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INSIDE ALTO
Fighting to Survive Is The Way of Life at Alto
By Tina Susman. STAFF CORRESPONDENT
Alto, Ga. - The day begins sometime after 4:30 a.m. with a flash and a bang. Prison guards snap on the bright, overhead lights and the steel cell doors clang open, signaling inmates at Lee Arrendale State Prison that it's time to get out of bed.
Lazing too long can bring a DR, or disciplinary report, and too many DRs can cost an inmate dearly when he tries to transfer to a lower-security prison or gain certain privileges.
For the next 20 hours, until lockdown is called and the lights go out, life is a monotonous pattern of mediocre meals, head counts, inspections, outdoor recreation, hours of TV and, according to some, simple survival. "There was fighting every day. You couldn't stay out of trouble there," says Glenn Sims, 20, who spent nearly two years at Arrendale State Prison, better known as Alto. "If you don't fight, though, you're going to be somebody's punk," meaning another inmate's sex toy.
At any given time, a couple of dozen of the 1,200 inmates at the maximum-security prison are juveniles convicted as adults. By law, they are supposed to be kept away from adult prisoners, but for all the close encounters they have, Sims says, "We might as well have been together."
He remembers the constant fear of being a minor among hundreds of adult convicts, most accused of violent crimes, felons and his need to always be on guard. During mealtimes, when the juveniles would be herded into the cafeteria as adults were finishing up, the older men would talk about which youngsters they hoped to rape. Shower time brought the occasional peeping adult inmate, who would masturbate while watching the minors.
"You've got a lot of people with life sentences and no possibility of parole, and they're never going to see the streets again," Sims says. "Inmates really run that camp, and they're not going to take anything lying down."
Sims considers himself fortunate. After nearly a year without wracking up a DR, he won a transfer to Hancock State Prison in October 2000, a lesser-security facility where inmates can sleep later and where he says fighting is not a prerequisite to staying alive. Still, it doesn't change the fact that he's in prison and will remain there until December 2008, when his 10-year term for armed robbery is up. He's reminded of it every second of the day, from the "horrible" prison food he eats to the views of walls, fences and guard towers that he faces from daylight to dark. On this particular morning, breakfast was sausages, eggs and "some kind of muffins," he says with a wry grin. He spends much of his day keeping his dormitory clean and poring through books by his favorite authors, John Grisham and Dean Koontz.
Each evening he tries to watch the 6 o'clock news on one of the two television sets shared by his dorm-mates. One is used for watching movies, and the other is usually tuned to a sports station.
Like most inmates, Sims, who grew up in Roosevelt on Long Island, says he didn't know about the Georgia law passed in 1994 that required juveniles to be charged as adults for certain crimes. If he had, he says he would not have done what he did. But he admits he had gone wild as a young teen, skipping school to sell drugs and using the money to buy fancy clothes, more drugs and hotel rooms for sex. He admits he was a hothead who got into fights, including with his strict stepfather. He has a tattoo on the inside of his left arm attesting to his involvement with gangs. Etched into his skin by a fellow prisoner, it reads in large Gothic print, "Little BG," for Little Baby Gangster, his nickname on the street.
When the police came calling shortly before Christmas in 1998, he figured the worst he was facing was a charge of violating curfew. By law, though, his participation in the armed robbery of a convenience store required him to be charged as an adult, and his guilty plea brought him a mandatory 10-year term.
"I thought they couldn't do it," he said, arguing, as prisoners often do, that he doesn't deserve this punishment. In his case, though, and in the cases of other juveniles charged as adults, many human rights groups and legal experts agree. Rather than putting juveniles in prison for long periods, Sims says it would make more sense to jail teens until age 21. Under the current system, he argues that problem kids, forced to use aggression to survive in prison, only become worse.
http://www.tinasusman.com/tina_susman/juveniles_in_prison/
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Thousands of Children Are In Solitary Confinement
While there are no concrete numbers, it’s safe to say that hundreds, if not thousands of children are in solitary confinement in the United States–some in juvenile detention facilities, and some in adult prisons. Short bouts of solitary confinement are even viewed as a legitimate form of punishment in some American schools. In several posts over the next week, Solitary Watch News will be covering the story of children in lock down. In this first post, we address teenagers in solitary confinement in adult prisons.
