Subject: Prison Candy?
From: Andrew Hund (ajh9@humboldt.edu)
Date: Thu Mar 23 2000 - 16:03:21 CST
Hello all:
Recently, adolescent boys have been sent to adult prisons in various
states for perceived adult crimes. This trend is deeply distrubing, IMHO.
The advocates of this type of adult-punishment-for-adolescents (sometimes
pre-adolescents) frequently rationalize this with the standard assertions of
"we have to get tough on crime," "they deserve it," "adult crime -- adult
punishment," etc. Yet, the advocates of this "punishment" do not consider
the lifestyles these young boys will face in the adult population. These
teens and pre-teens will be a hot commodity for many inmates (guards?) to
pass around...repeatedly. I suspect after at least 15 to 200 times of
being sexually victimized (gang raped, raped, forced oral sex, etc) and
not having the ability to fight back at least for the first couple of
years -- the boys will get used to there new "get tough on crime"
punishment. Additionally, after this type of socialization it might not be
a good idea to release them.
Therefore, since nothing will or can be done expect a lot of talk,
unfortunately -- I propose the label "prison candy" as a means to identify
these new prisoners.
Any thoughts?
Andrew Hund
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