{"id":216,"date":"2022-03-11T15:21:42","date_gmt":"2022-03-11T15:21:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/candyhatcher.com\/?page_id=216"},"modified":"2022-03-22T15:40:36","modified_gmt":"2022-03-22T15:40:36","slug":"growing-up","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/candyhatcher.com\/index.php\/growing-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Growing Up"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

GROWING UP BEHIND BARS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Palm Beach Post (Florida) January 23, 2000<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Copyright 2000 Palm Beach Newspaper, Inc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Candy Hatcher<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Florida sends a child to prison, it might as well place a sign around the kid’s neck that reads “hopeless.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That, in effect, is what the state thinks of the 127 children 16 or younger who live in Florida’s adult prisons. The state considers them throwaways. These discards, however, eventually get out. They’re supposed to get jobs, but few have marketable skills. They’re supposed to lead crime-free lives, but their role models have been criminals. That wasn’t the idea in 1994, when the Legislature, under pressure from the public, rewrote Florida’s juvenile crime laws. People were tired of hearing about punks who stole cars or broke into houses repeatedly, yet received no punishment from the juvenile courts. So lawmakers drew up a two-pronged plan to deal with delinquents: Establish programs that would attempt to rehabilitate children when they first get in trouble, and punish the few truly dangerous kids by giving prosecutors the power to charge young boys and girls as adults.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem is that the state has followed through on only the second part of the plan. Prosecutors regularly seek adult punishment for child criminals, but lawmakers have done little to help children before they turn to crime. Florida has some of the toughest juvenile crime policies in the country – and the second-highest juvenile crime rate. Nationally, the violent crime rate for juveniles is at its lowest level since 1989. But in Florida, despite an overall drop in violent crime, juvenile arrests increased nearly 15 percent in the first six months of 1999 compared with the same period in 1998.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sending irresponsible, hard-to-manage teenagers to prison doesn’t make them responsible. Confining them with violent criminals, predators and con artists teaches them nothing about values. When they get out – and most do within three years – they are more likely to commit another crime than if they had been in the juvenile system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of the children in Florida’s prisons have similar backgrounds. Their fathers weren’t around. Their mothers worked at night. When they skipped school, no one cared. No one paid attention until they broke the law. The state should not ignore the crime, but only rarely is a child so irredeemable that he or she deserves to be thrown away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former state Sen. Gary Siegel, R-Longwood, who shepherded the Juvenile Justice Reform Act of 1994 through the Legislature, says that only under very limited circumstances were prosecutors supposed to try children as adults. Most children were supposed to benefit from prevention and rehabilitation programs. Instead, Mr. Siegel claims, the law puts hundreds of problem children in a prison-and-probation system set up for adults to punish them for not acting like adults. “If you keep putting 13-, 14-, 15-year-olds in the penitentiary, it’s not going to solve anything,” he said. “You’re not bringing out a rehabilitated adult. You’re creating a class of criminals.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Florida Supreme Court Justice Barbara Pariente, who serves on several committees that deal with children and the courts, suggests that legislators pay more attention to treatment through the juvenile courts. “We can’t all lock ourselves in our homes,” she said. “If you’re going to build more prisons, you need to have drug treatment, help for mental illnesses.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

National studies have shown that Florida’s juvenile justice system isn’t working. Lawmakers should spend a year reviewing the results of the 1994 laws. They should talk to children’s guardians, juvenile court judges, teachers and juvenile justice workers about what keeps children from committing crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, next year, the Legislature should rework the juvenile justice system to satisfy both goals of the 1994 law – keeping the public safe and saving troubled children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jessica Robinson Age: 16<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hometown: Miami<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prison: Dade Correctional Institution<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Offense: Robbery Sentence: Nine years Release date: June 9, 2006<\/p>\n\n\n\n

James Conley Age: 16<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hometown: Perry<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prison: Brevard Correctional Institution<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Offense: Second-degree murder in 1995<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sentence: 14 years<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Release date: Jan. 20, 2009<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tobias Thomas Age: 14<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hometown: Fort Pierce<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prison: Indian River Correctional Institution<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Offense: Home invasion, assault and battery on a person over 65<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sentence: Six years<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Release date: March 3, 2004<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Norbert Clemente Age: 16<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hometown: Oakridge<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prison: Holmes Correctional Institution<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Offense: Attempted car-jacking in 1997<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sentence: Four years<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Release date: July 21, 2001<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brandon Hartsoe Age: 15<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hometown: Miami<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prison: New River East Correctional Institution<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Offense: Attempted murder in 1997 using his mother’s gun<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sentence: Seven years<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Release date: Oct. 16, 2004<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cortney Taylor Age: 16<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hometown: Fort Pierce<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prison: Hillsborough Correctional Institution<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Offense: Robbery with a deadly weapon in 1998<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sentence: Four years<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Release date: March 7, 2002<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael Clarkson Age: 16<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hometown: St. Petersburg<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prison: Sumter Correctional Institution<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Offense: First-degree murder and robbery in 1996<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sentence: 35 years<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Release date: Jan. 7, 2032<\/p>\n\n\n\n

James Corporal Age: 16<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hometown: Fort Pierce<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prison: Apalachee East Unit<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Offense: Sexual battery on a child under 12 in 1997<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sentence: Six years<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Release date: Aug. 19, 2003<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SOURCE: Florida DOC Web site: www.dc.state.fl.us\/InmateInfo\/InmateInfo menu.asp<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GROWING UP BEHIND BARS Palm Beach Post (Florida) January 23, 2000 Copyright 2000 Palm Beach Newspaper, Inc. Candy Hatcher When Florida sends a child to prison, it might as well place a sign around the kid’s neck that reads “hopeless.” That, in effect, is what the state thinks of the 127 children 16 or younger […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-216","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":6}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/candyhatcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/candyhatcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/candyhatcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/candyhatcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/candyhatcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/candyhatcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":538,"href":"https:\/\/candyhatcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/216\/revisions\/538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/candyhatcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}