http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/18/us-crime-kidsforcash-idUSTRE71H7QJ20110218

Judges sending kids to "for profit prisons" grrrrrr.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST MUCH, Judge?

reposting you link:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/18/us-crime-kidsforcash-idUSTRE71H7QJ20110218

In the early 1990s I worked for a halfway house system in AZ for juvenile offenders and had the chance to learn about their lives. In the past 20 years I'm sure it's only gotten worse. Almost all the kids had been victims of violent crime (usually domestic) and/or psychological trauma. They started off life with warped realities.

While its true that many are incarcerated for trivial things like truancy it's because thats the "crime" that is easiest to Prosecute. Most of the kids I worked with who were hit with truancy were already neck deep in other more serious crime (usually involving gangs).

We spent a lot of time trying to develop empathy for the offenders victims. Sadly this article talks very little about their victims. Some kids are incarcerated for victimless crimes but others are there because they beat on or steal from on other kids, elderly or poor.

I was often assigned sex offenders. Some of them seemed to turn the corner with therapy. But for some I'm sure that incarceration and watching then like hawks for their two or three years in the system may have been the only thing that kept them from sexually molesting or assaulting younger children for that period of time.

It's also true that the jumbie system made them harder and more knowledgeable criminals.

Zero tolerance at schools who use police to enforce infractions is a bigger problem now. It's one of the reasons I pony up for a secular private school. The adminstrators are expected to show more discretion.

Those are inhumane conditions. Look at that. No pillow, no blankets. And I'll bet they leave the lights on in the cell 24/7.

through feelings of lack of control or any real empowerment find glee in the punishment of others while at the same time finding glee in getting away with their own indiscretions whether they be doing 50 in a 45, claiming an untrue tax deduction or something far more serious.

I bet it is high. These places do not seem to work for rehabilitation at all.

We're reading Lord of the Flies, and we got to talking about how the boys in that would be treated when they got back home and whether or not they should be tried as adults. Many of my students come from poverty and know or are related to people in prison, and they have some interesting ideas on how to treat juvenile offenders.

Personally, I think we should admit that the latest brain research is clear in that teen brains just aren't there yet when it comes to understanding the impact of decisions and treat them as such. We should have some other place, other way of dealing with them instead of putting them in the general prison population.

our institutions are failing us at the point where they are coming in contact to serve.

you're right about the info -- but a broken institution is still going to have a hard time adjusting appropriately to even the best info.

Our jail system is extremely broken. It incarcerates and tortures and fails to rehabilitate most. That's what has to get fixed first. Then, we have to fix our laws that are so messed up.

As for fixing schools, I have my own opinions on that.

in an alternate school. They hired me because as I told them , I used to be one of these kids.
There are no 'bad kids'. none. these kids are just angry and confused. They know nothing about life. They come from group homes, they come from abject poverty. They have been abused. Most are dealing with some kind of disability or otherwise a handicap. The main reason most are there, is fighting. But truancy is a close second. Truancy because they just dont want to be there. They have grown accustomed to the despair of hopelessness they expect from life.
young people are resilient. They get used to confinement very quickly and appreciate the security it offers. The comradre the regimen. Children need security. They need sameness.They need roots. They need 18 years of every day to be the same as the day before. They havent figured out the world yet, and its a scarry place.
There is no blanket solution. But one way to help them is to stop lying to them. We lie to them all the time.
Holding them as prisoner is wrong. They do need to be held accountable , they want to be held accountable.

I think the teacher whom I work with are great people.They care about kids whom no one else care about. That, in the end is all they need. Some one to care.

The school I'm in has a high number of at-risk kids, so I still get to work with them, but there's something special about alternative high schools. I miss working with those kids--amazing, wonderful kids all of them.

ways.

A bookend to this would be county nursing homes.

Everything from pricing people out of existence to selective enforcement to toxic food and air.

Too many "useless eaters" in the pool. I hope they enjoy their solitary existence with their diamonds and their servants.

And grow up away from punitive' justice'. This is so sad.

shaming them is pretty damn disgusting.

K & R! What slave labor do they have them doing? Making plates?