Post by Anja Nieser on Oct 1, 2006 6:04:25 GMT -5
Young lives lost ---- For every 100,000 Black juveniles living in the
United States, more than 750 are in custody in a juvenile facility.
For many criminals the justice system has a swift, but blunt message: You
do the crime, you have to pay the time.
And instead of playing a game of basketball, figuring out what to wear for
the next school day or deciding whom to take to the school prom, many
Black youths today are finding themselves paying time behind bars at a
rate faster than any time in recent memory, numerous records show.
In Philadelphia, according to numbers provided by the Philadelphia Police
Departments Homicide Unit, 13 juveniles were arrested in connection with
murder last year.
That number is up this year; so far, 19 juveniles have been arrested and
charged with murder.
That's not counting aggravated assaults, rape, theft and non-fatal
shootings committed by young people.
According to experts, the causes are varied for these crimes: Poor
economic and educational opportunities; a dysfunctional family base and
mental and emotional illnesses are all components of the problem.
Civil rights activists have protested in Harrisburg and Washington, D.C.,
that if living conditions do not change fast for Blacks under the age of
18, the prison crisis will only get worse.
It is also one of the most disturbing aspects of Americas incarcerated
population that a disproportionately high and growing number of juvenile
criminals are African-American.
In the city, the number of male juveniles held in the Philadelphia Prison
System's House of Correction averaged 98 per day for its fiscal year,
which ends on June 30.
PPS spokesman Robert Eskind said that number was higher for fiscal year
2006, when the daily average reached 116.
For female juveniles, who are housed in the Riverside Correctional
Facility, the average daily number for last year was 4. For fiscal year
2006 the average daily number was 6.
An alarming trend
In June, 4-year-old Nashay Little was wounded by gunfire as she played
outside a relatives home on Sigel Street in South Philadelphia.
To date, South Philadelphia has seen increasing incidence of youth-related
violence, according to police reports.
Shortly after Nashay's shooting, police arrested a 15-year-old
African-American boy, charging him with attempted murder and related
offenses.
Sadly, stories such as this one have become a common occurrence in the
African-American community, where children are packing guns and using them
indiscriminately.
According to researchers at The Sentencing Project and Human Rights Watch,
young offenders are too often perceived by mainstream America as being
"super predators," a term coined by University of Pennsylvania professor
John J. Dilulio in the 1990s.
The term has been used to define youthful criminals who kill, rob and rape
without feeling guilt or a sense of conscience.
Chad Dion Lassiter, adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania's
School of Social Policy and Practice, said Black and Hispanic youths are
being stereotyped as violent and incorrigible.
"The popular media embellishes them with images that are provocative,
exaggerated, distorted and racially biased," he said. "Many of these Black
juveniles are being stigmatized as incorrigible, hostile and dangerous."
Other experts say the reasons the juvenile prison populations are growing
are discriminatory practices within the judicial system.
The outcome is also the result of a harsh political reality that in recent
decades has moved the courts to try some youthful criminals as adults
because of the severity of their crimes.
This disparity has led to a rise in the number of Black and Hispanic
youths in prison.
"Courts began prosecuting such cases in adult court beginning in the 1980s
as a result of the increasing number of violent crimes committed by
younger and younger offenders," said Alison Parker, acting director of
U.S. Programs for Human Rights Watch.
"There was a time in America when juvenile criminal cases would be
adjudicated in juvenile courts, where consideration for the immaturity of
the offenders was taken into consideration," she said.
"Children can commit terrible crimes, but when they do, they should be
held accountable for them, but in a manner that reflects their capacity
for rehabilitation. In the United States the punishment is all too often
no different from that given to adults."
Studies conducted by the United States Department of Justice, Human Rights
Watch and other independent research groups indicate a great disparity
between the way youths of color are treated by the justice system and the
way white youths are punished.
"We see it all too often in the justice system," Lassiter said. Black and
Hispanic youth generally get sentenced to more prison time than their
white counterparts. Far too often, youthful Black or Hispanic offenders
are being tried as adults whereas, according to researchers, cases
involving white youths are often, but not always, referred to juvenile
courts."
Some young people are certainly guilty of committing heinous crimes. But
according to a study conducted by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty
International, entitled "The Rest of Their Lives," more than half, at
least 59 %, are first-time offenders and deserve at least a chance for
rehabilitation.
