I honestly thought that this school district would change its stance once the media picked up on this story.  Well I was wrong…

TASCA, Texas (NEWSCHANNEL 3) – A controversy is growing in Texas over the length of one boy’s hair.

The 6th grader’s mother is taking the fight all the way to the school board.

“He gets to look at a wall all day long. Tell me that’s not mental abuse. You’re mentally abusing him to conform to what you guys think is appropriate,” said the boy’s mother, Marsha Wisnosky. “When does it come down to the child’s merits, not the way they look?”

Kenny Fails has been in in-school suspension for 14 weeks because he won’t cut his hair.

Monday night his mom berated the school board for violating her son’s rights.

Other parents seem to agree that the school needs to back off.

“It’s ridiculous. I feel like boys are being discriminated against as women were years ago,” said mother Jennifer Hendrick.

“What is going to be next? You’re fat, you need to go to ISS? You can’t participate in PE, you’re overweight,” said Wisnosky.

The school board sat silent the entire five minutes of her speech.

There is no word on whether Kenny’s suspension will continue.

The Chicago Reporter has conducted a terrific analysis of 17 year olds convicted of felonies in Illinois.  Here are some the key findings:

A majority, 54 percent, of 17-year-olds prosecuted in Cook County’s adult courts were convicted for drug deals and property theft alone, according to the analysis.

Of all the convictions, 58 percent were for nonviolent offenses. Include robbery without a gun, and nonviolent offenses are 71 percent of all convictions. The single largest number of convictions was based on low-level drug offenses.

An overwhelming majority of these 17-year-olds, like Reed, are black—77 percent. And most hail from just five impoverished areas, some of which are home to the highest long-term unemployment rates in the country—including Austin, Humboldt Park, North Lawndale, Roseland and West Englewood.

Once these teens were charged and their cases headed to court, the odds were they’d plead guilty and end up with an adult felony conviction, regardless of whether they had a private lawyer or public defender, according to the analysis. All this, well before they’re able to vote, buy a pack of cigarettes or join the military.

Of course once again we see disproportionate minority contact with the criminal legal system at work in these numbers.   Additionally, we are prosecuting 17 year olds as adults for mostly NON-VIOLENT crimes.  Our insatiable appetite for punishment knows no bounds especially is the targets are black and brown youth.

Here’s more from their research:

The Reporter analyzed what happened when a plea was entered and found that overwhelmingly, 99 percent of all 17-year-olds pleaded guilty. Only one percent—27 people—pleaded not guilty.

Once convicted, the teens weren’t given just a slap on the wrist for their crimes. More than half of them were sentenced to adult prison. According to the Reporter’s analysis, 882 of the 17-year-olds whose cases were opened since 2006 were sentenced to a combined 3,103 years behind bars in adult prison. More than half of those youth were sentenced to prison times of more than three years. Those remaining were sentenced to alternatives, including probation, community service or court supervision.

Read the entire series of articles from the current issue of the Chicago Reporter.  You will not be sorry.  The stories are compelling and the information is important.

The Tri-County Times is publishing a two-part series about prison life.  The first part came out over the weekend.  I was struck by several parts of their account and will highlight a few of the interesting excerpts here.

The article focuses on a man named Paul who was released from prison in 2008.  From the article:

Paul was in state prison.

Everything changed. Instead of a comfortable bed with a thick mattress and box spring, Paul was now sleeping on a metal bunk bed with a green mattress that was 2½ inches thick. His head rested on a thin plastic pillow, stuffed with cotton, “All the cotton goes to the side,” he said.

Paul’s street clothes were taken away. The “system” gave him three pairs of clothes, underwear and socks. The “system” had his nails clipped. Instead of the view outside his home by a lake, he now lived within four blue concrete walls. Instead of a house full of possessions, he could now fit everything he owned into a 6-foot by 18-inch locker. Nothing in that locker was from his outside life. Even his Bible was thrown away.

This is the value of long-form journalism which we have lost in the past few years.  It can provide the general public with a visceral experience of a world that is really foreign to them.   In just a couple of paragraphs, the author conveys the feeling of having everything that you know taken away from you when you are incarcerated.  He captures the sense of loss that must be experienced when you are first locked up.

Reporter Tim Jagielo provides still more description of life in prison:

His uniform at Adrian consisted of a dark blue shirt, orange on the back, which displayed his new identity — a six-digit identification number. The pants were dark blue, with an orange stripe, numbered. Orange shorts, numbered, were worn in the summer. The rest of his wardrobe consisted of T-shirts, numbered, and six pairs of underwear, numbered. He also had a radio, and personal TV, which he purchased himself.

“You are responsible for buying your own toothpaste, tooth brush and shampoo,” said Paul. “The state supplies only a small bar of green soap.”

The population in Adrian was divided into five levels, based on prison term length. Paul was with the least violent of the population, though he still witnessed violence. “They were just violent people who will fight you for nothing,” he said. The prison population also included some inmates who were mentally ill.

“It’s a whole different world,” Paul said. “I’ve seen guys that would carry on a conversation with cereal boxes.”

