David Kaiser and Lovisa Stannow look at a new report on juvenile prison rape. I'm not going to include any of the anecdotes or hard numbers, but be assured, everything about it is absolutely horrific.
David Kaiser and Lovisa Stannow look at a new report on juvenile prison rape. I'm not going to include any of the anecdotes or hard numbers, but be assured, everything about it is absolutely horrific.
OH NO YOU DON'T. Get back to your happy place, please. (Note the name of the pups!)(Also, *wince*)
I want to send this to all my law and order friends, as well as all the "compassionate conservatives" I know.
There are so many horrifying layers to this story, especially considering that a VAST majority of these children are in jail for non-violent crimes.
Yes, and apparently those protecting the child molesters working in the juvie system have considerable political clout!
This would be terrible even if the numbers were much lower. And anything that turns up the volume is good.
But look at the following and tell me if it doesn't require a little more explanatory comment:
"A full 80 percent of the abuse reported in the study was perpetrated not by other inmates but by staff. And shockingly, 95 percent of the youth making such allegations said they were victimized by female staff."
I know...that was another giant kick in the gut.
We had to tackle this issue at the Policy School I went to. Between 30 of us the best solution we could come up with was to put more cameras in hard to see places and GPS bracelets on prisoners that would be monitored by the guards. Known predators would have a different color dot on the screen and so would potential victims (kids who were gay, weaker. side-note: when i was in jail they asked me if I was gay. I snorted at the question and was like why? and they said it was so they could isolate me from other prisoners so I wouldn't be attacked) when they would get near each other, there would some kind of alert.
We also mandated a training program for guards.
We also had to come up with a budget for this. It was hefty. It was one of the most depressing moments in school where all that idealism of 'juvenile rape can be stopped and we'll come up the solution' got notched down to 'the best we can do.' Ugh.
As I was reading the article (AND SERIOUSLY - FUCKING THANKS BALK.) I wondered what the current screening/training program is for guards - it stands to reason that, and I can't believe I'm going to write this ugh, a career in a juvenile detention center would be attractive to a child molester, no? Thoughts, info?
OOoof. Well the whole prison guard culture is mystifying. You have to go through a background check but if you have a record in New Hampshire that generally doesn't transfer to the register in California. This is the same deal for nurses and homecare attendants.
Wait what SORRY WHAT??? If you have a record in one state and move to another it won't show up in a BGCK? What's the point of the checks then???? Oh my God, I'm hyperventilating.
I wish it was just a fantasy.
Maybe the guards should just rebrand it as "Juvenile Prison Ravashing" - then it wouldn't seem so bad!
I would like a massive overhaul of our entire justice system, please.
(one of my favorite professors in college)
In this book, David Boonin examines the problem of punishment, and particularly the problem of explaining why it is morally permissible for the state to treat those who break the law in ways that would be wrong to treat those who do not. Boonin argues that there is no satisfactory solution to this problem and that the practice of legal punishment should therefore be abolished. Providing a detailed account of the nature of punishment and the problems that it generates, he offers a comprehensive and critical survey of the various solutions that have been offered to the problem and concludes by considering victim restitution as an alternative to punishment. Written in a clear and accessible style, The Problem of Punishment will be of interest to anyone looking for a critical introduction to the subject as well as to those already familiar with it.
http://www.cambridge.org/us/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521709613
"more than 20 percent of those in juvenile detention were confined for technical offenses such as violating probation, or for "status offenses" like disobeying parental orders, missing curfews, truancy, or running away-often from violence and abuse at home."
Everything's fine!