifts are necessary.  It is interesting to see what seems to be the beginning of a radically different approach to prosecuting adolescents.