A little too bold, according to federal prosecutors in New York.
Across America, there are some grim lock-ups for juvenile offenders. Not the least of the troubles for these youth comes from being incarcerated with adults in too many facilities. That should have been stopped a century ago, but in several states it hasn't. But that's not the only problem.
Take, for instance, the situation at Rikers Island Prison Complex. Brutality of guards toward teenage inmates and other out-of-line behavior by employees at the prison is so appalling that, following a report released in August, federal prosecutors have decided to sue New York City because correction officials are moving too damn slow to make the needed corrections.
That report, the outcome of a two-and-a-half-year investigation by Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, found that the place was suffused with "a deep-seated culture of violence" and that "there is a pattern and practice of conduct at Rikers that violates the constitutional rights of adolescent inmates." That's being done by those paid to keep those adolescents safe while they are locked up.
Bharara documented so many problems with the juvenile lockup at Rikers that the report contains 10 dense pages of remediation recommendations. The summary is Dickensian:
• force is used against adolescents at an alarming rate and violent inmate-on-inmate fights and assaults are commonplace, resulting in a striking number of serious injuries;
• correction officers resort to "headshots," or blows to an inmate's head or facial area, too frequently;
• force is used as punishment or retribution;
• force is used in response to inmates' verbal altercations wiht officers;
• use of force by specialized response teams within the jails is particularly brutal;
• correction officers attempt to justify use of force by yelling "stop resisting" even when the adolescent has been completely subdued or was never resisting in the first place; and
• use of force is particularly common in areas without video surveillance cameras.
And that ain't all. Staff don't report their use of force adequately and there is false reporting, the inmate grievance system is inadequate, training of guards is inadequate, "prolonged punitive segregation for adolescent inmates is excessive and inappropriate" and there are "general failures by management to adequately address the extraordinarily high levels of violence perpetrated against and among the adolescent population."
Read more about his scandalous situation below the fold.
It's a cliché and all, but this sounds like the perfect cauldron for turning these teenagers into tough and incorrigible life-long prisoners. "Inadequate," that word used so often in the report to describe the "deficiencies" at Rikers, is itself inadequate. A thorough house-cleaning needs to be undertaken.
When guards behave as the scathing Bharara report says they have done, violating the civil rights of young inmates, and they relentlessly go on behaving that way for years, they are scarcely the only people to blame. That "deep-seated culture of violence" is the fault of the people at the top who have the authority to stop it but either condone outright or are too cowardly to do anything about it. Some of Rikers' nearly 11,000 employees should be sent packing, along with their bosses.
Whatever happens in the federal lawsuit, New York City leaders should tackle the juvenile situation at Rikers with haste. This, after all, is a city prison, and since city officials have been well-informed of the problems there, they are responsible just like Department of Corrections bosses at the prison itself. Not that conditions there for juveniles are the only dreadfulness in the place. But first things first, and juveniles are the most vulnerable to the documented abuse at Rikers.
Another report, this one in 2011 from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, highlighted several states that are experimenting with encouraging reforms that keep all but violent juveniles out of prison. That's a civilized approach. But many states are nowhere near there. And while they may or may not be as bad as Rikers, their juvenile lockups often are holding tanks dedicated to mistreatment of those charged to their care. The Casey report also used "inadequate" to describe the juvenile justice system. But it didn't stop there. It characterized that system as "dangerous, ineffective, unnecessary, wasteful."
How about disgraceful, damnable and morally criminal? How about unfuckingacceptable in the 21st Century?
It should not be forgotten what we know from parenting and from brain science: No matter how mature they may appear to be, 15- 16- and 17-year-olds, aren't. Nor are they fully legal persons. Instead of today's version of brass knuckle justice, which the kids at Rikers appear to be getting, how about doing some growing up ourselves and do whatever it takes to keep most kids out of jail and treat the ones who must be confined with humanity?
Would that really be so hard?