Juvenile curfew question

In recent years, Austin, San Antonio, Dallas and Waco have joined the ranks of cities eliminating or curtailing juvenile curfews.

The reason is simple: Such restrictions — which make it illegal for minors to be out of their houses without parents or guardians during certain hours — simply don’t work.

In fact, studies show, they do little to deter crime or reduce juvenile victimization, the two reasons most cited for passing curfew ordinances. The laws also disproportionately punish black and Latino youth. In Austin, black youth received 17 percent of all juvenile curfew tickets issued by police in 2016, but made up only 8 percent of 10-to-17-year-olds.

“We looked at the evidence,” Troy Gay, the Austin Police Department’s assistant chief told the Marshall Project, a nonprofit, criminal justice-focused news organization, “and decided it was time to discard the curfew law.”

Now is the perfect opportunity for Houston to follow that lead. State law requires cities to review juvenile curfews every three years and decide whether to keep the restrictions.

Mayor Sylvester Turner has said he plans to ask City Council to “soften” the curfew, which was passed in 1991, by lowering the maximum fine and sending kids caught violating the ordinance to “teen court.”

We encourage residents concerned about the curfew to attend today’s City Council meeting, where there will be a public hearing on the issue, and make your voices heard. The meeting starts at 9 a.m. in the City Hall Council Chamber.

Under the current ordinance, minors under 17 are not allowed to be in public during the school day or 11 p.m.- 6 a.m. Sunday through Thursday. On Friday and Saturday, the curfew extends midnight-6 a.m.

Only children between 10 and 16 can be cited for violations. Exemptions include minors accompanied by parents, those going to and from work, school functions or religious activities.

Violators can be fined up to $500 — an amount that creates a significant burden for families just trying to make ends meet.

That’s not the only problem with the curfew. In effect, it criminalizes adolescence and saddles kids with records for infractions that should be handled with understanding and social services, not a ticket and a criminal record.

A state law decriminalizing truancy was passed in 2015 for good reason.

“If your concerns is for the welfare of a young person, issuing a ticket and a fine does not address those problems,” said Deborah Fowler, executive director of Texas Appleseed, which has worked with Austin and San Antonio to revamp their laws.

Juvenile records, even those supposedly sealed, can saddle someone for life and stand in the way of getting good jobs and getting ahead.

Like most of the cities across the country, Houston passed its ordinance during the height of the “superpredator” hysteria and the rise of policies calling for officials to be tough on juvenile crime. The Clinton administration, which was also responsible for passing a crime bill that led to sentencing disparities and the mass incarceration of African-Americans, urged cities to impose curfews on young people.

History has proved those approaches wrong.

Turner says he decided to propose changes after meeting with juvenile advocates and law enforcement officials. Possible modifications include steps to bring minors violating the curfew to a safe space such as their home or a shelter before citations are issued.

“However, if the teen refuses to cooperate they will be issued a citation and referred to teen court,” Turner said in a statement. “The city plans to significantly lower the fines and is working on proposed changes in the ordinance, which will be announced soon.”

That’s not only the right thing to do, but could also lead to a more effective method for cutting crime.

Any decision by Houston should be based on solid data, research and input from the public. Advocates have also asked the police for data proving that juvenile victimization and crime has gone down since the curfew took effect and geographic breakdowns of citations to determine the impact on communities of color.

Those need to be produced as soon as possible. If the numbers show that the ordinance is not working or is unduly targeting low-income and minority families, then the choice for Houston City Council is clear: get rid of the curfew altogether.