San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan this week took aim at California’s juvenile criminal laws, saying they “make it easier for gangs to use children as weapons.”
“Over the last several years, we’ve watched something deeply troubling unfold in our city: Kids—some as young as 12, 13 years old—are being pulled into violent crimes by adults who know exactly how to exploit our system,” the mayor wrote in his email newsletter published Sunday. He said nearly one-third of all gang-related crimes in San Jose are committed by juveniles under 18.
“When a 15- or 16-year-old is being manipulated by an older gang member, we can’t ask them to identify the adult, we can’t stop the recruitment and we can’t stop the cycle,” Mahan wrote. “It’s a loophole that gangs understand better than most lawmakers.”
He called on the state Legislature to act to close this kind of loophole in California’s juvenile justice system.
The mayor’s newsletter comments on Dec. 7 came nine days after a shooting, allegedly by a 17-year-old, at Westfield Valley Fair shopping mall that wounded three people, sent hundreds of terrified Black Friday shoppers running for cover and shut down one of the state’s biggest shopping centers for hours.
The case of the suspect in that shooting is being handled in the county’s juvenile court, and District Attorney Jeff Rosen is seeking to have it moved to Superior Court, where adult laws apply.
“Transfer to adult court requires proving a young person is beyond rehabilitation, which is an almost impossible standard to meet—even in homicide cases,” Mahan wrote today. “If they’re 13, and committed a serious crime, they may not enter a secure facility at all.
“We saw that when a 13-year-old stabbed and killed a 15-year-old at Santana Row over Valentine’s Day weekend this year,” he said. “I hope we don’t see that again for the 17 year-old who shot three people and terrorized thousands last weekend on Black Friday at Valley Fair.”
In his newsletter, the mayor complained that “a juvenile under 18 cannot even waive their Miranda rights or speak with law enforcement unless an attorney signs off first – and predictably, attorneys always advise them to stay silent.”
He also charged that California has “a sentencing structure for juveniles that is vague, inconsistent and capped in ways that don’t match the seriousness of the crimes we’re seeing.”
The mayor said state legislators need to approve “targeted, common-sense reforms:
- Increase penalties for adults who recruit minors to commit crimes.
- Allow officers to Mirandize juveniles—with an adult guardian present—so we can actually identify who is manipulating them.
- Modernize juvenile sentencing so the most serious, violent offenders can be held longer and get real rehabilitation—not a revolving door.”
Mahan also wrote that there are things that a community can do to reduce gang influence and teen crimes.
“We need to protect our kids by making sure they have role models, afterschool programming and something productive to do on weekends and summers,” he said.
He singled out the San José Youth Empowerment Alliance, which focuses on community-based programming and city-based intervention and neighborhood services.
He also noted that San Jose partnered with the San Jose Quakes to put on a pilot program called Saturday Night Lights, which provided soccer coaching to kids at two East Side schools. He said the Quakes program produced “real results—100% of 8th grade Futsal participants were promoted to high school, including four students who were at-risk of being held back, and school attendance went up 30% for program participants.”
He said he would seek an expansion of the Saturday Night Lights program in 2026, as well as the Bay Area Women’s Sports Initiative, “which harnesses the power of sports to reach young women and students with disabilities, and empower them to develop their leadership and life skills.”
He praised the Sharks organization for programs to help the community, including Reading is Cool, Stick to Fitness and afterschool hockey clinics and training sessions.
“We need more partners like the Sharks and Earthquakes to join us in expanding programming for our young people so there are always safe alternatives to the streets where kids can belong and thrive,” Mahan said.
“Our young people deserve better than being thrown into a justice system that isn’t built to protect them—and far better than being used as pawns by people who see them as disposable,” he said. “We need to do better for them and for the future of our city, our state and our country.”