* Henry Weinstein, chair of the APA Caucus on Correctional Psychiatry and a clinical professor of psychiatry at New York University, “believes that solitary confinement can have mental health impacts on both healthy people and those with psychiatric illness,” according to the article. “Its effects are likely similar to the mental health consequences of torture, which leave some permanently mentally impaired and others relatively unscathed.”
Different kinds of challenges to solitary confinement, through both lawsuits and legislative efforts. It is scrupulously “balanced,” presenting opinions from some who think that prolonged solitary confinement may exacerbate pre-existing mental illnesses, but does not drive sane people crazy. (They might wish to conduct the experiment suggested by one prisoners in Illinois Tamms SupprtMax “Lock yourself in your bathroom for the next 10 years and tell me how it will affect your mind.”)
Now 29, Manuel has spent half his life in a concrete box the size of a walk-in closet. His food comes through a slot in the door. He never sees another inmate. Out of boredom he cuts himself just to watch the blood trickle. Attorneys who advocate on behalf of prisoners call Manuel “the poster boy” for the ill effects of solitary confinement….
In 1991, when Manuel arrived at the prison processing center in Central Florida, he was so small no one could find a prison uniform to fit him, Ron McAndrew, then the assistant warden, recalled. Someone cut 6 inches off the boy’s pant legs so he would have something to wear. “He was scared of everything and acting like a tough guy as a defense mechanism,” said McAndrew, now a prison and jail consultant in Florida. “He didn’t stand a chance in an adult prison.”
Within months, Manuel was sent to Apalachee Correctional Institution in Jackson County, which McAndrew called “one of the toughest adult prisons in the state.” At Apalachee, the boy mouthed off to other inmates and correctional officers and made obscene hand gestures, racking up disciplinary infractions that landed him in solitary.
On Christmas Eve 1992, he was allowed to make one phone call. He called Debbie Baigrie, the woman he had shot. “This is Ian. I am sorry for all the suffering I’ve caused you,” she remembers him saying. They began to correspond regularly. Baigrie said she was impressed with how well he wrote.
She asked prison officials to let him take the General Educational Development test and take college courses. “I got a second chance in life. I recovered and went on,” Baigrie said. “I wanted Ian to have the same chance.” But the rules of solitary forbade Manuel from participating in any kind of self-improvement or educational program. Instead, he sat in his cell day in and day out, without reading materials or human interaction, racking up more infractions for “disrespect,” which only extended his time in solitary.
After several years, Baigrie gave up. “Not because of Ian,” she said, “but because the system made it impossible for him to improve. What does it say when a victim tries to do more for an inmate than the very system that’s supposed to rehabilitate him?”…
“It’s my belief,” [Manuel said at a federal court hearing], “that the reason I haven’t been able to progress off CM (close management) all these years is the way the system is set up. One DR (disciplinary report) will keep you there for six months and those six months add up to years and those years turn into decades.” In the past seven months, prison records show Manuel received three disciplinary writeups: one for not making his bed, another for hiding a day’s worth of prescription medicine instead of taking it, and yet another for yelling through the food flap when a correctional officer refused to take his grievance form. Those reports extended his stay on the strictest level of solitary for nine months.
Manuel told the judge that in isolation he has become a “cutter,” slicing his arms and legs with whatever sharp object he can find – a fragment of a toothpaste tube or a tiny piece of glass….In the past year, Ian Manuel has attempted suicide five times. In late August he slit his wrists. A prison nurse closed the wounds with superglue and returned him to his solitary cell. When the judge asked him why he attempted suicide, Manuel said, “You kind of lose hope.”