The walls of his unit were bright blue, with cement floors, sealed with wax. The windows had sliding glass with no bars. Inmates like him, with less time to serve, were less likely to try to escape, he explained.

The air in the unit was stagnant in the winter, and hot in the summer. “If it’s 100 degrees outside, it’s 100 degrees inside,” Paul said, adding there were no curtains on the windows. “If it was light outside, it was light inside. The light just pours in.”

His cube measures 12 by 20 feet. It contains eight inmates, four sets of bunk beds, eight lockers and four chairs. The inmates are responsible for keeping their own unit clean. There is no privacy, and little room to move around. Once per month tornado or fire drills interrupt their routine or their sleep at night.

“The State only supplies a small bar of green soap,” I know that this is the case in state prisons and yet I am moved and angered by the description.  It is illustrative of the “industrial” part of the prison complex.  His cell is 12 by 20 with eight other inmates.  If you are clausterphobic like I am you can almost feel yourself losing your breath.  Paul relays the story of seeing prisoners who carry on conversations with cereal boxes.  Again what comes through is the sense of loneliness and isolation.

Paul’s day began around 6 a.m., the only time breakfast is served. Inmates knew what would be served ahead of time by a menu. Aside from being vegan, or Jewish, there were no choices of meals. You eat what is on the menu that day. Inmates who wanted to eat would wait for their unit of 160 men to be called. “If it’s raining, you stand outside in the rain waiting to get in,” he said.

In St. Louis, Paul worked in the kitchen, serving food. Much of the food came from boxes that read, “Not intended for daily human consumption.”

Inmates had 15 minutes to eat. After eating, they would go out to “the yard,” the outside communal area. There, inmates could lift weights, walk around a track, or sit at tables in the inside yard. Paul lifted weights, and played softball and volleyball in the summer. “It killed time,” he said. The “weight pit” was a dangerous area, because there were few security cameras.

Guards were always watching the activities.

Paul regularly received letters from friends and family, and visits nearly every week. “When you get a letter, it’s like gold,” he said. He tried to avoid trouble and keep to himself. “You learned to read a situation and avoid it before it gets out of hand.”

At 11 a.m., all the inmates return to their cubes. A red light at the end of the hall turns on, and every prisoner sits on their bunk and waits to be counted. Count time takes about half an hour, depending on the guards on duty. Anyone not on his bunk at count time is given a ticket, which can lead to disciplinary action.

Contraband and fighting can also warrant tickets. Being caught with weapons, or doing anything considered a felony, would extend prison time. Inmates called these extensions “flops.”

After the count is finished, the red light turns off and the meal cycle begins again. Paul and the inmates can go wait for lunch or go outside for yard time again. “Every day is the same in prison,” he said.

“The food smelled awful,” said Paul. They were often served “rainbow” hot dogs — which turned colors as they cooked — pink to green to red, and tasted “like really horrible hospital food.”

You can almost taste the wretched food being served in these prisons based on this description.  “Not intended for Human Consumption” That really says it all. This is uncivilized treatment.  Even people who believe in prisons as the right place for punishment to be meted out should find this inhumane and disgusting.

When the online storytelling magazine SMITH asked its readers to submit six-word memoirs, the results were fascinating, moving, and sometimes very funny. The results were published in a bestselling book called “Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Famous and Obscure Writers.” This past mother’s day, the ONE campaign asked its supporters to write six-words reflecting on Why Moms Matter?

Inspired by these efforts, Project NIA’s UN-marked campaign invites interested individuals to submit six-words to convey either the effect/impact of having a juvenile criminal record or to illustrate the importance of clearing a juvenile criminal record.

An example would be: “Fifteen years later still can’t work.”
Another could be: “Arrested at 16; shoplifting; never recovered.”

So be creative and add your six-words to the mix. Project NIA will use the best submissions to create an awareness raising poster as part of the UN-marked campaign.

Please e-mail your 6 word responses to [email protected].  You can also submit your 6 words via twitter to @projectnia.

For more information about the entire UN-marked campaign, visit the BLOG.

I hope that many of you will participate in this effort.  Please retweet and spread the word to your networks. The campaign hopes to get hundreds of submissions.

I am filing this under my regular adventures in zero tolerance land series. I plan to continue to document the ways in which our educational system is working to “PUSH” students out of school and into the prison system. We know and I have often written about the connection between educational failure and ending up in the penitentiary. The evidence is clear and in controvertible. If our schools continue to rely on zero tolerance policies and harsh disciplinary policies, they will sure be contributing to the ongoing expansion of the prison industrial complex. The absurdity of many of these school rules must be pointed out and they must be exposed. Here’s the latest that took place here in Illinois:

I am quoting some of the article below:

An Oglesby school child faces possible expulsion later this month for playing with toy cap guns at school.

Ethan Scaman, 6, and an unidentified six-year-old who has since moved out of the school district were suspended from Lincoln Elementary School Aug. 27 and 30 for playing with their toy cap guns on the school playground. The NewsTribune was unable to contact the parents of the unidentified child.

