Trying (and sentencing) children as adults.

[Iris]

I just heard a harrowing hour long radio program called "If I Get out Alive" about the fate of children sentenced as adults and sent to adult prisons. Some of the crimes these children committed were relatively minor, yet their jail terms are so much harsher than adults who serve time for a variety of reasons, including their physical vulnerability and their lack of mental and emotional development.

I wanted to post a link here so others could listen, if they get the chance. I found the site through the Infinite Mind website.

http://lcmedia.com/getout.htm

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. This is one of the saddest things about our country today -

that we are willing to throw away children and incarcerate them with adults. A brain grows and is not fully developed until age 25. So if we wanted to respect the science of child development, we would consider anyone under age 25 a juvenile, especially in the criminal justice system. And this will probably make the youngsters here mad, but I think we should also delay the sale of alcohol and tobacco until age 25.

[Iris]

3. We have gone backwards.

The story talks about how the first juvenile courts were formed 100 years ago because policymakers realized that children who committed crimes were different from adults.

Pair this with the ban on birth control distribution on college campuses in WI and it feels like the dark ages again.

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. And we execute the mentally retarded too

You are so right, we are going backwards.

[wli]

8. oh, not just the mentally retarded

There's a huge, weird system of psychiatric abuse going on. People are getting executed who were doped unconscious during their whole trials on the grounds of psychiatric treatment, then later denied stays of execution based on mental incompetence such as would have justified the medication during their trials.

Similarly, legitimately mentally disabled persons (e.g. schizophrenics, damaged by drug use, etc.) are flooding prisons, and are untreated or undertreated.

[wli]

7. minority is an odd, ominous concept

They're effectively non-citizens and chattel of their parents.

The culture may not be able to absorb personal responsibility for them, but neither does it afford them effective protections or entitlements.

It's more like there is no possible answer to the quandary of underage persons, as opposed to simplistic answers like further disenfranchisement and so on.

The situations in the constellation of conditions surrounding minority aren't entirely unique, but none of them are adequately dealt with.

[wli]

2. also relevant is spr.org

SPR website

It's time for a moratorium on sentencing juveniles as adults among other things.

[Iris]

4. Thanks!

Did you hear the report on NPR yesterday about how they've finally started collecting statistics about prison rape?

[wli]

9. not really, but it won't really tell us much new

i.e. that what's going on is mass rape on an unimaginably large scale.

[Iris]

10. actually, it was the first report ever done on this problem.

Unfortunately, I thought the numbers didn't quite add up, but they admitted this would be something that is woefully undereported.

[FreedomAngel82]

5. I think it's horrible

They should be helping these children and not just throwing them away to sit in jail. :(

[jmm]

11. If they can't even get the privileges of being adults

then children should not be punished as adults. I wish all laws were equitable. There is no rational reason why someone can be tried for a crime as an adult when they can't drive, vote, or buy alcohol.

[Iris]

12. The very reason they can't do these things by law is why they should

not be tried as adults. The adolescent mind is quite different from an adult mind.

For example, the program noted that it is inhumane and dangerous to put a child in solitary confinement. Teenagers think that the way things are at the moment is the way they will always be. So, when they are shut off from the outside world, they are at high risk of suicide because, in their minds, that's it for them - there's nothing to look forward to.