6/04
The New Torture of Youth
Rising juvenile crime in the mid-1990’s led to tougher legislation that would put children into adult prisons with adults. Incidents like Columbine high school in 1999 gave Americans a vision of violent and deadly kids on a rampage. The horrible images of the massacre at Columbine seemed to reinforce the idea that kids were out of control and something needed to be done to protect society from so called “Super Predators”. After about a decade of crackdown on juvenile crime and intensification of sentencing, studies are shedding light on the subject. Many of these studies showed that juvenile crime had actually been on the decrease (Department of Justice) . Furthermore, the results of the crackdown on juvenile offenders had disastrous effect on a vulnerable segment of society-children. These revelations point to a need to revisit juvenile justice laws and sentencing. If we are to salvage our children, the current juvenile justice system must be changed immediately. Children must no longer be thrown in the same jails as adults and children who do not commit murder must not be thrown away in an adult prison.
The super predators are coming?
In the late 1980’s leading up to 1994 there was an increase in juvenile violent crime amid a nationwide epidemic of crack (Dept. of Justice). This increase in crime lead some politicians to theorize that by the year 2000 the violent crime rate among youth we be intolerable. Politicians increased their rhetoric toward the subject by saying that many children would become “Super Predators” (Dilulio). These ideas led to legislation in almost every state in the country calling for children to be prosecuted and sentenced as adults. Congress considered the "Violent Youth Predator Act of 1996."
Strict laws were indeed passed allowing for kids to be put in adult prisons with adults. But instead of the
Proponents of these tough measures on kids claimed that the drop in juvenile crime came as a direct result of the same tough measures on kids. This is a type of Heads-I-win Tails-you-lose type of argument in that if the juvenile crime rate goes down,
it’s because of the tough legislation; if the crime rate stays high we need even more, tougher, legislation. However, by 1994 youth crime was already on the decline. Furthermore, the argument put forth that the decrease in juvenile crime is as a direct result of the get-tough-on-kids approach is clearly a case of attributing false causes. From 1994 to 1997 the juvenile violent crime rate had already decreased by begun and much of legislation didn’t occur until after 1996.
Children given adult time=Reduction in crime?
The hardliners in favor of locking up kids as adults and with adults argue that by having stricter punishments, you can reduce crime. They argue that there is a close connection between lack of punishments and forming of criminal habits in youth (Reynolds). Locking kids up who commit crime keeps society safe they say. “[W]e needed to do something to protect the public and get these kids off the streets” says William Bankhead secretary of the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice and proponent of prosecuting juvenile offenders as adults (Hansen).
But is prosecuting and sending kids to adult jails a way to reduce crime and keep society safer? Studies in Florida, Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey and a good deal of national research indicate that recidivism rates are higher for
juveniles who transferred to adult court than those who remain in the Juvenile system (McCormick). One study by the Miami Herald concluded that kids who are prosecuted as
The Torture of our Kids...
Proponents of prosecuting kids as adults say that it is for the better of society that we toss kids in to adult jails. But what happens to those kids while in jail with adults? Are they going to feel reformed and ready to enter society upon there release? The answer lies with what these kids are put through inside.
The reality is that children in adult jails and prisons are increasingly vulnerable to a wide array of dangers. The numbers are staggering, an estimated 45,000 boys are sexually assaulted in prison every year. In adult prisons there are estimations of 65,000 sexual victimizations every day. Taken together there are nearly 300,000 incarcerated boys and men are raped every year (Kaminer). Kids put into adult prisons are 7.7 times more likely to commit suicide and five times more likely to be raped than
those put into juvenile centers (Hansen). Kids are 50 percent more likely to be attacked with a weapon. Youngsters in Florida prison for example are nearly 21 times as likely to report being assaulted or injured as adolescents in the state’s juvenile system (McCormick).
A proponent of Locking up kids in adult prisons may tell you that federal law requires that there be “sight and sound separation” between juveniles and adults housed in the same facility, though inadvertent or incidental contact is not prohibited. Furthermore, the law does not apply to youths charged or convicted of adult felony (Hansen). Moreover, studies suggest that most states have made little effort to segregate juveniles and adults. “The majority of states follow a practice of dispensing young inmates into the general prison population,” says Dale Parent, a project director with Abt Associates, a research firm in Cambridge, Mass (Hansen).