Justice For Juveniles: Child Cruelty In Florida Injustice System
Routine For Officials
May 19, 2006
A small 15 year old boy, was brutally raped at knife
point eight times by an adult inmate after the child was housed with
adults in the Escambia County Florida jail.
For Immediate Release
PENSACOLA, Ala./EWORLDWIRE/May 19, 2006 --- A small 15
year old boy, was brutally raped at knife point eight times by an
adult inmate after the child was housed with adults in the Escambia
County jail. The youngster was incarcerated as an adult for arson, a
crime normally seen as treatable within the juvenile system
according to most experts. Juvenile fire starter programs exist in a
number of states to treat youthful offenders, who range from
unknowing children playing with matches to troubled youngsters in
their mid-teens who start fires to gain attention or because of
psychiatric disorders. Escambia County officials were quoted as
saying they housed the child “by the book” as justification for the
attack.
"The news that a 15-year-old held in an adult jail was raped is
especially troubling as empirical research has shown for at least 15
years that children held in adult facilities are five times more
likely to be victims of sexual assault,” said Brian Oliver a
University of Missouri, criminology and criminal justice student.
The death of a young boy in an abusive juvenile boot camp is just
one example of the endemic abuse of children by officials in
Florida. “Children in Florida are routinely overcharged with crimes
that would have earned them a reprimand half a century ago, and the
newspapers ignore their plight," stated Donna Gallegos, the founder
of Justice for Juveniles. “ But when one child is accused of
committing a serious crime, it receives constant media play and
hype. The reality is that children are in more danger from adults
then adults are from children.”
Kathy Harris, a Florida child advocate, pointed out that many of
the children set-up as adults in Florida are being prosecuted for
non-violent crimes, simply because politically minded prosecutors
want to appear “tough” on juvenile crime. Florida judges are
routinely elected and one of the best ways to gain political points
is to show they are tough on juvenile crime record.
“They are not protecting society when they send small children to
adult prisons to be used as rape fodder. They are committing child
cruelty. The abuse starts when the child is charged as an adult at
the whim of a prosecutor," according to Harris. "It is time to move
jurisdiction back to juvenile courts and require prosecutors to
demonstrate with clear and convincing evidence that a child cannot
be treated within the juvenile system before locking a child up as
an adult and damaging him for life.”
