Why American Courtrooms Are Dangerous Places for Young Blacks

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/how-going-trial-can-be-dangerous-gamble-juveniles

Before leaving office last week, Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell commuted Travion Blount's sentence of six life terms plus 118 years, to 40 years. Blount had been convicted of taking part in an armed robbery that resulted in no serious injuries and netted him $60 and a few joints.

Blount was 15 years old when the original sentence was handed down to him after a two-day trial in 2007. The sentence survived two appeals: first in Virginia's Court of Appeals, and then in the Virginia Supreme Court. According to a statement by his secretary to the Virginian Pilot, McDonnell considered the 40-year sentence a "just punishment." But for Blount, his family, and his lawyer, John Coggeshall, the commutation that was announced is no a victory for justice.

“On any measure, it's a positive step. But that's all it is, a first step,” Coggeshall told AlterNet. According to McDonnell's “conditional pardon,” Blount will live the next four decades in a maximum-security prison, nearly 10 hours away from his family. But Coggeshall says his fight for a fairer sentence for his client is not over.

How did a Virginia courtroom place a young teenager in a maximum-security prison with no chance of making it out alive? Like most other states in the 1990s, Virginia made it much easier to try a juvenile as an adult. Furthermore, the harsh sentence reflects mandatory sentencing laws that helped bloat Virginia's—and the nation's—prison population over the last 30 years, as well as the pernicious degradation of the right to trial throughout the country.

[LuvNewcastle]

1. I don't like seeing juveniles tried as adults, but there is a problem with

juveniles committing serious crimes because they 'know' they can't be treated as adults in the legal system. Armed robbery is a very serious crime, regardless of whether anyone was hurt or how much money was stolen. To me, the amount stolen is completely irrelevant. The legal system has to be firm with juveniles who do these types of things or they'll think they can get away with anything. But 15 years old is still too young to be treated as an adult.

I think that juveniles should be tried in a youth court, but there need to be new laws enacted that are tailored for the ones who commit the more serious crimes. I'd say that a fair sentence for a kid who does something really bad would be incarceration until they're 25 rather than 21. However, in the case cited in the article, I think incarceration until 21 would have been a fair sentence.

I also think these kids need to be schooled while they're locked up. They need to have some education to be able to get jobs after they're released. The system probably doesn't do that now because it would cost more money, but I think it would be a good investment and would probably save a lot of money in the long run. I'm sure the prison industry wouldn't like it, though. They make more money from repeat offenders.

[Victor_c3]

3. I have to agree with what you said

Building on what you said, perhaps they should give juvenile offenders a method to commune their multi-decade long sentences by completing a vocational training or degree program by the time they are 22 or 24 or something like that.

The state will train you to be a carpenter, a medical lab technician, mechanic, nurse, or something like that. You complete the program and demonstrate decent behavior in prison and you get parole. You demonstrate you can maintain a "straight and narrow" life while on parole and your record is expunged by the age of 30 or something like that.

Your childhood and early adult life is definitely messed up and you definitely have reduced freedom as a result of your actions (i.e. a good deterrent), but your life isn't over. You have a real chance to become a productive member of our society and to really learn from your mistakes.

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Most people grow up. You have to give them a chance to at least get their act together. It's amazing to me how the people who I considered "meat heads" when I was in high school and even college have slowly gotten their stuff together by the time they are in their early 30s. Many of those people are now decent hard-working parents.

An inner-city 14 year old gang-banger who never had a chance in life needs the slap in the face a felony conviction gives them, but they also need to have the chance to correct their lives.

[LuvNewcastle]

5. Well said. We need genuine rehabilitation for people in prison, especially the kids.

Just locking them up and letting them rot is not the humane and responsible thing to do. It would be good for them and good for society. But of course, we're going the other way, with that sheriff in Arizona and more private prisons. We're creating monsters who get more terrible by the day. We can't do what we need to make a healthy society, but we can spend trillions a year to kill people all over the world. One of these days there's going to be a terrible reckoning for all of this. I think we're seeing it already. We're reaping what we've sown.

[Egalitarian Thug]

2. Just one reason why America is Dangerous for Young Blacks.n /t

[Scuba]

4. Wonder what McDonnell's sentence will be following his conviction on bribery charges.

And if he thinks it is "just punishment".