>>Cruel and Unusual: Sentencing 13- and 14-Year-Old Children to Die in Prison, described the case of Florida prisoner Ian Manuel, who was “raised in gruesome violence and extreme poverty,” raped by a sibling at age four. “When Ian was 13,” the report continues, ”he was directed by gang members to commit a robbery. During the botched robbery attempt, a woman suffered a nonfatal gunshot wound and a remorseful Ian turned himself in to the police. Ian’s attorney instructed him to plead guilty and told him he would receive a 15-year sentence.” Instead, he was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
Ian Manuel was also featured in a powerful article by Meg Laughlin, published in 2006 in the St. Petersburg Times, on solitary confinement in Florida, which has the nation’s highest percentage of prisoner’s in lockdown. Laughlin wrote about the nearly 15 years Manuel had spent in lockdown.
http://solitarywatch.com/2010/01/30/children-in-lockdown-part-1-solitary-confinement-of-kids-in-adult-prisons/
* Henry Weinstein, chair of the APA Caucus on Correctional Psychiatry and a clinical professor of psychiatry at New York University, “believes that solitary confinement can have mental health impacts on both healthy people and those with psychiatric illness,” according to the article. “Its effects are likely similar to the mental health consequences of torture, which leave some permanently mentally impaired and others relatively unscathed.”
Different kinds of challenges to solitary confinement, through both lawsuits and legislative efforts. It is scrupulously “balanced,” presenting opinions from some who think that prolonged solitary confinement may exacerbate pre-existing mental illnesses, but does not drive sane people crazy. (They might wish to conduct the experiment suggested by one prisoners in Illinois Tamms SupprtMax “Lock yourself in your bathroom for the next 10 years and tell me how it will affect your mind.”)
Now 29, Manuel has spent half his life in a concrete box the size of a walk-in closet. His food comes through a slot in the door. He never sees another inmate. Out of boredom he cuts himself just to watch the blood trickle. Attorneys who advocate on behalf of prisoners call Manuel “the poster boy” for the ill effects of solitary confinement….
In 1991, when Manuel arrived at the prison processing center in Central Florida, he was so small no one could find a prison uniform to fit him, Ron McAndrew, then the assistant warden, recalled. Someone cut 6 inches off the boy’s pant legs so he would have something to wear. “He was scared of everything and acting like a tough guy as a defense mechanism,” said McAndrew, now a prison and jail consultant in Florida. “He didn’t stand a chance in an adult prison.”
Within months, Manuel was sent to Apalachee Correctional Institution in Jackson County, which McAndrew called “one of the toughest adult prisons in the state.” At Apalachee, the boy mouthed off to other inmates and correctional officers and made obscene hand gestures, racking up disciplinary infractions that landed him in solitary.
On Christmas Eve 1992, he was allowed to make one phone call. He called Debbie Baigrie, the woman he had shot. “This is Ian. I am sorry for all the suffering I’ve caused you,” she remembers him saying. They began to correspond regularly. Baigrie said she was impressed with how well he wrote.
She asked prison officials to let him take the General Educational Development test and take college courses. “I got a second chance in life. I recovered and went on,” Baigrie said. “I wanted Ian to have the same chance.” But the rules of solitary forbade Manuel from participating in any kind of self-improvement or educational program. Instead, he sat in his cell day in and day out, without reading materials or human interaction, racking up more infractions for “disrespect,” which only extended his time in solitary.
After several years, Baigrie gave up. “Not because of Ian,” she said, “but because the system made it impossible for him to improve. What does it say when a victim tries to do more for an inmate than the very system that’s supposed to rehabilitate him?”…
“It’s my belief,” [Manuel said at a federal court hearing], “that the reason I haven’t been able to progress off CM (close management) all these years is the way the system is set up. One DR (disciplinary report) will keep you there for six months and those six months add up to years and those years turn into decades.” In the past seven months, prison records show Manuel received three disciplinary writeups: one for not making his bed, another for hiding a day’s worth of prescription medicine instead of taking it, and yet another for yelling through the food flap when a correctional officer refused to take his grievance form. Those reports extended his stay on the strictest level of solitary for nine months.
