#juveniles

Young of the kangaroo rat. Life history of the kangaroo rat. 1922.

I wrote this op-ed; it was published in The Oregonian.

By Jenny Westberg

You laughed, didn't you?

You snickered after you heard about the 12-year-old girl, the one who was shot at point-blank range with a lead-pellet bag and then later convicted of assaulting the police officer. You heard she turned around and set her bedroom on fire.

Twelve, now 13 years old, she's a big girl for her age, but still a child. She's African American. She has a diagnosis of mental illness.

Aside from drugging our kids and putting them in cages, what exactly can we do?

She snapped. Maybe it was a last straw. After living through all that she has suffered, she was watching TV coverage of the bench trial in which she was, unaccountably, found guilty in an incident where she was a victim.

So she did something "crazy."

Still laughing? Catch your breath long enough to think about your own kids, your neighbor's kids and a society in disrepair, ill-equipped to deal with mental illness. Gallows humor captures the futility of the midnight patrol officer, the juvenile justice system, middle school counselors, parent support groups, public defenders and district attorneys, laws and judges, courts and courtrooms trying to heal the wounds of mental illness.

They can't do it. No matter how much money is spent, no matter how many promises are made, they haven't a clue where to start, much less how to help.

Was the laugh a mask for helplessness?

Aside from drugging our kids and putting them in cages, what exactly can we do? How do we help them? How do we heal them? How do we minimize the chance of our kids acting out, doing something so crazy that strangers laugh?

Kids spend their childhood watching you. They see everything. Every time you get drunk, every time you curse someone, every time you lose your temper, your kids measure you. So give them something to be proud of. You want your kid not to drink and do drugs? Get some help for your own problems. Model sobriety. Model integrity. Model kindness.

[...]

And what about that snickering? Look beneath. When the laughter dies away, we're face to face with our true feelings.

Relief. Thank God it wasn't me, my child, my hopes and dreams destroyed by an illness no one understands and no one wants.

Sadness. I am my sister's keeper. By silence or by snickering, I'm letting her down. And my kid's probably more like her than she is different. If I haven't been through the nightmare, I might one day. Can I put myself in her place, in her mother's place?

Disappointment. What happens to this youngster? The interventions offered by the court are a noose tightening, eliminating options and alternatives, and will soon take away her freedom and her future. What can we offer her except more pain?

Terror. What if mental illness is not something that just happens to others? What if I am not so different? Well, you're not. Your child isn't either. No matter the color of your skin or how much money you have, your child could gradually slip away or even break, and your girl's bedroom could be in flames.

The snickering is a sad, hollow response to our worst fears. Have empathy and recognize a young girl's pain. Have courage and use your true feelings to move toward action, toward hope. Respond with compassion, and respond with support. Most of all, respond with your voice. Tell yourself, tell your friends and your family, tell the whole city you're not laughing any more.

Because the fire's not just in one girl's room. It's everywhere.

Jenny Westberg is a board member of the Mental Health Association of Portland.

https://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/2010/03/mental_illness_the_laugh_its_o.html

Children in the dominant society commit all kinds of heinous crimes and don't even see a handcuff. Meanwhile Black children are sent to Angola by these WS judges.

As of 2019, Black children were 4.4 times more likely to be incarcerated compared to white children, according to the Sentencing Project, a research and advocacy organization focused on decarceration efforts.

insider.com

Dozens of jailed kids, nearly all of them Black, must be removed from a former Louisiana death row...

The children have been incarcerated at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, the nation's largest adult maximum security prison.

A judge said dozens of jailed kids must be moved out of a former Louisiana death row prison unit.

The Louisiana State Penitentiary is the largest adult maximum security prison in the country.

The kids faced lengthy detainment in their cells and diminished education, testimony revealed.

A group of incarcerated children, most of them Black, spent nearly a year jailed in a former death row wing of the Louisiana State Prison.

Court testimony later brought to light concerning conditions: They were forced to stay in their cells for sometimes an entire day. One child was pepper-sprayed for throwing liquid at a guard. And they were denied adequate education.

Louisiana State is the country's largest adult maximum security prison. It is sometimes called Angola, the name of the old prison — a slave plantation — where the new one now sits.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards first ordered the kids moved to Angola last summer. Months of legal battles followed.

Now, after a year, a federal judge has intervened, ruling Friday that the kids must be moved out of the prison by September 15.  

"For almost 10 months, children — nearly all Black boys — have been held in abusive conditions of confinement at the former death row of Angola — the nation's largest adult maximum security prison," David Utter, lead attorney on the case, wrote in a statement on Friday. "We are grateful to our clients and their families for their bravery in speaking out and standing up against this cruelty."

While rates of US youth incarceration have fallen in recent decades — declining 77 percent between 2000 and 2020 — racial disparities persist. As of 2019, Black children were 4.4 times more likely to be incarcerated compared to white children, according to the Sentencing Project, a research and advocacy organization focused on decarceration efforts.

In his ruling, the judge said prison officials had violated the Fourteenth Amendment and that the children had faced cruel and unusual punishment, according to the ACLU of Louisiana.

The ruling came after a hearing last month revealed officials detained the children in their cells for long periods of time, used pepper spray in certain cases, and limited their access to education.

Testimony from a guard at the facility and an expert witness revealed officials held several children in their cells for anywhere between 14 and 22 hours, depending on the day, local news station WWNO reported. State law prohibits guards from holding children in their cells for longer than eight hours outside of sleeping hours. 

Video footage played at the hearing also revealed a guard had used pepper spray against a child after he threw liquid from his cell toilet, according to WWNO. Submitted testimony from the children involved in the case also indicated that their required access to education had declined since moving to the Louisiana State Penitentiary. 

Following the judge's ruling, the Office of Juvenile Justice said in a statement their office has taken "extraordinary measures" to ensure the children maintained access to education and had suitable living conditions.

are all around right now. It is funny to see them explore because often, they are seemingly shy or timid but at the same time bold and unafraid. I love them all because I know they will only be here for a short time. Pictured: Redwinged Blackbird, Blue Jay, Oriole and Grackle.

pink hair : death is only ending fo the villainess

light brown hair : history of the libiary ,

white hair : the lady is a stalker

blonde hair with rose : take care of the duke

purple hair with pink eyes : juveniles

black hair with green eyes : I don't trust my Twin sister