by TChris

TalkLeft reported here the death of 13-year-old Travis Parker at a Georgia-run “therapeutic” wilderness camp. Camp counselors held Parker down for more than an hour while ignoring his repeated requests for his asthma inhaler. Since that report, six camp counselors have been charged with Parker’s murder.

Sam Shoemaker, the man responsible for training the counselors, claimed that face-down restraint has been used at Appalachian Wilderness Camp for 17 years. It was reported today that the state fired Shoemaker for failing to cooperate with its investigation when he refused to take a polygraph examination concerning camp practices.

The Washington Post has an excellent editorial today opposing the Anti-Gang bill that has passed the House. A much different and less punitive version is pending in the Senate. The editorial notes that while the Administration is pushing for the House bill, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales doesn't like it:

While Mr. Gonzales's day job requires him to concentrate on clamping down on gangs through law enforcement, he acknowledges that investigations and prosecutions are only a partial answer. A comprehensive strategy, he believes, must include education, prevention and rehabilitation. "I don't want Hispanic kids to not go to school and not get an education," he said. "Sure, we may be able to prosecute them and put them in jail, but that represents a lost future as employees, as future leaders in our community. We can't afford it."

In a nutshell, here's what's wrong with the House bill:

In a case that is gaining national attention, first time offender Kyle W. Sawin, a 17 year old honors student is facing a two year mandatory sentence for distributing six joints. He's being charged under a law that increases penalties for drug offenses near schools. But the nearby schools, four blocks away, were closed for the summer when the offense occurred.

The case proceeded to a jury trial. Two of the students "friends" flipped and testified against him. The jury hung. The prosecutor, David Capeless of Berkshire County, MA, insists on retrying the case, and refuses to drop the school-related portion of the charge.

"The notion that taking kids and putting them behind bars for two years in the name of justice is only going to increase the likelihood of ruining their lives," said Ethan Nadelman, executive director of the New York City-based Drug Policy Alliance. "You're derailing these kids for life. You're eliminating the possibility that they'll become productive adult citizens down the road."

Concerned Citizens for Appropriate Justice has a petition you can sign that will be forwarded to Capeless. It is also working with the Drug Policy Forum of Massachussetts to change the laws.

Some people in Jonesboro, Ark. don't like that Mitchell Johnson, who at 13, along with 11 year old Andrew Golden, shot and killed five people at his middle school, is being released from prison. Johnson is now 21.

Johnson was rightfully tried as a juvenile. 13 year old brains are not well-developed enough to be competent to stand trial. They can't understand the proceedings, meaningfully assist their lawyers in their defense, or understand the consquences of various decisions that need to be made. Our criminal justice system believes in rehabilitating our youthful offenders. That's why juveniles don't get a permanent criminal record.

In Arkansas, the maximum age a juvenile can be held is 18. Johnson was held till he is 21, because the state added some weapons charges.

Johnson wants to become a minister and enroll in college. He's spent 8 years in juvenile and adult prisons. It's time for him to leave.

Funding prevention, not prisons, is the way to reduce these kinds of crime.

Bump and Update: It's over. Prosecutors came to their senses and agreed to a deal:

Maribel Cuevas was ordered to meet with her young victim and talk about the fight under the deal - reached on the same day the girl was to stand trial. She did not have to plead guilty, and the charges will be dismissed if she stays in school and keeps out of trouble.

Now, if she can only get over the scars from a week in jail and a month of house arrest.

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Bump and Update from July 18: 11-year old Maribel Cuevas will be tried as an adult for throwing a rock in waterfight.

28 juvenile offenders in Texas are leaving death row. Gov. Rick Perry signed the commutation orders today. He made it clear he was signing the orders only because of the Supreme Court decision 3 months ago banning the death penalty for those who are under 18 at the time of their crime as cruel and unusual punishment.

On a related note, Gov. Perry sure stuck his foot in his mouth when a camera caught him calling a reporter a "motherf**ker" at the end of a interview session. Crooks and Liars has the video. Perry has telephoned the reporter and apologized.

Update: The Houston Chronicle reports (June 22, 2005, available on Lexis.com):

Gov. Rick Perry thought he was off-camera, but a Houston television station caught the governor using an abbreviated version of a 12-letter word best left in the locker room.

Perry called the reporter on Tuesday and apologized for the "inappropriate" word.

The incident occurred Monday as Perry gave a series of interviews in preparation for a special session on public school finance. The governor refused to give details of a property tax cut plan that he was set to unveil on Tuesday.