Manuel told the judge that in isolation he has become a “cutter,” slicing his arms and legs with whatever sharp object he can find – a fragment of a toothpaste tube or a tiny piece of glass….In the past year, Ian Manuel has attempted suicide five times. In late August he slit his wrists. A prison nurse closed the wounds with superglue and returned him to his solitary cell. When the judge asked him why he attempted suicide, Manuel said, “You kind of lose hope.”
>>Cruel and Unusual: Sentencing 13- and 14-Year-Old Children to Die in Prison, described the case of Florida prisoner Ian Manuel, who was “raised in gruesome violence and extreme poverty,” raped by a sibling at age four. “When Ian was 13,” the report continues, ”he was directed by gang members to commit a robbery. During the botched robbery attempt, a woman suffered a nonfatal gunshot wound and a remorseful Ian turned himself in to the police. Ian’s attorney instructed him to plead guilty and told him he would receive a 15-year sentence.” Instead, he was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
Ian Manuel was also featured in a powerful article by Meg Laughlin, published in 2006 in the St. Petersburg Times, on solitary confinement in Florida, which has the nation’s highest percentage of prisoner’s in lockdown. Laughlin wrote about the nearly 15 years Manuel had spent in lockdown.
http://solitarywatch.com/2010/01/30/children-in-lockdown-part-1-solitary-confinement-of-kids-in-adult-prisons/
Saturday, April 30, 2011
2008 there were nearly 500 kids in PA serving life in prison
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08273/915905-85.stm
Acording To the gazette in 2008 there were nearly 500 kids in PA serving life in prison
for crimes committed as juveniles and some convicted by the felony murder rule.
Which is that even though they were not personally responcable for the murder
they were convicted also.
Acording To the gazette in 2008 there were nearly 500 kids in PA serving life in prison
for crimes committed as juveniles and some convicted by the felony murder rule.
Which is that even though they were not personally responcable for the murder
they were convicted also.
Action Alert! Urge Obama to Appoint an OJJDP Administrator
Action Alert! Urge Obama to Appoint an OJJDP Administrator
It’s been more than two years since President Obama was inaugurated. Yet, no permanent Administrator for the Office of Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) has been appointed. OJJDP is the federal agency responsible for juvenile justice and delinquency prevention issues. It is tasked with assisting State and local governments in addressing juvenile delinquency.
YOU can make a difference: Urge the Appointment of an Administrator.
1. If you have only 30 seconds...
· Sign a petition calling for the Administration to appoint a well qualified OJJDP Administrator:
· Sign-on to a letter to the President from your local, state or national organization urging that he make juvenile justice a priority by appointing a permanent Administrator to lead the Office of Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Prevention. by emailing organizer@cfyj.org
2. If you can spare a few minutes...
· Email, send or fax a letter
Go To The Site For Directions To The Sample Letter (PLEASE)
http://www.burnsinstitute.org/article.php?id=282
It’s been more than two years since President Obama was inaugurated. Yet, no permanent Administrator for the Office of Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) has been appointed. OJJDP is the federal agency responsible for juvenile justice and delinquency prevention issues. It is tasked with assisting State and local governments in addressing juvenile delinquency.
YOU can make a difference: Urge the Appointment of an Administrator.
1. If you have only 30 seconds...
· Sign a petition calling for the Administration to appoint a well qualified OJJDP Administrator:
· Sign-on to a letter to the President from your local, state or national organization urging that he make juvenile justice a priority by appointing a permanent Administrator to lead the Office of Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Prevention. by emailing organizer@cfyj.org
2. If you can spare a few minutes...
· Email, send or fax a letter
Go To The Site For Directions To The Sample Letter (PLEASE)
http://www.burnsinstitute.org/article.php?id=282
Judge refuses to free 3 in DNA murder case
Judge refuses to free 3 in DNA murder case
A Cook County judge today refused to vacate the convictions of 3 men imprisoned 20 years for the rape and murder of a suburban girl.