The report also examined the extent to which young offenders, who more
often than not are so-called minorities, face harsher penalties than their
white counterparts.
"The public may believe that children who receive life without parole
sentences are super-predators with long records of vicious crimes," the
report stated. "In fact, an estimated 59 % received the sentence for their
first-ever criminal conviction. 16 % were between 13 and 15 years old at
the time they committed their crimes."
The report goes on to say while the vast majority of these juveniles were
convicted of murder, an estimated 26 percent were convicted of felony
murder, in which the teen participated in a robbery or burglary during
which a co-participant committed murder, without the knowledge or intent
of the teen.
According to the report, racial disparities are high. Nationwide, the
estimated rate at which Black youths receive life without parole sentences
is 10 times greater than the rate for white youths.
Another report published by The Sentencing Project, a nonprofit
organization that advocates reform in prison sentencing protocols, stated
thousands of child offenders cases are being automatically transferred
into adult courts without judicial review.
"Fear of juvenile crime has reversed the long-accepted practice of
treating young offenders in special juvenile courts," said the reports
authors, Patricia Allard and Malcolm Young. "Thousands of children
annually are now being transferred automatically and without judicial
review, from juvenile court jurisdiction to adult criminal court and into
adult corrections. The imposition of adult punishments, far from deterring
crime, actually seems to produce an increase in criminal activity in
comparison to the results obtained for children retained in the juvenile
system."
Young and Allard go on to state that reliance on the criminal courts and
punishment ignores evidence that more effective responses to the problems
of crime and violence exist outside the criminal justice system in
therapeutic programs.
"The phrase 'adult time for adult crime' is catchy, but it reflects a poor
understanding of criminal justice principles," Parker said. "If the
punishment is to fit the crime, we need to take in consideration both the
nature of the offense and the moral culpability of the offender. As the
U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly recognized, the blameworthiness of
children cannot be equated with that of adults, even when they commit the
same crime. Their brains are different from adults."
Parker cited a 2005 Supreme Court case, Roper v. Simmons, in which the
court ruled that the execution of child offenders was unconstitutional,
because juveniles are "categorically less culpable" than adult criminals.
"Children are susceptible to immature and often irresponsible behavior,"
Parker said. "And they are vulnerable to negative pressures and
influences.
We're not advocating that they should not be punished if theyve committed
a crime and held accountable. But we need to remember that they are
children. We're not excusing their behavior, but the point is, how can we
as a society say that our children are beyond rehabilitation?
"Our report showed that for murder, an African-American youth is 11 times
more likely to be sentenced to life in prison than a white youth who is
convicted of the same crime," Parker said. "Most of these young people
will die in prison, it's a very sad story for African-American youth."
The case of Stacey Torrance
In Philadelphia the story of Stacey Torrance illustrates the case of a
child who was influenced by someone older and engaged in a criminal act
without fully grasping the consequences.
It is also a textbook case of a childs vulnerability to negative pressure.
The crime was a robbery that ended with the murder of the victim. Torrance
is 33 now and has spent more time in prison than being a free man. He
doesnt deny his part in the robbery, but under Pennsylvania law he faces
the prospect of spending the rest of his life in prison.
Torrance's case is not an unusual in the United States, where since the
1980s the number of juveniles tried as adults has been steadily rising.
As with the number of African-American men and women being sentenced to
prison, the number of Black juveniles being sentenced is also on the rise.
Torrance was 14 in 1988 when he committed his crime. He was arrested for
the murder of Alexander Porter, a young man who was his girlfriend's
brother. He was about to enter the tenth grade at a Philadelphia high
school under a magnet program for students who excelled academically.
He lived at home with his mother, a single parent.
Torrance was convicted of 2nd-degree murder (felony murder in
Pennsylvania) and sentenced to life without parole.
He had no juvenile record, and this was his 1st offense. He was charged
directly in adult court and never had a juvenile transfer hearing.
According to court documents and police investigative reports, Torrance
agreed to participate in a robbery with 2 adults, Henry Daniels, who was
his cousin, and Kevin Pelzer. The victim was Alexander Porter.
They reportedly believed Porter had a lot of money because it was
allegedly common knowledge that his family was involved in drug-dealing.
The plan involved coercing Porter to give over the keys to his apartment
so that Daniels and Pelzer could rob it.
