The state of Arkansas has stopped sending kids to a second county lock-up, this time the one in Independence County, after a state investigator found some problems with the way staffers treated the young inmates there.
The investigator found the juvee lock-up had used restraints and 23-hour lockdowns as punishments--which is a violation of state standards.
In at least a dozen cases at the White River Juvenile Detention Center in Batesville, the staff used those punishments for misbehavior like talking or banging on doors. Also, the kids were threatened with Tasers.
All this comes on the heels of the state's decision to stop sending kids to a lock-up in Yell County, too, where kids seem to have been put in restraints and pepper sprayed for minor offenses.
The "defense" from the county judge in Independence County, one Robert Griffin, fell along these lines: At least we weren't as bad as Yell County. Or as he told the paper: "There's no comparison between treatment there versus treatment here."
We'll take him at his word because there's no reason not to. But he also said something else that caught our eye--like a hot cinder: The county judge explained why guards and other staff at the Batesville juvee found it necessary to carry Tasers even if those at other such lock-ups usually don't. To quote Judge Griffin: "We've had no incidents of abuse. They have no reason to fear us having these in our possession. They enable us to protect our officers."
Then he added:
"Some of these children are men."
Hmmm.
No, your honor, children are not men. That's why they're called children. It's also the whole point of having juvenile detention. When adults need to be locked away, they're sent to The Big House, along with other adults. Juveniles are sent to juvenile detention because they aren't men yet.
Judge Griffin surely knows as much, and we'd guess what he meant was that some of these kids are big. And that's understandable. Those of us who've worked with troubled children wouldn't want to be caught alone in a room with some of them. They didn't get sent to juvenile detention for getting a C in math.
But let's also not confuse them with men, either. Some of them may be built like linebackers, but the teen-aged brain is still developing. Especially when it comes to impulse control and other adult traits. That's why these kids should be treated as kids, and given second chances, even third and fourth chances. Until they do, indeed, become men.
It may not be easy--indeed, it certainly isn't easy to always treat kids as kids. But these juvenile lock-ups should be in the business of making these kids good, adult citizens. And it's hard to learn the lessons of good citizenship when there's a Taser or container of pepper spray pointed at you.
Editorial on 01/05/2015