( The 3 men were all juveniles at the time of the crime)
Markham District Judge Michele Simmons said she would give prosecutors additional time to complete their investigation of a convicted rapist whose DNA was found on the girl, 14-year-old Cateresa Matthews.
Prosecutors this week said they had reopened their investigation into Matthews’ slaying after defense attorneys said DNA testing done last month linked the convicted rapist to the crime.
Five teenagers were convicted in the slaying and rape, and three of them are still serving long prison sentences. DNA does not connect any of the five to the rape and murder, according to their lawyers.
The convicted rapist linked to the case by DNA was taken into custody this week on unrelated drug charges, but he has not been charged in connection with Matthews' murder and rape, according to sources.
Prosecutors said they are not yet prepared to throw out the convictions of the five men, who were teens when they were charged with Matthews' rape and murder.
In a recent interview, Robert Taylor, one of the three men still in prison for Matthews' murder and rape, said he was cautiously optimistic that he would be cleared of wrongdoing and released from state prison. James Harden and Jonathan Barr also hope to be freed.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chibrknews-judge-keeps-3-in-prison-in-1991-murder-case-20110415,0,2306404.story>>
Robert Taylor, Jonathan Barr, and James Harden Awaiting Justice
DNA evidence has proven that CWCY client Robert Taylor, and four other teenagers, are entirely innocent of a 1991 rape-murder. Taylor, and two other co-defendants, await a circuit court judge's ruling on their motion to vacate their convictions and release. The CWCY was shocked to learn that the Cook County State's Attorney's office is objecting to their motion despite the extraordinary DNA evidence. All five defendants were teenagers, aged 15-17, when charged.
A Cook County judge today refused to vacate the convictions of 3 men imprisoned 20 years for the rape and murder of a suburban girl.
( The 3 men were all juveniles at the time of the crime)
Markham District Judge Michele Simmons said she would give prosecutors additional time to complete their investigation of a convicted rapist whose DNA was found on the girl, 14-year-old Cateresa Matthews.
Prosecutors this week said they had reopened their investigation into Matthews’ slaying after defense attorneys said DNA testing done last month linked the convicted rapist to the crime.
Five teenagers were convicted in the slaying and rape, and three of them are still serving long prison sentences. DNA does not connect any of the five to the rape and murder, according to their lawyers.
The convicted rapist linked to the case by DNA was taken into custody this week on unrelated drug charges, but he has not been charged in connection with Matthews' murder and rape, according to sources.
Prosecutors said they are not yet prepared to throw out the convictions of the five men, who were teens when they were charged with Matthews' rape and murder.
In a recent interview, Robert Taylor, one of the three men still in prison for Matthews' murder and rape, said he was cautiously optimistic that he would be cleared of wrongdoing and released from state prison. James Harden and Jonathan Barr also hope to be freed.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chibrknews-judge-keeps-3-in-prison-in-1991-murder-case-20110415,0,2306404.story>>
Robert Taylor, Jonathan Barr, and James Harden Awaiting Justice
DNA evidence has proven that CWCY client Robert Taylor, and four other teenagers, are entirely innocent of a 1991 rape-murder. Taylor, and two other co-defendants, await a circuit court judge's ruling on their motion to vacate their convictions and release. The CWCY was shocked to learn that the Cook County State's Attorney's office is objecting to their motion despite the extraordinary DNA evidence. All five defendants were teenagers, aged 15-17, when charged.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Juveniles In The Adult Criminal System In Texas
is is from the news release announcing the report:
LBJ School Senior Lecturer Michele Deitch has published a new report titled Juveniles in the
Adult Criminal Justice System in Texas (LBJ School of Public Affairs, 2011). The report provides
a comprehensive look at Texas’s methods for dealing with the state’s most serious juvenile
offenders. It gathers all available Texas data with respect to certified juveniles—those youth who
are transferred to adult criminal court—and compares them to the population of determined
sentence juveniles who are retained in the juvenile justice system. The report also compares the
significant differences in programming and services for the two populations of juvenile
offenders—those who get sent to adult jails and prisons, and those who receive placements in
the Texas Youth Commission (TYC).
