With the electoral gladiator's refrain of "for the children," fading in the public's ears, Amnesty International has released a report far more relevant and truthful than our politician's platitudes. The report is entitled "Betraying the Young: Children in the U.S. Justice System," and it is a chilling document. Human rights abuse of children in the justice system is deep and widespread, according to Amnesty. Where hundreds of countries around the globe recognize basic treaties and agreements concerning human rights with respect to children, the U.S. takes a fall. The Convention on the Rights of the Child, the "most important treaty," remains unratified by the U.S. Out of 192 governments, only the U.S. and Somalia are among the non-signers. With other treaties such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the U.S. "reserves the right" to do such things sentence those under 18 to death. U.S. recognition of international agreements and ratification of treaties really isn't that big of an issue when one understands that the U.S. has signed on to many human rights treaties that cover children and, in practice, ignores them. Through a combination of citizen paranoia, ambitious politicking, and media sensationalism, fear of young people is beyond reason. As a result, common misdeeds by youth, such as school yard fighting and shoplifting, have been magnified by parents and authorities. Where once these infraction would have been dealt with by talking to kids or disciplining them at home, these screw-ups are now seen as "gateway" crimes that must be stopped cold. This mentality has lead to the casual use of incarceration as a way to "teach" kids what is "right and wrong." A U.S. Department of Justice investigation of a juvenile facility in Georgia found these examples:

an 11-year-old boy detained for threatening his teacher; a 12-year-old boy detained for making a harassing telephone call; a 14-year-old girl detained for painting graffiti on a wall; numerous youths detained after relatively minor fights at school; a 16-year-old girl detained for transgressing her fathers rules (throwing objects in her room and not attending school); a 13-year-old girl detained for stealing $127 from her mothers purse; children who had run away from troubled homes; and children who were held on charges of terroristic threat, which often involved swearing at a teacher.

Kids are also "warehoused" due to "inadequate community-based programs" that could serve as an intermediary between parents and jail. Amnesty references a report by Louisiana state officials that "acknowledged that secure facilities held many children who had been 'discarded' from mental health, educational, child welfare and other systems of care." In Georgia it was found that "children were being systematically denied access to adequate mental heath care...In certain facilities, mental illness was addressed almost solely through `correctional responses,' including isolation and the use of mechanical and chemical restraints.' In Virginia, "a study of juvenile facilities found that there were only 2.5 psychologists to see 300 children, although around 40 per cent of the children were identified as having mental health or suicide watch needs." Though Amnesty doesn't bring it up, surely this situation is a cause of the obscene transfer of taxpayer money from schools and social welfare to law enforcement and incarceration. Once inside juvenile facilities, along with lack of services, kids will find themselves overcrowded (40% over capacity), with staff that is not adequately trained, and, if they are lucky, "punched, kicked, shackled, sprayed with chemicals and [subjected to] electro-shock devices." In Kentucky, the U.S. Department of Justice found that Daviess County Detention Center staff "regularly used stun guns and pepper spray to control uncooperative youth." Staff at a South Carolina facility, according to a court complaint brought on by the facility's residents, "enforced orders" with "gas" and "punched, choked, and kicked" juvenile inmates. Solitary confinement to punish, though it is "prohibited by international standards on the grounds that [it] is cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment," is "common." In 1992, a national study concluded that there had been "435,000 occasions" where kids received solitary confinement for "a period of 24 hours and 88,900 occasions [when it had been used] for more than 24 hours." Perhaps the most famous, recent case of the abuse of children through solitary confinement is that of Nicholaus Contreras. This from the Amnesty report:

Nicholaus Contreras was incarcerated at the Arizona Boys Ranch, a juvenile corrections facility, in 1998. While there, he was repeatedly placed in solitary confinement for such transgressions as talking to staff without permission and carrying cleaning fluid to his assigned work area (9, 10, 11, and 12 February). He was again isolated on 23, 25, 27 and 28 February for "lethargic effort in exercise" and complaints of feeling ill and tired. On 2 March he was isolated for failing to listen to staff about his attitude to exercise; later that day, Nicholaus died while staff "assisted" him to do push-ups.

Destroying kids through solitary confinement is not the only out-and-out violation of "international standards." The U.S. also has included the incarceration of kids in adult jails as another weapon in its "War on Juveniles." From "recent data," Amnesty contends that "about 200,000 children a year are prosecuted in general criminal courts; at any time, about 7,000 children are held in jail before trial; and more than 11,000 children are in prison and other long-term adult correctional facilities." Against international trends, children in adult prisons are treated as adults. Amnesty found that "contrary to the assurances of the U.S.," children "as young as 13" are imprisoned with adults. Many of these kids are subject to rape and beatings by adult inmates. Fifteen year- old Paul Jensen, imprisoned in South Dakota State Penitentiary, writes to his sentencing judge:

Judge Zintner, I have an important question to ask you! Would you please move me out of here? Please dont leave me here with all these adults. I cant relate to any of them. They pick on me because I am just a kid. They tease me and taunt me. They talk to me sexually. They make moves on me. Ive had people tell me Im pretty and that theyll rape me... Im even too scared to go eat... Its too much for anyone my age to handle... Please help me with this.

As of September, 1998, Jensen was still housed with adults. The incarceration of kids in adult jails is a direct result of the drive by conservative politicians and the capitulation of liberals to get "tough on crime." There is no evidence of any sort that throwing children into adult prisons does anything to "rehabilitate" young offenders. Often the highly politicized sentencing process dictates that minor offenders, such as beer-thief Yazi Plentywood, be sentenced without regard to common sense. The 16 year-old Plentywood was sent to the adult state prison in Cottonwood, Idaho for shoplifting 2 bottles of beer while on probation for trying to steal a few cases of beer. "In 15 states, children accused of committing specified nonviolent offenses such as burglary, offenses involving weapons and drug offenses must be prosecuted in criminal courts." Amnesty also states that fewer than half the juvenile cases referred to adult criminal court involve acts of violence. For some, throwing kids in adult jails isn't enough. Currently, twenty-four states "permit the use of the death penalty against those under 18 at the time of the crime." Some politicians are "calling for children as young as 11 to be made eligible for the death penalty," though the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that 16 is the minimum age the state can kill kids. Nice guys, them justices. Since the 1994 ratification of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the U.S. has killed six prisoners who committed capital offenses under the age of 18. Two were killed in 1998. As of June, 1998, 70 people who received the death penalty as minors are sitting on death row. Only 14 states have legislation enforcing 18 as the minimum age of state sanctioned murder. Because it has been proven time and time again that the death penalty does not work as a deterrent, executing people convicted of capital offenses is nothing but revenge. A system which aids 40 to 60 year-olds in their quest for vengeance against 16 year-olds is pathetic and sickening. It goes without saying that Amnesty International's report on children in the U.S. justice system is bleak. Dostoyevsky once wrote that a society must be judged by the state of its prisons. Others say we must look at how we treat our children as a yard stick to how "humane" we are. I suggest we look at our kids in jail and how they are treated if we are to look at anything at all. In order to right this situation Amnesty offers up a slew of suggestions from state overview to adhering to international treaties and agreements. However, without a citizenry actively engaged in abolishing the present system of retribution nothing is going to change. If the Amnesty report is anything other an excuse to spend a week in a depressed, drunken stupor, it is a call to arms.