Prosecutors established that the three set up a drug transaction with
Porter, in order to lure him to a meeting. When they met, Porter was bound
and gagged.
They confiscated his keys, and stuffed him in the trunk of his car.
Torrance allowed himself to be tied up in front of Porter but was released
after Porter was locked in the trunk, then taken home so that the victim
would later believe that Torrance had been murdered. Daniels and Pelzer
drove Porter's car, with him in the trunk, to a garage and parked it.
According to reports, Daniels and Pelzer pretended to murder Torrance to
coerce Porter to give over the keys or face the same fate.
In Pelzers appeal, the court described what Pelzer and Daniels did in the
24 hours after Torrance left the scene: "Twice during the next 24 hours
while Porter was kept in the car trunk, the kidnappers used Porter's car
on excursions.
"First, they used the vehicle to get to Porter's parents apartment to
commit burglaries," the court stated. "Pelzer and Daniels went home, slept
for a few hours, then took Porter to a park. He was shot four times in the
neck and back with a .25-caliber handgun, and left by the roadside, where
his body was discovered the following day. While Porter was being bound,
Torrance was led outside, supposedly to be punished, but actually to be
released."
Pelzer told the court: "Me and Daniels got into the boys car, the black
shiny one, to drive Stacey home. I drove the car. We dropped Stacey off
and returned to my house."
In short, while Torrance agreed to participate in a robbery scheme, he was
not present at Porters fatal shooting, nor was there evidence presented at
trial that suggested he knew Daniels and Pelzer were going to murder
Porter.
Investigations led police to believe that the murder itself was never
planned. Torrance was convicted of 2nd-degree murder and has been behind
bars ever since.
In a published report Torrance wrote: "Convinced that I could make some
money, I agreed with my cousin to rob this guy of his keys so that my
cousin and his friend could rob the guys and his fathers apartment. But I
had no idea that this guy would end up dead. Yes, I made a mistake. I
associated with the wrong crowd. I engaged in committing a crime with
them.
"However, is it fair that I spend the rest of my life in prison for a
crime that was committed by someone else without my knowledge or without
me being present?" he asked. "I feel sorry for the life that was lost in
my case. I feel a deep sense of empathy for his family and what they must
continue to endure in terms of pain. But this tragedy was never supposed
to happen. I dont absolve myself of all guilt. Out of naivet, out of
influence, out of the ignorance of knowing the consequences, I agreed to
do a crime, a robbery."
A national trend
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have discovered there are
currently at least 2,225 people incarcerated in the United States who have
been sentenced to spend the rest of their lives in prison for crimes they
committed as children.
According to AI and HRW figures, in 1997, 7,400 offenders under age of 18
were admitted to state prisons, more than double the 3,400 admitted in
1985.
In 1999, more than 8,500 juveniles were held in adult jails, either tried
or awaiting trial as adults. They are at risk. Children incarcerated in
adult facilities are 7.7 times more likely to commit suicide, 5 times more
likely to be sexually assaulted, twice as likely to be beaten by staff
members and 50 %more likely to be attacked with a weapon than children
incarcerated in juvenile institutions.
For Black youths the statistics are dismal.
According to another report from The Sentencing Project entitled "Reducing
Racial Disparity," the effects of racial disparities are clearly seen in
the juvenile justice system. While Black youths represent 15 % of their
age group within the general population, they represent 26 % of juvenile
arrests, 31 % of referrals to juvenile court, 46 % of waivers to adult
court and 58 percent of juveniles sentenced to adult prison.
"The racial disparity challenges the basic values upon which the criminal
justice system rests," Parker said.
Bad influences
When a child commits a crime, especially a violent crime, the question
invariably asked is, why did they do it?
There are reasons why they ended up on the streets with a gun in their
hands and a body at their feet.
And far too often these children are Black.
There are reasons why the numbers of African-American and Hispanic
juveniles are swelling the prisons from coast to coast as prison reform
advocates, law enforcement officials and social experts confirm.
Anti-violence activists and social and judicial reformers suggest these
youthful criminals are the byproducts of failed social programs,
dysfunctional parents, a disinterested political will and a popular media
that glorifies the violence, which energizes the subculture of the
streets.
It is in the streets, with their own twisted rules of conduct, that these
juveniles find role models who have been to prison themselves.
"Young Black males in particular are significantly over- represented in
the juvenile justice system," Lassiter said. "They're involved in the
selling of drugs, active in street gangs and exhibiting behaviors that
violate traditional Black values."