The report and its findings are especially timely during the Texas Legislature’s ongoing effort to
reform and restructure the state’s juvenile justice system.
Among the report’s most significant findings about juveniles transferred to the adult system are
these:
Minimal differences exist between certified juveniles in the adult criminal justice system and
determinate sentence juveniles in TYC, except for county of conviction.
Certified juveniles do not represent the “worst of the worst”—they are neither more violent nor
more persistent in their criminal behavior than those retained in juvenile court and sent to TYC.
While the large majority of certified juveniles have committed violent offenses, only 17% have
committed homicide.
About 15% of juveniles transferred to adult court are charged with non-violent felonies, including
state jail offenses.
72% of certified juveniles do not have a prior violent criminal history,
29% of certified juveniles are first-time offenders.
89% of certified juveniles have never been committed to TYC, indicating that most certified
youth have never had the opportunity to benefit from effective rehabilitative programs in the
juvenile justice system, such as TYC’s highly regarded Capital and Serious Violent Offenders
Program, which has a 95% success rate.
The report also examines what happens when juveniles are housed in adult prisons and jails in
Texas. National research shows that housing juveniles in adult prisons and jails compromises both
public safety and the personal safety of the youth. Juveniles housed in adult prisons and jails
face vastly higher risks of suicide, sexual assault, physical assault, and mental illness, and they
have been shown to have a 100% higher risk of violent recidivism.
In Texas, juveniles as young as 14 who are certified as adults and awaiting trial are sent to adult
county jails, where they can languish in isolation for periods of a year or more.
Brandi Grissom writes, "Report: Hundreds of Youths in Adult Prisons," for the Texas Tribune,
today.
Texas judges, particularly in Harris County, are sending hundreds of adolescent, first-time violent
offenders to state prison, a punishment lawmakers intended for youths considered the worst of
the worst, according to a report set for release today.
“Adult jails and adult prisons are simply the wrong place to hold these kids,” says Michele
Deitch, a professor at the University of Texas LBJ School of Public Affairs and author of the
report "Juveniles in the Adult Criminal Justice System in Texas."
And:
From fiscal year 2005 to fiscal year 2010, Texas courts certified nearly 1,300 youths as adults.
During that same time, about 860 youths received determinate sentences. According to the
report, though, there was little difference in the criminality among youths sentenced to the adult
system and those who were sent to youth facilities. In both cases, the majority committed a
violent crime like aggravated robbery or sexual assault, and had one or no previous juvenile
court cases.
In most cases, the obvious difference was where the offender was tried. Harris County courts
certified twice as many juvenile offenders as adults as any other county over the four-year time
period studied. Judges in Harris County certified 301 youths as adults. Dallas County, by
comparison, certified 141 offenders as adults during the same time period.
The problem with sending so many youths to adult facilities, particularly those who are not
repeat violent offenders, is that they are not designed to rehabilitate and educate adolescents,
Deitch said. Youths who are sent to adult prisons, she said, have a 100 percent greater risk of
committing future violent offenses, according to the Centers for Disease Control. They are also
more likely to develop mental health problems in prison, to be physically and sexually assaulted
and to commit suicide.
http://standdown.typepad.com/weblog/2011/03/juveniles-in-the-adult-criminal-justice-system-in-texas.html
LBJ School Senior Lecturer Michele Deitch has published a new report titled Juveniles in the
Adult Criminal Justice System in Texas (LBJ School of Public Affairs, 2011). The report provides
a comprehensive look at Texas’s methods for dealing with the state’s most serious juvenile
offenders. It gathers all available Texas data with respect to certified juveniles—those youth who
are transferred to adult criminal court—and compares them to the population of determined
sentence juveniles who are retained in the juvenile justice system. The report also compares the
significant differences in programming and services for the two populations of juvenile
offenders—those who get sent to adult jails and prisons, and those who receive placements in
the Texas Youth Commission (TYC).
