- a 10-year-old boy handcuffed, arrested and locked up for allegedly kicking his mother.
- a 13-year-old girl detained on suspicion of possessing marijuana, which turned out to be oregano.
- a 12-year-old boy detained for making a harassing telephone call.
- a 16-year-old girl detained for violating her father's rules (throwing objects in her room and not attending school.)
- adoption of international commitments on the rights of children.
- incarcerating children only as a last resort.
- periodic inspections of detention centers and jails by independent oversight bodies.
- proper mental health, education, recreation facilities.
- an immediate end to executions of those who committed crimes while under age 18.
- and congressional legislation that requires states to segregate detained and imprisoned children from adult inmates.
National News
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Report: U.S. fails youth offenders |
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WASHINGTON-"Each Sunday I visit my son, but it is not only his pain and helplessness I see. I overhear horrible stories of the past week's violence as the children try to explain fresh cuts and bruises to their parents," the mother of boy at a juvenile correctional facility in Maine said earlier this year. The painful recollection was cited in a report released Nov. 18 by Amnesty International, "United States of America: Betraying the Young-Children in the Criminal Justice System." Thousands of children are accused or convicted of criminal offenses and subjected to "human rights abuses" ranging from brutal physical force, lengthy periods in solitary confinement and long periods in jail before trial, to imprisonment with adults, the report says. These children are also subject to cruel punishments, extreme overcrowding and often have no access to mental health or educational services, the report found. "Such treatment of juveniles is tantamount to throwing away the key to the future of tens of thousands of youth," the report says. "The notion of the 'super predator' and the 'teenage time bomb' has fueled irrational and shortsighted policies which ultimately strip young people of their human dignity and rob our society of untapped human potential." Such names as "super predator" and "natural born killers" have been designated to juveniles-especially Black juveniles-by such congressmen as Florida Republican Bill Mc Collum, of the House Judiciary Committee. In 1996, he introduced the "Youth Predator Act" in the House, aimed at punishing juvenile delinquents. When the bill was introduced, the congressman declared many youthful offenders are "beyond redemption." According to Amnesty's report, children are incarcerated for minor offenses when other action could have been taken: "In some jurisdictions, incarceration is regarded as an appropriate punishment for even minor infringements of the law by very young children such as fighting in school," the reports says. "Excessive use of incarceration is a matter of grave concern because of its inherent risks to the physical and mental integrity of children, and its potential for negative influence rather than rehabilitation." "In America race and class are always intertwined and definitely the youth who are most affected by crime and the criminal justice system are young Black males," said Dr. Dorothy Fardan, a professor of sociology and criminal justice at Bowie State University in Maryland. Dr. Fardan added that the justice system, in most cases, views white youth as having emotional problems when it comes to crime. "And they get special programs, but young Black youth are normally seen as having disruptive behavior and are more prone to be seen as potential delinquents and then they are criminalized," she said. According to the report, Black youth are over represented in the criminal justice system. While Black youth are only 15 percent of the population between the ages of 10-17, they are 30 percent of youth arrested, 40 percent of youths held in custody and 50 percent of cases transferred to adult criminal courts. The report warns more youth are being incarcerated with adults, endangering their lives. It also criticizes the execution of children in the United States, citing such treaties as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, both of which ban execution of anyone who committed a crime when under age 18. The United States has ratified the Covenant on Civil Rights, but "since ratification U.S. state authorities have executed six prisoners for crimes committed when they were under 18, and sentenced to death 70 others," Amnesty notes. Some 192 countries, with the exception of the United States and Somalia have ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child. "This goes along with this whole pattern of criminalizing youth, particularly Black males. ... So in the minds of the public and in the mind of the criminal justice system these are young criminals and they're moving to treat them as such," Dr. Fardan explained. Amnesty offered the following recommendations to reverse the trend: |
