Fire! Fire! Fire!

So the two kids who started the Seton Hall dorm fire are going to prison. But they get to go the Garden State Youth Correctional Facility in Yardville, a special prison for people 19-29. I didn't know NJ had prisons segregated by age, let alone 3 of them. But I think that's probably a good thing.

In addition to a full day of work, inmates are expected to participate in programs such as problem solving and anger management.

LePore and Ryan pleaded guilty on the eve of their murder trial in November, each to a single arson charge, admitting they ignited a banner about 4:30 a.m. on Jan. 19, 2000, in a freshman dormitory in South Orange. They called it "a prank that got out of hand."

Now unless the problem solving class involves how to use a fire extinguisher, I don't know how good it'll be for them. But I suppose for the majority of the kids/young adults at Yardville, those are probably very useful classes.

Also, I wonder, given the number of life without parole sentences that are sure to increase as the death penalty is phased out, to say nothing of the lifetime civil commitments some people are calling for for convicted sex offenders, will there eventually be prisons just for old people?

Adopt -A-Juvie

Those tree-hugging hippies in Boulder, CO are at it again:

Boulder County Community Justice Services is looking for volunteers who want to make a difference in these juveniles’ lives. Volunteers help plan group activities, complete intake and accompany juveniles to court. Volunteers work closely with Probation, District Attorneys, Law Enforcement, the Courts and an experienced staff on behalf of the juveniles and the county’s Juvenile Center. Additionally, the program offers opportunities for volunteers to apply their own interests and skills to lead projects such as art, music, crafts or creative writing activities.

Seriously, I think this is a great program. I think lots of people should adopt juvenile offenders and help steer them to the right path. I hope this program gets some statistical support to prove that it works (my hunch is it will and it's a cost-effective intervention) and that it's repeated in other areas across the country.

With the success of the new MTV show "Juvies", I'm sure this program will really take off!

OK is Friggin' OK!

A beef in the heartland has caused one protesting student to be taken to juvenile facility yesterday. Maybe she can be on the next season of MTV's Juvies.

One Hilldale High School student was taken to a juvenile facility Wednesday after refusing to stop screaming obscenities during a demonstration against the suspension of the school’s principal, police said.

I think there's a general presumption that protesting high school student reside in coastal cities or other "Blue State" communities, where such behavior is generally viewed in a more favorable light. Well, either things are really changing quickly in Oklahoma after their recent economic boom, or this is a really good principal caught in a bizarre feud with the local Superintendent.

On Monday, up to 300 students also walked out of class to protest the suspension and possible firing of Dewayne Pemberton. He was suspended with pay last week.

Superintendent D.B. Merrill has declined to give reasons for the suspension, calling it a personnel matter.

Muskogee police officer Brad Holt said the student demonstration this morning was peaceful.

No one seems to be talking publicly about the origins of this feud, but according to the Muskugee Phoenix, it appears to stem from a spat with the assistant principal/athletic director over a coach not having a CDL for bus duty.

One student has been arrested, another suspended and as of yesterday, the protests continue, although now they seem to be limited to before and after school, not during class. There may be some issues with America spreading democracy around the world, but at least the spirit is alive and well in America's Heartland.

Props to all the kids for keeping it peaceful, even if some may have scratched up some administrators' cars. I can think of no better lesson in community engagement for these students than to be a part of this protest.

MTV's "Juvie" UPDATE

I saw the first episode of "Juvie " on MTV last night and it was interesting, to say the least.

I liked how the producers juxtaposed the two cases. The first person we meet in the premiere episode is a white girl who ran away from home. She made it all the way from Indiana to Texas before the authorities got her to turn herself in with some not-so-elaborate ruse. Also, she wants to audition for "American Idol" and you get to hear her sing in her cell. She isn't terrible, but I doubt Simon will be so forgiving. Let's just say she's no Kelly Clarkson, that's for sure.

The second "Juvie" was a black 17 year old male who got tagged with stealing a car. He says during his intake that he was driving but that the car wasn't stolen -- it belonged to a friend of his (or the friend's mom, I'm not sure which.) At the beginning, he's very standoff-ish towards the other Juvies he's housed with. But by the end of the show, he comes around and realizes that all the kids aren't so bad or so different from himself.

Anyway, you get the sense that the girl doesn't have the most stable home life but that the guy does. His mom comes to visit him while he's in jail and she's there at his hearing, where he gets to go home pending his next court appearance.

The girl's mom doesn't visit, but she does send her daughter a package of new sneakers with a long note tucked into the shoe that gets confiscated. Apparently if all the items aren't on a packing list, you're not allowed to have them. (Btw, is there anything that screams Crackhead Mom more than, "Here, I got you some sneakers. No love, but at least you got sneakers.")

It seems a little overly punitive when the guard doesn't allow her to even read the note. I mean, sure, take it away, but have a little humanity and let her read what her mother wrote. You get the sense that what happens at the hearing wouldn't have been such a surprise to this girl, had she read her mother's note beforehand. But the guards can't have their authority questioned so after the girl talks back for a while they put her on room restriction, which basically means solitary confinement for the night. It's the Juvie version of the hole, I guess.