The report and its findings are especially timely during the Texas Legislature’s ongoing effort to
reform and restructure the state’s juvenile justice system.
Among the report’s most significant findings about juveniles transferred to the adult system are
these:
Minimal differences exist between certified juveniles in the adult criminal justice system and
determinate sentence juveniles in TYC, except for county of conviction.
Certified juveniles do not represent the “worst of the worst”—they are neither more violent nor
more persistent in their criminal behavior than those retained in juvenile court and sent to TYC.
While the large majority of certified juveniles have committed violent offenses, only 17% have
committed homicide.
About 15% of juveniles transferred to adult court are charged with non-violent felonies, including
state jail offenses.
72% of certified juveniles do not have a prior violent criminal history,
29% of certified juveniles are first-time offenders.
89% of certified juveniles have never been committed to TYC, indicating that most certified
youth have never had the opportunity to benefit from effective rehabilitative programs in the
juvenile justice system, such as TYC’s highly regarded Capital and Serious Violent Offenders
Program, which has a 95% success rate.
The report also examines what happens when juveniles are housed in adult prisons and jails in
Texas. National research shows that housing juveniles in adult prisons and jails compromises both
public safety and the personal safety of the youth. Juveniles housed in adult prisons and jails
face vastly higher risks of suicide, sexual assault, physical assault, and mental illness, and they
have been shown to have a 100% higher risk of violent recidivism.
In Texas, juveniles as young as 14 who are certified as adults and awaiting trial are sent to adult
county jails, where they can languish in isolation for periods of a year or more.
Brandi Grissom writes, "Report: Hundreds of Youths in Adult Prisons," for the Texas Tribune,
today.
Texas judges, particularly in Harris County, are sending hundreds of adolescent, first-time violent
offenders to state prison, a punishment lawmakers intended for youths considered the worst of
the worst, according to a report set for release today.
“Adult jails and adult prisons are simply the wrong place to hold these kids,” says Michele
Deitch, a professor at the University of Texas LBJ School of Public Affairs and author of the
report "Juveniles in the Adult Criminal Justice System in Texas."
And:
From fiscal year 2005 to fiscal year 2010, Texas courts certified nearly 1,300 youths as adults.
During that same time, about 860 youths received determinate sentences. According to the
report, though, there was little difference in the criminality among youths sentenced to the adult
system and those who were sent to youth facilities. In both cases, the majority committed a
violent crime like aggravated robbery or sexual assault, and had one or no previous juvenile
court cases.
In most cases, the obvious difference was where the offender was tried. Harris County courts
certified twice as many juvenile offenders as adults as any other county over the four-year time
period studied. Judges in Harris County certified 301 youths as adults. Dallas County, by
comparison, certified 141 offenders as adults during the same time period.
The problem with sending so many youths to adult facilities, particularly those who are not
repeat violent offenders, is that they are not designed to rehabilitate and educate adolescents,
Deitch said. Youths who are sent to adult prisons, she said, have a 100 percent greater risk of
committing future violent offenses, according to the Centers for Disease Control. They are also
more likely to develop mental health problems in prison, to be physically and sexually assaulted
and to commit suicide.
http://standdown.typepad.com/weblog/2011/03/juveniles-in-the-adult-criminal-justice-system-in-texas.html
Teen To Be Charged As An Adult: For School Break In
Teen to be tried as adult for break-in at Morgan County High School
Submitted by editor on Mon, 03/21/2011 - 16:59. More News & Features
By Patrick Yost
Editor
Mentavious Jackson, 16, Madison, will be tried as an adult following his arrest for the January 10, 2011 break-in at the Morgan County High School.
