The New York Times editorial calls it “A Shameful Record.” The United States now has 2,380 human beings in prison, who will spend their lives in prison and never be released, upon convictions of crimes committed when they were children.
Some juvenile criminals commit horrible crimes, and the justice system should punish them accordingly. Juveniles, though, are not adults. Even their brain development is different, making them less able than older people to resist impulses. Consideration should also be given to the nature of the crime. In some cases, juveniles have been imprisoned for life for acting as accessories or lookouts for adults. Putting a 16-year-old who played such a role in jail for perhaps 65 years is an extraordinarily harsh, and expensive, societal response.
Legislation to treat children as adults came about largely as a response to the “super predator” myth following, ironically, New York’s notorious Central Park Jogger case, where the verb “wilding” came into the general lexicon. Ironic, of course, because the children convicted of the crime were subsequently proven innocent by DNA evidence. Their confessions, found to be false confessions, so angered Americans that they were deemed salvageable.
And yet, in that most American of psychological twists, people have disconnected the problem from the solution. While the impetus for our harsh and inflexible treatment of children has proven why the approach is both fundamentally wrong and misconceived, the “ultimate solution” remains in place and its supporters undeterred.
The crimes may indeed be horrible, regardless of whether the children played a central or peripheral role, and serve to outrage people. We hate horrible crimes. We demand action, and decisive action. It’s what Americans crave. No matter how simplistic the solution, and the simpler the better so we don’t need to spend too much time thinking (remember, “I hate thinking. It hurts?”), we demand that the problem be solved.
So has it been solved? These children are not ours, so what do we care if they are thrown away forever. We can better rationalize how these children could never be ours by filing them away under “unsaveable”. We try not to think of them ever again, because if we did we might have some problems with the notion that we would rather throw children away than help them. Silently, when no one else is around, we thank God that it isn’t our children.
American criminal law is a study in extremes. In our fruitless effort to cure humankind, we keep upping the ante with higher penalties, longer punishments, more and more crimes. It’s one fight to address what this means to us as a society, since our fears have long been politically driven rather than real. Crime is falling everywhere except in the media and the rhetoric of politicians, though this seems to finally be changing.
But today’s battle is for the children. The concept of treating children like adults, of locking them away forever, is an abdication of our responsibility as adults to all children, to give them a chance to grow up as productive, law-abiding, happy contributing members of society. True, it may take some effort and there may be some stumbling blocks along the way, as there are with any child, but there are 2,380 children whom we have failed. The Times is right. This is a shameful record.
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The irony is this happens at the same time the under 18 crowd is losing more of the rights of adults.
The only time a 17 year old is treated as an adult is as a defendant.
The law is a wonderful thing if you enjoy irony. It’s a smörgåsbord.
“Children?” Give me a break. When I was an ADOLESCENT I knew it was wrong to murder–those who don’t are SOCIOPATHS.
It would be LESS DISINGENUOUS to bemoan the incarceration of adult sociopaths who committed murder as teens. BUT, that’s not as gut-wrenching as the notion we are locking up toddlers for life, is it?
Unlike SHG, I worked closely with MANY youthful offenders–I know what these “kids” are and they sure aren’t victims as SHG would have us believe.
I understand Vaseline Intensive Care Lotion is very effective in treating the chafing and chapping resulting from excessive hand-wringing. You folks should consider buying it by the case.
When I was an adolescent, I knew drinking and driving was dangerous, and chronic/heavy drinking could be hazardous to your health. When I was an adolescent, I knew smoking was bad for your lungs. And yet, the state felt I was unqualified to make an informed decision about smoking or drinking.
A 17 year old can’t drink, smoke, vote, sign a (binding) contract, yet can commit a crime as an adult.
A 15 year old further can’t drive, consent to sex, choose to avoid school (and the associated restriction of rights), or work in most environments. How is that not treating a 15 year old like a child? And yet, if they commit a crime, the state can treat them as an adult.