Former Philadelphia Mayor W. Wilson Goode Sr., director of Amachi, a
program that mentors the children of incarcerated parents, said one of the
factors he sees that drives juveniles into prison is that children emulate
what they see.
Many have parents or other relatives either in prison or on probation, and
Goode said these children see no other future for themselves.
"I've seen entire families in prison, three and sometimes four
generations." he said. "Kids emulate their parents and often they come
from the same environment. If children grow up in an environment where
they see fighting, drug-selling, drug-using and criminal activity, they
grow up doing what they see. I was in Oklahoma and I was speaking with a
6-year-old boy whose father was in prison. I asked him what he wanted to
do when he grew up and do you know what he said? He said he wanted to go
to prison, like his father."
The former mayor also spoke of cases where a father and son meet each
other for the first time in prison and often either share the same cell or
cell block. He said he has personally spoken to mothers who share a cell
with their daughters.
In his book, "Race to Incarcerate," Mark Mauer, executive director of The
Sentencing Project, wrote of the terrible impact on the Black community of
having so many of its men, especially young men, in prison.
The Sentencing Project is a nonprofit agency that seeks to reform
sentencing policies in the nation.
"What does it mean to a community to know that three out of ten boys
growing up will spend time in prison? Mauer asked. "What does it do to the
fabric of the family and community to have such a substantial proportion
of its young men enmeshed in the criminal justice system? What images and
values are communicated to young people who see the prisoner as the most
prominent, pervasive role model in the community? What is the effect on a
community's political influence when one quarter of the Black men in some
states cannot vote as a result of a felony conviction?
Chad D. Lassiter, a social worker and behavioral interventionist attached
to the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia, said the overrepresentation of
Black juveniles in the justice system could be attributed to several
social issues.
But he was also emphatic about the influencing role the popular media play
in the trend.
"I firmly believe that the challenges facing Black juveniles today are
multiple, deeply rooted and exceedingly complex," Lassiter said. "These
challenges are major obstacles, which are dramatically disrupting the
normal socialization of Black males and females and causing a
disproportionate number of them to face a future that is indisputably
bleak."
Reversing the trend
It is by no means too late to effect change within the Black community and
deter juveniles from crime.
In Philadelphia, programs such as Amachi, the Youth Violence Reduction
Partnership and its companion program Adolescent Violence Reduction
Partnership are seeing increasing rates of success among at-risk youths.
Amachi provides mentors for children whose parents are incarcerated.
Another group, Men United for a Better Philadelphia, is an organization
that goes into distressed neighborhoods to dialogue with young Black and
Hispanic youths.
Lassiter said what many local legislators, concerned law enforcement
officials and anti-violence activists have been saying for several years:
in order to turn things around its going to take a concerted and
collective effort within the Black community to do so.
"We have to engage in what I like to call CPR, Cultural Pride
Reinforcement," he said. "We have to reinforce traditional values within
our community and impart a sense of pride within them. We're still dealing
with the vestiges of slavery, but we can break that curse. Our children
need to know they're not meant to be behind bars; they're meant for
something greater."
To counteract the dismal forecast of Black juveniles, the Black community
must collectively assume the primary responsibility for the welfare,
protection and spiritual development of our youth, according to Lassiter.
"There have to be after-school enrichment programs, and mentoring is
essential," he said. "There are a lot of churches involved in this, but we
have to get them all on board, largely the church has been sort of absent
from the youth violence."
Lassiter outlined several aspects of social issues that have to be
addressed to deter youths from engaging in criminal behavior. His aspects
include: pulling families out of poverty; getting families prenatal and
health care; and expanding access to and use of early childhood education
programs, just to name a few.
Lassiter noted in his experience, children who have witnessed a shooting
or murder have been traumatized. Within the Black community there are
growing numbers of these children, who need a higher level of mental
health care because of such trauma.
"There also has to be a moral imperative in the home that says certain
kinds of behavior is not going to be tolerated," Lassiter said. "We have
to reach these kids before they get into trouble. We have to lead our
children out of that violent mentality."
Goode said the problem is not impossible to resolve.
"If we can mentor these children for one hour a week, every week for a
year, we'll see a drop in crime," he said. "We can make a huge difference
in the lives of these children. It's a real problem, no question about it,
but it is a problem than can be solved."