At the hearing the Mom says she doesn't think she can control her daughter and doesn't want to bring her daughter home, so needless to say, the court decides not to send this girl home to her mother, from whence she ran away in the first place.

At the end of the episode, you learn that the girl is doing well in her new group home and is working on rebuilding her damaged relationship with her mother.

Here's hoping both of those crazy kids stay out of trouble!

I Want My Juvie TV!

There's a new series called Juvie, coming out next month on MTV (Hat tip: Hasdai).

From the MTV.com preview:

What happens when otherwise good kids have a run-in with the law? Every young person who has ever driven too fast, drank too much, or left a party right before the cops came will relate to the gritty new documentary series "Juvies." Welcome to Indiana's Lake Country Juvenile Center, where first-time offenders wait to discover their fates. With unprecedented access, the show follows their day-to-day life in the center and in court -- where it is up to one judge to decide their fate.

The best I can tell, it's combination of Judge Judy, Sally Jessie Raphael (the ones where they send the kids to the boot camps) and My Super Sweet 16.

Apparently the show will focus on 16 kids who get sent through a juvenile facility in northwest Indiana. The show starts airing on Feb. 8th and it looks like there will be 8 episodes.

Even before the show's been aired, which was supposed to start back in September, there's already a controversy. Apparently there's even been a lawsuit which has swept up some gossip bloggers.

I just hope this show lives up to all this hype!

Better Red Than Dead

Tragic death (I suppose it's too soon to declare it a murder, maybe a manslaughter though) of a young person at a prep school for juvenile offenders in Maryland. Allegedly staff sat on the kid for hours, while others watched, until the kid died!

First, the loss of life aside, it's a little bizarre that there's a school called the Bowling Brook Preparatory School and it's for youthful offenders. I mean, from the name, one could easily confuse it with a school for the children of the privileged classes.

Maryland's Department of Juvenile Services has a contract with Bowling Brook to educate juveniles in trouble with the law. Of the 170 students at the school on Tuesday, 74 were sent there by the department, said Edward Hopkins, a juvenile services spokesman.

So there are 96 kids going to school with Maryland's "juveniles in trouble with the law" who weren't referred by the Department of Juvenile Services? DAMN! It sucks to be them. I mean, they must learn all kinds of things before/during/after class that aren't part of the standard curriculum. That's what happens in any school, or prison, so I'm sure it goes on at this combination school-prison.

But I will say that unlike in some other places, people with experience with this school say this is an anomaly. It's not like this is a place with a reputation for guards staging fights between youth inmates or anything. From the same AP report...

Bowling Brook has been in operation for decades and has drawn few complaints from youth advocates, who expressed surprise at Simmons' death.

"My experience with Bowling Brook had always been that it's a great program," said Susan B. Leviton, who directs the juvenile law clinic at the University of Maryland. "When you (visited) Bowling Brook, every kid was involved in sports, they were going to school, they were keeping facilities clean. It was a very active and engaged place."

Either it's a great place with one huge stain on its record. Or they do a great job of cleaning everything up when people come for a visit. Either way, this kid's death is a tragedy.

Help is on the waaaaaayyyyyy....

The Rutgers-Camden School of Law has opened a new clinic for juvenile offenders.

The Children's Justice Clinic will allow law students to represent children as clients and ideally, get at the underlying issues that led them to an interaction with the criminal justice system in the first place. According to the clinic's co-director, C.J. Lore:

“We have a small caseload and we can really take the opportunity to get involved in the child's life so the students spend an incredible amount of time with them so they get to the root problems.”

That's good news for kids in the Camden area. Hopefully, it's something that will become a national trend. At the very least, it's a reason for me to spend time in Camden, should I ever decide to go to law school.

Kiddie Killers and Baby Battery, Pt. III

From an article on bias in the juvenile criminal justice system...

"There is a tremendously disproportionate number of African-Americans and Hispanics in detention centers where we know the majority of the population in those counties is not minority," said an irritated Assemblyman William Payne, D-Essex.

This is true and it mirrors the high rates of incarciration for people of color generally in the Garden State. The majority white populations of these counties live in extraordinarily affluent areas (Glen Ridge, Montclair, etc.) compared with their urban peers (yes, that means you, Newark, Irvington, East Orange, etc.) presumably where the majority of these young inmates are being drawn from. The same is true in other counties with an urban center, not just Essex, all across New Jersey.

So what to do?

One of the problems seems to be that police are allowed to exercise discretion when diverting youths into the juvenile justice system, but often times, they opt not to use this program for young people of color.

"For minor charges and for some first-time offenders, police can act without an accused having to go to court. The process is supposed to work with the police officer discussing the offense with the youth, a parent or guardian, and with the victim. As a result, the youth may pay restitution or do community service.

Delinquency, vandalism and disorderly behavior are the sort of charges the program targets."

If I were a betting man, I'd say that one of the proposed solutions will suggest a new plan that deals with all young people in a uniform fashion, so individual police biases don't have an opportunity to play a role in the decision-making process.

