His little toes aren’t even visible beneath baggy prison trousers that billow around his ankles. Clearly, this uniform was not made for someone his size. Nor was his prison cell.
The little boy who stares from the front cover of a brand new report titled "From Time Out to Hard Time: Young Children in the Adult Criminal Justice System" represents the plight of thousands of children in the U.S. who are locked up in adult jails and prisons. Though our laws on driving, voting, marriage, military service, and contracts acknowledge an inherent difference between children and adults, our criminal justice system is too often blind to how unique children are in terms of development and maturity.
Roughly 80 children are judicially transferred from the juvenile to the adult criminal justice system each year. This number does not include the children who are automatically sent into the adult system because of rigid sentencing laws. Estimates for the total number of children in adult jails reach 7,500. These youngsters are forced to face a trial system they cannot understand and confinement conditions that are treacherous to the weak and vulnerable.
And locking them up with the adults really doesn’t make us safer. A report commissioned by the Centers for Disease Control found that transferring juveniles makes them more likely to be arrested for new crimes, including violent ones, when they are released.
Children must be held accountable for their crimes. But the juvenile justice system is far better equipped to both punish them and restore them as healthy, productive members of their communities. As we speak up on behalf of oppressed children around the globe, we must also remember those who languish in jails and prisons right down the road from us.
For more information on Juvenile Justice, visit Justice Fellowship’s Web page. Also, follow us on Twitter for breaking coverage of reform efforts across the nation.
The Washington Post is getting a lot of buzz from its story "Transgender at five," about a little girl who was diagnosed with gender dysphoria, a form of gender identity disorder. For now, her parents are letting her live as a boy. In the future, they have some deeply disturbing options, such as puberty blockers and hormone treatments that, among other things, would render their child sterile.
It seems to me, from my reading of the article, that the medical community has put more time and effort into encouraging families to embrace and encourage the symptoms of this disorder than into trying to find genuine treatments for it. Is there any other disorder on earth that we treat this way? The very word disorder suggests that something has gone wrong, that something is, literally, out of order. Wouldn't you think that the patients would be better off if their doctors were genuinely interested in finding ways to restore that order? READ FULL ARTICLE »
Grammatical giveaway
By: Gina Dalfonzo|Published: May 21, 2012 10:32 AM
Bill Maher went after Liberty University late last week (language alert). Among other things, he said: "When you confuse a church with a school, it mixes up the things you believe -- religion -- with the things we know -- education."
As Nancy Pearcey pointed out on Facebook: "The fact/value split in action: belief pitted against knowledge. Notice the shift in pronouns: You believe, but we know." READ FULL ARTICLE »
We need to speak out against the latest attempt to muzzle free speech. While Representative Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) has good intentions, his proposal would spell the end of freedom.
If you missed Chuck's memorial service, you can still see it here, at least for now. (I'm not certain how long it will be available online.) Also, you can read WORLD magazine's writeup here. READ FULL ARTICLE »
The Obama website has a page about "The Life of Julia," supposedly a representative American woman. Over at Her.meneutics, I have a piece about why Julia is a remarkably poor representative for many of us. READ FULL ARTICLE »
When writing, I try to keep exclamation points to a minimum, however, for this blog I might use more than one. You will forgive me the excitement when you find out that we've just celebrated Gina's 10th anniversary with the ministry.
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I heard about the new TIME magazine cover on my way to work this morning. It's a startling picture, really: A three-year-old boy is standing on a chair suckling at his mother's breast.
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He’s supposed be against bullying, but that’s exactly what he did. From the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, I’m John Stonestreet with the Point.