(source: Philadelphia Tribune)
United States, more than 750 are in custody in a juvenile facility.
For many criminals the justice system has a swift, but blunt message: You
do the crime, you have to pay the time.
And instead of playing a game of basketball, figuring out what to wear for
the next school day or deciding whom to take to the school prom, many
Black youths today are finding themselves paying time behind bars at a
rate faster than any time in recent memory, numerous records show.
In Philadelphia, according to numbers provided by the Philadelphia Police
Departments Homicide Unit, 13 juveniles were arrested in connection with
murder last year.
That number is up this year; so far, 19 juveniles have been arrested and
charged with murder.
That's not counting aggravated assaults, rape, theft and non-fatal
shootings committed by young people.
According to experts, the causes are varied for these crimes: Poor
economic and educational opportunities; a dysfunctional family base and
mental and emotional illnesses are all components of the problem.
Civil rights activists have protested in Harrisburg and Washington, D.C.,
that if living conditions do not change fast for Blacks under the age of
18, the prison crisis will only get worse.
It is also one of the most disturbing aspects of Americas incarcerated
population that a disproportionately high and growing number of juvenile
criminals are African-American.
In the city, the number of male juveniles held in the Philadelphia Prison
System's House of Correction averaged 98 per day for its fiscal year,
which ends on June 30.
PPS spokesman Robert Eskind said that number was higher for fiscal year
2006, when the daily average reached 116.
For female juveniles, who are housed in the Riverside Correctional
Facility, the average daily number for last year was 4. For fiscal year
2006 the average daily number was 6.
An alarming trend
In June, 4-year-old Nashay Little was wounded by gunfire as she played
outside a relatives home on Sigel Street in South Philadelphia.
To date, South Philadelphia has seen increasing incidence of youth-related
violence, according to police reports.
Shortly after Nashay's shooting, police arrested a 15-year-old
African-American boy, charging him with attempted murder and related
offenses.
Sadly, stories such as this one have become a common occurrence in the
African-American community, where children are packing guns and using them
indiscriminately.
According to researchers at The Sentencing Project and Human Rights Watch,
young offenders are too often perceived by mainstream America as being
"super predators," a term coined by University of Pennsylvania professor
John J. Dilulio in the 1990s.
The term has been used to define youthful criminals who kill, rob and rape
without feeling guilt or a sense of conscience.
Chad Dion Lassiter, adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania's
School of Social Policy and Practice, said Black and Hispanic youths are
being stereotyped as violent and incorrigible.
"The popular media embellishes them with images that are provocative,
exaggerated, distorted and racially biased," he said. "Many of these Black
juveniles are being stigmatized as incorrigible, hostile and dangerous."
Other experts say the reasons the juvenile prison populations are growing
are discriminatory practices within the judicial system.
The outcome is also the result of a harsh political reality that in recent
decades has moved the courts to try some youthful criminals as adults
because of the severity of their crimes.
This disparity has led to a rise in the number of Black and Hispanic
youths in prison.
"Courts began prosecuting such cases in adult court beginning in the 1980s
as a result of the increasing number of violent crimes committed by
younger and younger offenders," said Alison Parker, acting director of
U.S. Programs for Human Rights Watch.
"There was a time in America when juvenile criminal cases would be
adjudicated in juvenile courts, where consideration for the immaturity of
the offenders was taken into consideration," she said.
"Children can commit terrible crimes, but when they do, they should be
held accountable for them, but in a manner that reflects their capacity
for rehabilitation. In the United States the punishment is all too often
no different from that given to adults."
Studies conducted by the United States Department of Justice, Human Rights
Watch and other independent research groups indicate a great disparity
between the way youths of color are treated by the justice system and the
way white youths are punished.
"We see it all too often in the justice system," Lassiter said. Black and
Hispanic youth generally get sentenced to more prison time than their
white counterparts. Far too often, youthful Black or Hispanic offenders
are being tried as adults whereas, according to researchers, cases
involving white youths are often, but not always, referred to juvenile
courts."
Some young people are certainly guilty of committing heinous crimes. But
according to a study conducted by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty
International, entitled "The Rest of Their Lives," more than half, at
least 59 %, are first-time offenders and deserve at least a chance for
rehabilitation.
The report also examined the extent to which young offenders, who more
often than not are so-called minorities, face harsher penalties than their
white counterparts.
