Jackson Free Press

Sept. 4, 2003

With no discussion to speak of, the Jackson City Council re-instituted its youth curfew ordinance at its Aug. 26 meeting. With City Councilman Ben Allen out of the room temporarily, the rest of the panel voted unanimously to re-up the curfew. The ordinance makes it unlawful for any minor under 18 "to remain in or upon any public street, highway, park, vacant lot, establishment or other public place within the city" during the forbidden hours of midnight to 6 a.m. Saturday and Sundays, and from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Sundays through Thursdays. The curfew also includes a truancy clause requiring school-age kids to be in school from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on school days.

After the vote, Mayor Harvey Johnson said Chief Robert Moore had given the panel a report of the "number of violators and all that" the week before. That report contained very little to give an indication of the effectiveness of the curfew, only the monthly totals of violators, from 15 in January 2002 to seven in December 2002. The total for 2002 was 124. That was the whole report. (Supposedly, Moore is working on a more detailed report that was due to the Council last spring.)

The mayor, though, warned that the curfew had some "enforcement issues"—like where to put the juvenile while he or she is waiting for Mom and Dad. And who is going to supervise them? In fact, the family of a 17-year-old plans to file a $3-million lawsuit because their daughter was held by police for two hours after being picked up for a curfew violation around midnight on July 10 when she was stopped at a redlight. Her councilman, Allen, is on record this year against the curfew.

Councilman Bo Brown urged the Council to consider how to house the young people once they're caught. He said Vicksburg has a program similar to a school environment. "They give them something to do, not just baby sit them," he said. He mentioned that the new Juvenile Detention Center could possibly be used as a place to put the young people. "We should not take juveniles directly to the juvenile center," the mayor responded. Councilman Leslie McLemore suggested sending the kids to alternative schools, which tend to be closed during much of the curfew.

That was the closest the Council came to whether the curfew might perpetuate problems by treating young people as criminals simply for being away from home after 10 p.m., even if they're 17. The assumption, among all, seemed to be that police need the ordinance in order to pull over suspicious young people if they want to. Councilman Kenneth Stokes is a strong curfew backer, saying it is a "way to stop kids from becoming a statistic."

But, does it work? A study by the Justice Policy Institute of the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice found no evidence that strict curfew enforcement—when that actually happens; enforcement is often more haphazard than "strict"—reduces youth crime, regardless of location, city or type of crime. "Curfew enforcement generally had no discernible effect on youth crime," the 1999 study found. In fact, when a significant effect was shown, it was that cities with the highest curfew enforcement also showed the highest youth crime. Oops.

Despite such evidence, many grown-ups just assume that curfews ought to be there just in case they're needed. On Aug. 26, after listing its deficiencies, The Clarion-Ledger urged the Council to keep the ordinance despite national evidence that shows that curfews are ineffective PR, and without local evidence one way or the other: "[W]ithout the ordinance, the city would have no effective deterrent to youth crime, vandalism, or to maintain order."

A handful of U.S. cities have rejected curfews, or at least publicly admit their weaknesses—especially that they're often used disparately against kids of color. The 1997 "Status Report on Youth Curfews in America's Cities," by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, showed that at least 276 cities (four out of five) have a nighttime curfew, and 26 percent had a daytime curfew. San Francisco said they don't work because offenses occur before curfew hours, which tends to be true throughout the country. "Therefore, the curfew is ineffective."

Billings, Mont., said police have nothing to do with the kids once the police have them; their parents often aren't home. Kauai, Hawaii, said the restrictions just cause more crime during non-curfew hours. Memphis, Tenn., said adults commit most evening crime. Richmond, Calif., bless its heart, put it best: "Curfews treat all youth as violators. It turns off good kids and is unfair to them."