In the not so shocking news of the day, there are reports that there is violence and sex in “Teen Jails” around the country. And not surprisingly, many of those doing the abusing are the people in power.
A guard drove his knee into the neck of a frail suicidal Ohio boy after the youth was wrestled to the ground and held down by other guards who stripped him and covered his face with a smock, a state report said.
Erica was 16 when she was sentenced to Columbia after running away, a probation violation of an earlier marijuana conviction.
She admits she was a girl quick to sass her parents, full of anger about the death of a relative that happened around the same time Katrina wrecked her family’s Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, home.
Nervously touching a sparkly barrette in her red hair, she cries as she describes how guards forced her legs into tight metal shackles. She said she was cuffed and chained when she ate and used the bathroom — and was even forced to play soccer that way against other girls.
Guards called her “Chain Gang,” she said.
“I will always remember them things around my ankles, the way they cut into me,” she said, pulling up her pant leg to show slash-mark scars on her ankles and heels. “They made you feel like you were nothing.”
Now, aside the from funny part of calling her “Chain Gang”, this story is pretty disturbing on a few levels. This seems like some bitchy, snooty teen girl who had some troubles in her life so she had to rebel. She can join the millions of other teens around the country who are doing the same thing for various reasons. What bothers me about the story is that she was thrown in jail for breaking probation on a marijuana conviction.
So here you have a rebellious teen girl who is smoking pot to deal with the fact that her house was destroyed, someone close to her died, and probably other girl things like her bewbies growing and dorky pimple faced guys trying to bone her. She gets busted, probation, and breaks probation and is now sent to freakin jail with the teens who probably punch kittens for hobby. Not only does she have to deal with the punks in jail, but then the people with the authority there are messing with her by chaining her up in shackles and forcing her to play soccer that way.
I’m glad to see the crackdown of these guards, as nobody with authority should abuse it for personal gain, but they’re missing one of the roots of the issue. They’re sending people to these jails for such minor issues like smoking marijuana, and most definitely other stupid issues that should be dealt with by means other than locking them up and scarring these kids for life.
It’s just another case of the system having ridiculous policies and then getting upset when those policies come back to bite you. This girl should have never been in the jail in the first place, and that fact is going to be glossed over like many other root issues surrounding the problems in this country.
Popularity: 17% [?]