"The public may believe that children who receive life without parole
sentences are super-predators with long records of vicious crimes," the
report stated. "In fact, an estimated 59 % received the sentence for their
first-ever criminal conviction. 16 % were between 13 and 15 years old at
the time they committed their crimes."
The report goes on to say while the vast majority of these juveniles were
convicted of murder, an estimated 26 percent were convicted of felony
murder, in which the teen participated in a robbery or burglary during
which a co-participant committed murder, without the knowledge or intent
of the teen.
According to the report, racial disparities are high. Nationwide, the
estimated rate at which Black youths receive life without parole sentences
is 10 times greater than the rate for white youths.
Another report published by The Sentencing Project, a nonprofit
organization that advocates reform in prison sentencing protocols, stated
thousands of child offenders cases are being automatically transferred
into adult courts without judicial review.
"Fear of juvenile crime has reversed the long-accepted practice of
treating young offenders in special juvenile courts," said the reports
authors, Patricia Allard and Malcolm Young. "Thousands of children
annually are now being transferred automatically and without judicial
review, from juvenile court jurisdiction to adult criminal court and into
adult corrections. The imposition of adult punishments, far from deterring
crime, actually seems to produce an increase in criminal activity in
comparison to the results obtained for children retained in the juvenile
system."
Young and Allard go on to state that reliance on the criminal courts and
punishment ignores evidence that more effective responses to the problems
of crime and violence exist outside the criminal justice system in
therapeutic programs.
"The phrase 'adult time for adult crime' is catchy, but it reflects a poor
understanding of criminal justice principles," Parker said. "If the
punishment is to fit the crime, we need to take in consideration both the
nature of the offense and the moral culpability of the offender. As the
U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly recognized, the blameworthiness of
children cannot be equated with that of adults, even when they commit the
same crime. Their brains are different from adults."
Parker cited a 2005 Supreme Court case, Roper v. Simmons, in which the
court ruled that the execution of child offenders was unconstitutional,
because juveniles are "categorically less culpable" than adult criminals.
"Children are susceptible to immature and often irresponsible behavior,"
Parker said. "And they are vulnerable to negative pressures and
influences.
We're not advocating that they should not be punished if theyve committed
a crime and held accountable. But we need to remember that they are
children. We're not excusing their behavior, but the point is, how can we
as a society say that our children are beyond rehabilitation?
"Our report showed that for murder, an African-American youth is 11 times
more likely to be sentenced to life in prison than a white youth who is
convicted of the same crime," Parker said. "Most of these young people
will die in prison, it's a very sad story for African-American youth."
The case of Stacey Torrance
In Philadelphia the story of Stacey Torrance illustrates the case of a
child who was influenced by someone older and engaged in a criminal act
without fully grasping the consequences.
It is also a textbook case of a childs vulnerability to negative pressure.
The crime was a robbery that ended with the murder of the victim. Torrance
is 33 now and has spent more time in prison than being a free man. He
doesnt deny his part in the robbery, but under Pennsylvania law he faces
the prospect of spending the rest of his life in prison.
Torrance's case is not an unusual in the United States, where since the
1980s the number of juveniles tried as adults has been steadily rising.
As with the number of African-American men and women being sentenced to
prison, the number of Black juveniles being sentenced is also on the rise.
Torrance was 14 in 1988 when he committed his crime. He was arrested for
the murder of Alexander Porter, a young man who was his girlfriend's
brother. He was about to enter the tenth grade at a Philadelphia high
school under a magnet program for students who excelled academically.
He lived at home with his mother, a single parent.
Torrance was convicted of 2nd-degree murder (felony murder in
Pennsylvania) and sentenced to life without parole.
He had no juvenile record, and this was his 1st offense. He was charged
directly in adult court and never had a juvenile transfer hearing.
According to court documents and police investigative reports, Torrance
agreed to participate in a robbery with 2 adults, Henry Daniels, who was
his cousin, and Kevin Pelzer. The victim was Alexander Porter.
They reportedly believed Porter had a lot of money because it was
allegedly common knowledge that his family was involved in drug-dealing.
The plan involved coercing Porter to give over the keys to his apartment
so that Daniels and Pelzer could rob it.
Prosecutors established that the three set up a drug transaction with
Porter, in order to lure him to a meeting. When they met, Porter was bound
and gagged.