I can’t tell you, Paco, how warm and fuzzy it makes me feel knowing that the youth of today are in your gentle, loving hands. I thank you more than you know for coming and telling us your thoughts.
I’m happy to help.
Actually, Gregory, 17 year olds DO drink, DO have sex etc. And, they are also routinely held accountable for those acts just the same as adults. Yes, society has rules that apply differently to minors and adults. We treat 15 year olds “like a child” to protect innocent youths from corrupting influences. Once they have murdered, it’s difficult to argue they need that protection, isn’t it? Yes, laws pertaining to minors are patriarchal–when “children” prove themselves to be murdering sociopaths (aka MONSTERS) it’s reasonable to treat them as something other than a child. Q.E.D.
Your absolutist nonsense notwithstanding, youthful indiscretion is not a reason to give someone a pass for murder.
I agree with you that most Americans choose to close their eyes to the practice of sentencing teenagers to die in adult prisons because it’s happening to somebody else. I’m trying to understand why the age of the offender, and the fact that no other civilized country on earth disposes of violent juveniles in the way we do doesn’t shame us all. I’m trying to understand why so many are so opposed to alternatives to life without parole and adult prisons for juveniles and to the possibility that many of these juveniles are capable of real rehabilitation if given the opportunity. According to a January Denver Post article, 60% of juveniles serving LWOP in Colorado were convicted of felony murder. I agree that all the crimes are tragic and horrible and that some of the juveniles are truly frightening. I can’t imagine who among us really believes that the person we were at 14, 15 or 16 years old is who we are twenty years later. But what’s the real point of life in adult prison without parole? Harsh sentences are clearly not a deterrent to juveniles. Juveniles never imagine they’ll go to adult prison at all. The monetary cost to the taxpayer to house thousands of juveniles for decades in a maximum security facility is something that even the most disinterested party should take notice of. Looking at the individual cases is a dual edged sword because for each brutal, shocking case that gets plastered on the front pages of newspapers, there are dozens of stupid teenagers who were in a car used to commit a drive by, some of these kids were clearly mentally ill or severely abused or neglected and the same “we” that doesn’t care that we’ve locked them up and thrown away the key should have helped them when they were truly children and could have been saved. No one is saying that kids who kill shouldn’t be punished and shouldn’t spend years behind bars. What I would contend is that by putting them in adult maximum security prisons with adult violent offenders, they typically lose most of what’s left of their humanity when they have no hope of ever leaving. With small exceptions, most become either more violent or they become prey. Isn’t it possible that if we were to segregate even the worst violent juvenile offenders from the violent adult criminals they are now sent to die with, that if we provided them with counseling and training and rehabilitation (none of these are available to our juvenile LWOPs) and they were to serve appropriately long sentences that some, not all of them may, indeed be salvageable?
Lisa,
It’s important to note what Paco Villa has to say (by the way, check out his blog). It’s not that his views reflect all corrections officers, but he presents a fairly good example of the attitude of the people charged with warehousing prisoners.
His point is well taken; we expect and hope that prisoners will come out someday, alive, healthy and better off than they went in. Paco, on the other hand, views them as total waste of human life, unworthy of any consideration and, by their conduct, subhuman. But we aren’t there in the jail to do anything about it. Paco, on the other hand, is there. He’s the man in whom we repose our trust.
It’s important that we hear and know how the people charged with the care of prisoners feel about them. I venture to say that if they ever opened hunting season on these child “Monsters”, he would be happy to take the first shot.
I’ve visited Paco Villa’s blog and I appreciate having a correction officer’s point of view. It must be an incredibly difficult job. I hope that I can learn to understand how it is that newly incarcerated juveniles are so much more likely to be the victims of vicious prisoner beatings and rapes, or for that matter, why vicious beatings and sexual assault among prisoners are an accepted fact of prison life.
That’s a very good question. Paco? Why is that?
17 year olds do drink, etc. in massive numbers. But in the eyes of the law, they cannot. This can lead to the absurd situation of a under-21 getting an adult criminal record for something that isn’t even a crime for full adults (minor in possession). So they suffer not only the “normal”, “adult” consequences, but also the special legal consequences.