KTRK (Channel 13) reporter Ted Oberg pressed him for details. "You'll have to wait until tomorrow. I hate to let you guys in on it and no one else," Perry said. After the interview ended, Oberg told Perry, "Try as I may, governor, I guess I can't win this one." About 20 seconds later, Perry repeated what he apparently thought Oberg had said, and then added his own touch.

"Try as I may, governor, I'm not going to wait that long. Adios," Perry said, adding an expression that's an abbreviation for a word - as Oberg said in his report - that "isn't something you want to say to your mother or use in good company."

Conservatives made a lot of noise when Lionel Tate, who was sentenced to life in prison for a murder he committed at age 13, and then released, got rearrested. Now, the boy who accused him of the new crime has recanted.

A 13-year-old boy has recanted his statement that Lionel Tate - once the youngest American sentenced to life in prison - robbed a pizza delivery man at gunpoint, Tate's lawyer said Wednesday.

Attorney James Lewis said the boy, Taquincy Tomkins, has now told private investigators that a 16-year-old Tomkins knows only as "Willie" actually committed the May 23 robbery. Tomkins said he blamed Tate under pressure from Broward County sheriff's investigators and because "Willie" threatened to kill him, according to a transcript of the statement provided by Lewis.

The Detroit Free Press has a report on abuse at a privately owned juvenile prison. The Governor is trying to close the facility.

Since its opening in 1999, though, parents of inmates have alleged physical, sexual and mental abuse at the Michigan Youth Correctional Facility in Baldwin. A watchdog agency has accused the Florida-based GEO Group Inc., which owns and operates the prison, of neglecting inmates' health, education and rehabilitation. One sign of trouble, critics say, is the high number of suicide attempts from last October through March.

by TChris

A 13-year-old boy died at a state-operated outdoor therapeutic program for troubled children in Georgia after struggling with camp counselors who withheld his dinner. Travis Parker was held down, often face down, for about an hour and a half. Travis was asthmatic. He asked for his inhaler repeatedly, but the counselors refused to give it to him.

The restraint, which involved at least three counselors at a time, ended when the boy stopped breathing and went limp, the reports said. He was hospitalized and died the next day.

The state fired five camp employees and a sixth resigned. Travis' family is demanding a full explanation of the facts surrounding his death. Whether criminal charges will be pursued against any of the counselors will be decided after the state completes its investigation.

In response to a rape, a California legislator has introduced a bill that would require all juveniles 14 and over to be charged as adults for felony sex offenses--and other crimes, including crimes involving sale of more than 1/2 ounce of a controlled substance. It would take away deferred judgments. The bill was defeated twice in Committee, but its sponsors are not giving up.

The purpose of this bill is to 1) statutorily exclude minors alleged to have committed specified sex offenses from eligibility for deferred entry of judgment, as enacted by Proposition 21 in 2000; and 2) change a provision of Proposition 21, concerning the eligibility of minors to be tried directly in adult court, by lowering a cited age from 16 to 14, as specified.

Ian of Political Teen has put up the video of my debate with Hannity and Colmes the other night. It was the two of them against me, and it was....spirited.

Say hello to the Youth Law Center - protecting the rights of juveniles. And listen to a five second clip of President Bush during a 1994 gubernatorial debate urging that 14 year olds be tried as adults.

Watch the longer video, in which he also advocates unsealing juvenile records. The video is particularly worth watching for its comparison of Bush's 1994 debating style with his 2004 debate performance. There was no stuttering, no pauses back then. What happened to him?

[link via poster ErrorAmerica at Randi Rhodes show message boards.]

Also say hello to Blawgdaddy who has resumed blogging because of popular demand - including our's. We just got this e-mail:

by TChris

What lesson does a troubled 13-year-old kid learn when his father, using a "scared straight" approach to crime prevention, turns him over to prison guards who brutalize him?

Anthony Donald Sr. ... placed the youngster, who has never been charged with a crime, in the hands of two friends who are Shuman guards. ... Donald Jr. said the guards ordered him to strip in a public place and put on a uniform. When he refused, he said, four guards forced him to the ground, beat him and stripped off his pants.

The four guards, employed by the Shuman Juvenile Detention Center in Pennsylvania, are designated as "child care workers." Child abusers would be a more appropriate title. They've been charged with unlawful restraint and false imprisonment, as well as a variety of other crimes, including assault, child endangerment and making terroristic threats. The father is charged with conspiracy and child endangerment.

The boy's mother legitimately wonders how the guards treat children who are actually detained in the facility if this is how they behave with a friend's child.