They confiscated his keys, and stuffed him in the trunk of his car.
Torrance allowed himself to be tied up in front of Porter but was released
after Porter was locked in the trunk, then taken home so that the victim
would later believe that Torrance had been murdered. Daniels and Pelzer
drove Porter's car, with him in the trunk, to a garage and parked it.
According to reports, Daniels and Pelzer pretended to murder Torrance to
coerce Porter to give over the keys or face the same fate.
In Pelzers appeal, the court described what Pelzer and Daniels did in the
24 hours after Torrance left the scene: "Twice during the next 24 hours
while Porter was kept in the car trunk, the kidnappers used Porter's car
on excursions.
"First, they used the vehicle to get to Porter's parents apartment to
commit burglaries," the court stated. "Pelzer and Daniels went home, slept
for a few hours, then took Porter to a park. He was shot four times in the
neck and back with a .25-caliber handgun, and left by the roadside, where
his body was discovered the following day. While Porter was being bound,
Torrance was led outside, supposedly to be punished, but actually to be
released."
Pelzer told the court: "Me and Daniels got into the boys car, the black
shiny one, to drive Stacey home. I drove the car. We dropped Stacey off
and returned to my house."
In short, while Torrance agreed to participate in a robbery scheme, he was
not present at Porters fatal shooting, nor was there evidence presented at
trial that suggested he knew Daniels and Pelzer were going to murder
Porter.
Investigations led police to believe that the murder itself was never
planned. Torrance was convicted of 2nd-degree murder and has been behind
bars ever since.
In a published report Torrance wrote: "Convinced that I could make some
money, I agreed with my cousin to rob this guy of his keys so that my
cousin and his friend could rob the guys and his fathers apartment. But I
had no idea that this guy would end up dead. Yes, I made a mistake. I
associated with the wrong crowd. I engaged in committing a crime with
them.
"However, is it fair that I spend the rest of my life in prison for a
crime that was committed by someone else without my knowledge or without
me being present?" he asked. "I feel sorry for the life that was lost in
my case. I feel a deep sense of empathy for his family and what they must
continue to endure in terms of pain. But this tragedy was never supposed
to happen. I dont absolve myself of all guilt. Out of naivet, out of
influence, out of the ignorance of knowing the consequences, I agreed to
do a crime, a robbery."
A national trend
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have discovered there are
currently at least 2,225 people incarcerated in the United States who have
been sentenced to spend the rest of their lives in prison for crimes they
committed as children.
According to AI and HRW figures, in 1997, 7,400 offenders under age of 18
were admitted to state prisons, more than double the 3,400 admitted in
1985.
In 1999, more than 8,500 juveniles were held in adult jails, either tried
or awaiting trial as adults. They are at risk. Children incarcerated in
adult facilities are 7.7 times more likely to commit suicide, 5 times more
likely to be sexually assaulted, twice as likely to be beaten by staff
members and 50 %more likely to be attacked with a weapon than children
incarcerated in juvenile institutions.
For Black youths the statistics are dismal.
According to another report from The Sentencing Project entitled "Reducing
Racial Disparity," the effects of racial disparities are clearly seen in
the juvenile justice system. While Black youths represent 15 % of their
age group within the general population, they represent 26 % of juvenile
arrests, 31 % of referrals to juvenile court, 46 % of waivers to adult
court and 58 percent of juveniles sentenced to adult prison.
"The racial disparity challenges the basic values upon which the criminal
justice system rests," Parker said.
Bad influences
When a child commits a crime, especially a violent crime, the question
invariably asked is, why did they do it?
There are reasons why they ended up on the streets with a gun in their
hands and a body at their feet.
And far too often these children are Black.
There are reasons why the numbers of African-American and Hispanic
juveniles are swelling the prisons from coast to coast as prison reform
advocates, law enforcement officials and social experts confirm.
Anti-violence activists and social and judicial reformers suggest these
youthful criminals are the byproducts of failed social programs,
dysfunctional parents, a disinterested political will and a popular media
that glorifies the violence, which energizes the subculture of the
streets.
It is in the streets, with their own twisted rules of conduct, that these
juveniles find role models who have been to prison themselves.
"Young Black males in particular are significantly over- represented in
the juvenile justice system," Lassiter said. "They're involved in the
selling of drugs, active in street gangs and exhibiting behaviors that
violate traditional Black values."