A Morgan County Grand Jury has indicted Jackson for two counts of burglary, one count interference of government property and one count participating in criminal gang activity. Jackson was arrested on January 20 after Sgt. Mike Ghioto, Morgan County Sheriff’s Office, consulted with a Madison police officer who had responded to a domestic argument incident involving Jackson. During that incident the officer noted that Jackson was in possession of a large bag of Gatorade, M&M candies and Skittles, all items that were allegedly taken from the high school during the break–in.
Ghioto said following the arrest Jackson confessed to participating in the burglary.
School video captured five males entering the high school in the middle of a snow and ice storm. The men vandalized several offices and class rooms in the school and spray painted a six pointed star and “MOE” on walls at the school. Capt. Chris Bish, Morgan County Sheriff’s Office, said “MOE” is an acronym for a popular rap song entitled “Money Over Everything.”
Authorities are contending that the star and “MOE” constitute gang–related activity.
On February 23 an order to transfer Jackson’s case to Superior Court, effectively considering him an adult, was signed.
By charging Jackson with participating in criminal gang activity authorities will seek severe penalties. According to Alison Burleson, assistant district attorney, Ocmulgee Judicial District, if convicted of the charge Jackson could face, in addition to any other sentencing, imprisonment of not less than five years nor more than 15 years or a fine of not less than $10,000 nor more than $15,000 or both.
Burleson said Jackson will be tried as an adult, in part, because of the extent of damage at the school which costs thousands of dollars to repair and because of the “obvious nexus to gang activity.”
“It is our desire to send a clear message that this kind of activity will not be tolerated in Morgan County,” Burleson said.
Printed in the March 17, 2011 edition
http://morgancountycitizen.com/?q=node%2f16960
Submitted by editor on Mon, 03/21/2011 - 16:59. More News & Features
By Patrick Yost
Editor
Mentavious Jackson, 16, Madison, will be tried as an adult following his arrest for the January 10, 2011 break-in at the Morgan County High School.
A Morgan County Grand Jury has indicted Jackson for two counts of burglary, one count interference of government property and one count participating in criminal gang activity. Jackson was arrested on January 20 after Sgt. Mike Ghioto, Morgan County Sheriff’s Office, consulted with a Madison police officer who had responded to a domestic argument incident involving Jackson. During that incident the officer noted that Jackson was in possession of a large bag of Gatorade, M&M candies and Skittles, all items that were allegedly taken from the high school during the break–in.
Ghioto said following the arrest Jackson confessed to participating in the burglary.
School video captured five males entering the high school in the middle of a snow and ice storm. The men vandalized several offices and class rooms in the school and spray painted a six pointed star and “MOE” on walls at the school. Capt. Chris Bish, Morgan County Sheriff’s Office, said “MOE” is an acronym for a popular rap song entitled “Money Over Everything.”
Authorities are contending that the star and “MOE” constitute gang–related activity.
On February 23 an order to transfer Jackson’s case to Superior Court, effectively considering him an adult, was signed.
By charging Jackson with participating in criminal gang activity authorities will seek severe penalties. According to Alison Burleson, assistant district attorney, Ocmulgee Judicial District, if convicted of the charge Jackson could face, in addition to any other sentencing, imprisonment of not less than five years nor more than 15 years or a fine of not less than $10,000 nor more than $15,000 or both.
Burleson said Jackson will be tried as an adult, in part, because of the extent of damage at the school which costs thousands of dollars to repair and because of the “obvious nexus to gang activity.”
“It is our desire to send a clear message that this kind of activity will not be tolerated in Morgan County,” Burleson said.
Printed in the March 17, 2011 edition
http://morgancountycitizen.com/?q=node%2f16960
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