This opinion piece was written for Mosaic Vision, an extension of the Mosaic Journalism Workshop, a summer program that provides real-world journalism training to Bay Area high school students.

Sending youth offenders to prison for longer terms because they are gang members, or because the police claim they are, is wrong — and has proven ineffective. It’s time to abolish harsh sentencing and focus on real solutions to youth crime.

In 1988, California passed the Street Terrorism Enforcement and Prevention Act, or STEP, which advocates argued would protect communities from gang violence by adding increased prison time for committing gang-related felonies.

More than a generation since the act’s passage, gang-sentencing enhancements have not only proven ineffective, but also have disproportionately targeted low-income communities of color. There’s no proof that the law has influenced the rate of serious crime.

Joanna Molina, a single mother of two, was raised in East San Jose in a single-parent, low-income household and experienced the harm of gang enhancements. She entered the criminal justice system at 17 when she was arrested for carjacking and robbery.

The Santa Clara County district attorney’s office fought to have her tried as an adult. Had the office prevailed, Molina could have faced an additional 12 to 15 years of prison time with gang enhancements. Instead, with community support, she was sentenced to three months in juvenile hall and six months at Santa Clara County’s Muriel Wright rehabilitation ranch.

“I wasn’t this person that the DA was portraying me to be,” Molina said. “It would be a waste of life to send me to prison for all those years.”

Unfortunately, her ex-husband who grew up in the system didn’t have the community support during his trial that Joanna had. His seven-year term was extended to 25 years with gang enhancements, which he’s serving at California State Prison Solano. Molina also has friends who entered the prison system as kids and came out as adults, half of their lives wasted.

Molina, who identifies as Chicana, believes that the system targets Black and brown people. She believes prosecutors looked at her clothing and her East San Jose address and incorrectly labeled her a gang member. “They basically assumed I was [in a gang] because of the area where I lived and what I was wearing at the time,” she said.

The state’s gang database, CalGang, lists 150,000 alleged gang members, 85% of them Black or Latino people ages 9 to 65. Molina advocated to get her name removed from the database, but many others unfairly listed are unable to advocate for their removal.
It is unjust to give someone a longer sentence simply because they have gang ties or because overzealous police claim they do.

“There is no way someone who spent 15 to 30 years in prison can come back out and be a productive member of society,” Molina said. They have no context for how to thrive in a community beyond prison walls, she said. “We contribute to the homelessness and the substance abuse issue by sending people away for that long,” Molina said.

Gang enhancements also damage children and families. Molina said. “There’s different heads to this monster that really ends up affecting generations.”

According to the National Institute of Justice, children whose parents enter the criminal justice system face a host of challenges and difficulties that include psychological strain, antisocial behavior, suspension or expulsion from school, economic hardship and criminal activity.

“One of the adverse childhood experiences is having a loved one in jail,” said Molina, who hasn’t taken her kids to see their father recently because she doesn’t want to risk their mental health. “I have to be prepared to somehow make sure that they heal from that trauma.”

Sentencing enhancements do little to address the roots of youth crime. We should instead provide each child with a high-quality education and enact proven anti-gang measures. “If I had been taught at a young age that there’s a different way to love your people, by showing them how to advocate, by changing policy and being involved, then I think my life would have been different,” Molina said.

Offering families education and effective anti-gang social programs would better protect communities and help youth at risk. Gang sentencing enhancements should be abolished.

Molina now works at a law firm and is a first-year student at Lincoln Law School. She hopes to improve society and the legal system. She wants to advocate for children, eliminate gang-enhanced sentencing and improve society. She said, “I would like to be able to do something for my community.”

Dali Yadira Guerrero Fern​​ández is a sophomore at Cristo Rey San José Jesuit High School. She is a member of the Mosaic Vision high school journalism program.