Former Philadelphia Mayor W. Wilson Goode Sr., director of Amachi, a
program that mentors the children of incarcerated parents, said one of the
factors he sees that drives juveniles into prison is that children emulate
what they see.
Many have parents or other relatives either in prison or on probation, and
Goode said these children see no other future for themselves.
"I've seen entire families in prison, three and sometimes four
generations." he said. "Kids emulate their parents and often they come
from the same environment. If children grow up in an environment where
they see fighting, drug-selling, drug-using and criminal activity, they
grow up doing what they see. I was in Oklahoma and I was speaking with a
6-year-old boy whose father was in prison. I asked him what he wanted to
do when he grew up and do you know what he said? He said he wanted to go
to prison, like his father."
The former mayor also spoke of cases where a father and son meet each
other for the first time in prison and often either share the same cell or
cell block. He said he has personally spoken to mothers who share a cell
with their daughters.
In his book, "Race to Incarcerate," Mark Mauer, executive director of The
Sentencing Project, wrote of the terrible impact on the Black community of
having so many of its men, especially young men, in prison.
The Sentencing Project is a nonprofit agency that seeks to reform
sentencing policies in the nation.
"What does it mean to a community to know that three out of ten boys
growing up will spend time in prison? Mauer asked. "What does it do to the
fabric of the family and community to have such a substantial proportion
of its young men enmeshed in the criminal justice system? What images and
values are communicated to young people who see the prisoner as the most
prominent, pervasive role model in the community? What is the effect on a
community's political influence when one quarter of the Black men in some
states cannot vote as a result of a felony conviction?
Chad D. Lassiter, a social worker and behavioral interventionist attached
to the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia, said the overrepresentation of
Black juveniles in the justice system could be attributed to several
social issues.
But he was also emphatic about the influencing role the popular media play
in the trend.
"I firmly believe that the challenges facing Black juveniles today are
multiple, deeply rooted and exceedingly complex," Lassiter said. "These
challenges are major obstacles, which are dramatically disrupting the
normal socialization of Black males and females and causing a
disproportionate number of them to face a future that is indisputably
bleak."
Reversing the trend
It is by no means too late to effect change within the Black community and
deter juveniles from crime.
In Philadelphia, programs such as Amachi, the Youth Violence Reduction
Partnership and its companion program Adolescent Violence Reduction
Partnership are seeing increasing rates of success among at-risk youths.
Amachi provides mentors for children whose parents are incarcerated.
Another group, Men United for a Better Philadelphia, is an organization
that goes into distressed neighborhoods to dialogue with young Black and
Hispanic youths.
Lassiter said what many local legislators, concerned law enforcement
officials and anti-violence activists have been saying for several years:
in order to turn things around its going to take a concerted and
collective effort within the Black community to do so.
"We have to engage in what I like to call CPR, Cultural Pride
Reinforcement," he said. "We have to reinforce traditional values within
our community and impart a sense of pride within them. We're still dealing
with the vestiges of slavery, but we can break that curse. Our children
need to know they're not meant to be behind bars; they're meant for
something greater."
To counteract the dismal forecast of Black juveniles, the Black community
must collectively assume the primary responsibility for the welfare,
protection and spiritual development of our youth, according to Lassiter.
"There have to be after-school enrichment programs, and mentoring is
essential," he said. "There are a lot of churches involved in this, but we
have to get them all on board, largely the church has been sort of absent
from the youth violence."
Lassiter outlined several aspects of social issues that have to be
addressed to deter youths from engaging in criminal behavior. His aspects
include: pulling families out of poverty; getting families prenatal and
health care; and expanding access to and use of early childhood education
programs, just to name a few.
Lassiter noted in his experience, children who have witnessed a shooting
or murder have been traumatized. Within the Black community there are
growing numbers of these children, who need a higher level of mental
health care because of such trauma.
"There also has to be a moral imperative in the home that says certain
kinds of behavior is not going to be tolerated," Lassiter said. "We have
to reach these kids before they get into trouble. We have to lead our
children out of that violent mentality."
Goode said the problem is not impossible to resolve.
"If we can mentor these children for one hour a week, every week for a
year, we'll see a drop in crime," he said. "We can make a huge difference
in the lives of these children. It's a real problem, no question about it,
but it is a problem than can be solved."
(source: Philadelphia Tribune)