This is wrong! And it's how we got to the place we're at today with mandatory minimum sentences.

After seeing rich white defendants going free because of their community connections, highly paid lawyers and general ability to make a judge feel like you're not a danger to society, bright politicians got "tough on crime" with mandatory sentences, based on the weight of the drugs involved, handcuffing a judge's ability to tailor a sentence based on the totality of the defendant's involvement, and not just the weight of the drugs they were caught with.

Is it possible that police and politicians could just become aware that this bias exists and then try to avoid it in the future? I doubt it. But I know one-size-fits-all sentences do nothing to ensure that justice is served.

So what will New Jersey pols do? We'll have to wait and see...

Kiddie Killers, Pt. II

Seems like even the Mormons aren't immune. And here I thought they were such nice people. I guess what the Ghanaians say is true. There really is a menace in every village.

Actually, I have no idea if any of the people involved are part of the Church of Latter-Day Saints, but that's neither here nor there. Once again, it's a case involving a 14 year old killing a 15 year old, this time by strangling her and leaving her body in a public park.

Seems like the prosecutors can't decide how to charge him, as a juvenile or as an adult. Good thing the prosecutors have until Jan. 26th to formally file charges. Good luck with that choice! In the meantime, the unnamed kid is being held in a juvenile facility. Well, at least that lessens the chance he'll be raped while he awaits trial. (Yes, I know abuse in juvenile detention facilities is not uncommon, but it's rarer than when a young kid is held in an adult facility with way crazier inmates all around.)

Which brings me to my next question. If Justice is treating equals equally, and unequals unequally, as Aristotle teaches us, then is it just to treat a 14 year old murderer as a juvenile if he kills in one state but not if he kills in another? I know States have different justice systems, to say nothing of driving ages, for a reason (yay, Federalism!) but is it right to offer treatment and education, in addition to incarceration to 14 year olds in one state but not in all of them?

Is there an issue of Federally protected rights? I don't know since I haven't gone to law school, so maybe one of the lawyers I'm friends with can take a break from charging $450 an hour and answer that for me. There probably isn't, but maybe there should be?

What if one of the accused is the son of a cop? Should that make any difference? In my limited experience, it certainly does. And it seems like it does in Gary, IN where a 17 year old charged with reckless homicide isn't automatically waived into adult court, while a 15 year old, charged with murder gets the free ride to the grown-up court room. I know they're not charged the same, but honestly, if the first kid didn't have a Dad on the local police force, would he be in adult criminal proceedings already? My hunch is that he would. Is that Justice?

Things that make you go, "Hmmmmmmm."

Kiddie Killers and Baby Battery

What to do about juvenile justice in America? Do we coddle criminals by sending teenagers who presumably know right from wrong to a juvenile detention center, instead of adult lock up? What about the kids who are too young even for youth detention centers?

My morning email news round up had two interesting stories about these very vexing questions. The first, is about a 14 year old who has plead guilty to 2nd degree murder, after killing his 15 year old brother on Christmas Eve.

Apparently, if he had been one year older, in his state the case would have automatically gone to adult criminal court and he could have received life in prison for his crime.

But, "Because he is a juvenile, the boy's name, record and details of the case are private and his hearing Thursday was closed." And according to a spokesman for the Office of Youth Development (what a euphemism!) "He will get a tremendous amount of treatment for whatever problem he has."

So the kid gets to go to classes, counseling and, here's the kicker, according to the District Attorney, "the teenager will have a clean record once his sentence is completed."

Now I can totally understand why some people are upset about the state of the juvenile justice system in the U.S. But it seems to me, if the kid was 15 and sent to adult court and adult prison, he'd certainly not get the appropriate services he needs, since most programs in prisons have been cut significantly since American got "tough on crime" in the '80s and '90s.

So instead, the teenager will get about 7 years, and have a clean record with which to re-start his life. Hopefully the counseling works, he isn't abused while in the state's custody It's too bad that is his 15 year old brother won't have the same chances though.

The 2nd story is even more wild! This case involves a 7 year old arrested for a fight where he threw his book bag at another kid at the bus stop. He taken into custody at school because, "The mother of the 7-year-old agreed that her son was uncontrollable and should be arrested."

But here's the kicker... "The boy was taken to the county's juvenile assessment center, but staff said the center doesn't accept children under age 10."

What to do with our littlest criminals? Florida must be in a bind on this one! Honestly, all this does is make me question this little kid's mother. What kind of environment has your kid been in when he can't be controlled at 7?

It might not be the mom's fault. Maybe the kid needs counseling or medication. Or maybe he just needs someone to role model appropriate behavior, step in when he gets out of line and supervise his free time so he doesn't wail on other kids with a backpack full of books!

I don't mean to pass judgement in either of these cases. Issues of juvenile justice are vexing at best and there may not be one right answer. But I'd move towards treating adult criminals more like children. That is to say, there's a real chance at rehabilitation/corrections with educational programs, treatment and counseling, especially since most people in prison are going to get out eventually, we as a society, might be a lot better off. Off course, no one's ever accused me of being soft on crime, just soft on criminals.