Friday, April 28: Juvenile Incarceration
Why do we do this to children? Why do we do this at all?
Joshua Keith Beasley was just 11 years old when he was initially incarcerated. The state of Texas took full control of Joshua’s life back in 2018, when he was 11 and was incarcerated for kicking a school safety officer. At 11 years old we should be trying to find ways to help a child, not punishing them to the fullest extent of the law.
Last year, Joshua was charged with spitting on and hitting a Texas Juvenile Justice Department staff member, and a judge ruled that he should serve an additional five-year sentence in Texas’ adult carceral system. So at the age of 16, Joshua was moved to an adult detention facility, one of two youth under the age of 18 out of a total population of 500. Of course, youth in adult prisons have historically been exposed to more violence than adult prisoners, and spend more time in solitary confinement, often placed there to separate them from adults. Children in adult facilities are 36 times more likely to die by suicide than those in juvenile facilities, according to a 2018 report by Neelum Arya, policy director at FREEAMERICA.
Almost six months to the day after his transfer, on March 24, Joshua died at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s Wayne Scott Unit. The cause of death, according to the Office of the Inspector General, was suicide. Staff at the jail would often have to cut ligatures from around Joshua’s neck, sometimes not getting to him until his face had turned red or gray and he was struggling to breathe. The staff also claimed that many of the children they dealt with tied ligatures around their necks and engaged in other forms of self-harm either out of anger or to get attention. It seems hurting themselves was the only way to get the staff to show any kind of care.
What kids like Joshua need is psychiatric care, mental health support that gives them space to grow from mistakes they might make at such a young age. What they get instead is a culture of endless punishment and retribution, with no emphasis or focus on dealing with underlying issues. How do we go about reforming a society willing to punish and push a child to the point of taking their own life?
Side Items
SpaceX Failure: The FAA (that’s Federal Aviation Administration not to be confused with the Fat Asshole Association) has grounded the SpaceX Starship program after last week’s humiliating failure of an attempted launch. The US Fish and Wildlife Service disclosed new details this week about the aftermath of last week’s failed SpaceX Starship Super Heavy launch and subsequent mid-air explosion. Included in their findings was mention of a “3.5-acre fire started south of the launch pad site on Boca Chica State Park land,” following the test flight. Not ideal Elon
Jerry Springer Died: The man who helped usher in the modern era of trash reality TV passed away yesterday at the age of 79. His show consistently featured a collection of some of the worst people in the country, with some of the most problematic viewpoints imaginable, and his whole shtick seemed to be making dysfunctional families seem like circus acts. But Jerry lived a full life, born in a London tube station being used as a bomb shelter during WWII, immigrating to Queens at the age of 4, going to college in New Orleans, serving as a campaign adviser to JFK, becoming the literal mayor of Cincinnati, earning 10 local Emmy’s as a newscaster, and then after all that, becoming a household name for a show that puts a spotlight on the strangest, messiest Americans
Crusty Old Bigot Dies: Carolyn Bryant Donham, the bruised banana of a white woman who falsely accused Emmett Till of making improper advances died in hospice care at the age of 88. Of course Donham’s accusations led to Till’s lynching back in 1955, which then became a catalyst for the civil rights movement, but ol’ Carolyn escaped public scrutiny for most of her life despite playing a major role in his murder. She lived to the ripe age of 88 while Emmett was murdered at the age of 14, thereby proving that only the good die young