The reason children are not allowed to drink, etc. is that they are not considered to be able to make fully rational decisions. A rational adult can use alcohol with no ill-effects (moderate use, in controlled circumstances, may even have health benefits). But we don’t trust children to be rational about their alcohol use.
You claim that by murdering, children prove that they are “monsters” just like adult murderers, and should be treated as such. By analogy, when “children” prove themselves to be drinkers (aka ADULTS), it’s reasonable to stop treating them as children and let them drink as much as they like, only prosecuting them for adult crimes like DUI. In fact, the result is more or less the opposite.
You’re the absolutist, here. I (and presumably SHG) don’t think children should “[get] a pass for murder”. I, being capable of nuance, feel that it is possible to punish children to a lesser degree than adults, without forgoing punishment altogether.
When you were an adolescent your parents still had the right to punish you in the way they saw fit, when you were an adolescent there was not 0 tolerence in schools, if we don’t want our youth ending up the way so many are then, GIVE THE PARENTS THE RIGHT TO RAISE THEIR CHILDREN BACK. You are a posterboy of what is wrong with the whole system, if you take care of these kids with the attitude you have, it is no wonder they come out worse. Sending youth into jails and prisons with seasoned criminals is not going to change them only make them worse, if they make it at all. But then again I am starting to believe that alot of people in this country could give a rats ass expecially the law makers.
“Paco, on the other hand, views them as total waste of human life, unworthy of any consideration and, by their conduct, subhuman.” Gee, I didn’t realize that’s how I felt about inmates. I also don’t know how YOU could know that. In 20+ years, both as a “Guard” and a parole agent, I have helped and YES befriended many an offender. Even saved a few of those lives I DEEM “SUBHUMAN.” I volunteer my time for a treatment program focusing on addicted parolees in Placer County CA..it is owned by a formr parolee I knew as an agent who NOW happens to be a close personal friend. I hope he doesn’t find out I consider him somewhere below tropisms on the evolutionary chart, huh?
YOU applied YOUR prejudice about CO’s to me simply because I disagree with your POV on life for minors. VERY disingenuous.
“I hope that I can learn to understand how it is that newly incarcerated juveniles are so much more likely to be the victims of vicious prisoner beatings and rapes, or for that matter, why vicious beatings and sexual assault among prisoners are an accepted fact of prison life.
Reply to this
1. 2/7/2008 4:17 PM SHG wrote:
That’s a very good question. Paco? Why is that?”
Answer: It ISN’T.
Prison rape isn’t nearly the problem the advocates claim. Inmates do not tolerate it. Surely you folks must know some convicts. Ask them! Think about it: Inmates hate sex offenders…including rapists. Do you think they give them a pass because they prey on other inmates instead of people on the streets? AND, where did you get the idea it is accepted by staff? Shawshank Redemption was a movie…not real life. ALSO, you clearly have a distorted view of youthful offenders…they are the most violent inmates. It may give one a feeling of righteous indignation to picture Beaver Cleaver getting sodomized by a big lifer but it just does not happen.
Is prison rape real? Of course. Is it institutionalized, endemic etc. Of course not. Again, ask an inmate or parolee not a Hollywood Director.
The more you rant like a flaming lunatic, the worse you make COs look. I think it’s wonderful how much credit you give yourself for saving the monsters. Tell us more about what a great guy you are and how lucky all those prisoners are to have someone as you to guide them.
Edit: My initial reaction was to respond to Paco’s diatribe. But it occurs to me that he’s done enough harm to himself and COs in general to put this to an end under our one rule. I’ll leave Paco’s rant intact because it proves the point that so many believe, about how misguided the people responsible for youth in prison can be. But I note that no one has the right to come here and behave poorly, attack others and be offensive. You can leave a comment that makes your point in an appropriate fashion, or start your own blog and rant all you want. But I want to keep the tone of Simple Justice out of the gutter, and people like Paco can’t seem to do that. So this will be the end of it.