On Sept. 20, the Oglesby Elementary School Board will meet at 5:30 p.m. and could at that time choose to carry out the school’s disciplinary policy on bringing weapons to school. In summary, that policy states that any student who brings weapons or “look-alikes” to school or school events “shall be expelled for a period of at least one calendar year but not more than two calendar years.”

However, this requirement may be modified by the superintendent, and the superintendent’s decision can be further modified by the school board.

“We try to be as consistent as possible (when enforcing policy) but there are many variables,” said superintendent Michael Pillion.

Pillion added that during his four years as superintendent there has not been an expulsion. He declined to speak further on the matter citing confidentiality.

Amanda Milton, Ethan’s mother, said her fiancé Josh Scaman was notified on Aug. 27 that her son was in “possession of a weapon” that had been confiscated and told Ethan must be picked up from school immediately for safety reasons.

The weapon in question was a clear plastic cap gun with a bright orange tip and handle; it’s shaped similarly to a snub-nosed revolver, and was inoperable. It fired red, plastic ringed caps that are rated for children ages 8 and up.

When Milton arrived at Lincoln to pick up Ethan, she was told by a school official that Ethan had violated school policy and that he would be suspended. She and Scaman were told the decision to expel the two boys would be determined by the school board.

Truly let’s hope that logic and common sense prevail on the school board. I agree with this young man’s father who said:

“This could have been handled through conversation,” Scaman said. “Just tell him that he’s not supposed to bring those to school. Even if it looked real I might understand, but they kept bringing it up over and over that he could get expelled for this.”

Additionally, Ethan’s permanent school record will indicate he was in possession of a “banned object.”

“I don’t want them thinking they have to watch him until he graduates,” Milton said. “He’s only 6 years old — he doesn’t need to be branded like he’s a menace to society. I thought about letting it go, but this is ridiculous. I understand the school policy, but we’re dealing with a 6-year-old that looks like Opie Taylor, not a sixth-grader.”

I would add that even a 6th grader deserves to be talked to before resorting to expulsion proceedings.

Color me surprised to have read that we are apparently still using corporal punishment in U.S. schools.

From the article:

About 10.5 percent of DeSoto County public school students received corporal punishment during the last school year. The schools reported 3,140 students had corporal punishment, or paddlings, in 4,993 incidences.

DeSoto County’s percentage is similar to Mississippi’s overall average of about 10 percent which is the highest in the nation.

DeSoto County’s rate is 1.5 to 4 times higher than two other state school districts in similar growth and demographic areas, Rankin and Madison counties. The highest academic performing districts last year of Booneville and Pass Christian do not administer corporal punishment. About 50 of the 152 districts in the state don’t allow paddling.

How is this not considered child abuse? What are we teaching youth who are being “paddled” at school? We are teaching them that violence is acceptable to use.

At the beginning of the school year, DeSoto County schools allow parents to choose an alternative form of punishment in place of corporal punishment.

Beginning in seventh grade, students also may choose to decline corporal punishment.

The alternative punishment is in-school suspension, in which students spend one or more school days in a special classroom apart from their regular studies.

How many parents are reading the information that is being sent home from school with their children? I don’t understand what it means that parents can choose an “alternative” to corporal punishment. Do they have to proactively “opt-out” of the practice? How does this work?

So what types of infractions can lead to corporal punishment and who is most impacted by this practice?

According to the DeSoto County schools’ code of discipline, corporal punishment can consist of no more than three licks per incident on the buttocks with an appropriate instrument approved by the principal.

A federal lawsuit filed on behalf of a Tate County high school student in federal court in Greeneville recently asks for a ban on paddling in the state, claiming the punishment is unfairly applied based on gender and race.

The plaintiff student, a 16-year old male, was paddled last fall for looking at photographs on a camera during class. The female student who brought the camera to class was not paddled.

The suit requests a preliminary injunction or temporary restraining order halting the practice as well as a declaration that corporal punishment of students is unconstitutional.

The lawsuit claims that 75 percent of students paddled in Mississippi are male, creating “a serious, gender driven crisis,” and that black students are paddled at disproportionate rates.

In DeSoto County last year, black students at 53 percent of the total number of corporal punishment incidents, were the largest population involved, followed by white students at 39 percent. White students made up 65 percent of the district’s students with black students at 28 percent, according to a Children First Annual report.

White males received 33 percent of the in-school suspensions, and black males followed at 31 percent. Males make up 79 percent of the total corporal punishment incidents.

So we find out that corporal punishment is sexist and racist too. Why is this completely unsurprising. We are beating young black males in schools and then wonder why their rates of graduation are so low…

I cannot offer any comments about this. Simply stunning…

I am posting the entire article:

A Texas mother is outraged after her son was accused of using marijuana by high school officials.

Their only evidence: The boy’s bloodshot eyes, two days after the death of his father.

Kyler Robertson, a junior at Byron Nelson High School, was suspended for three days and transferred to an alternative school until January.

His father, Richard Robertson of Fort Worth, was stabbed to death near Azle on Sunday after getting into an argument with another man, police said.

Kyler lives with his mother, Cristy Fritz, who has not been together with Robertson for a number of years.

On Tuesday, Kyler’s mother said her son was still grieving but longed for a sense of normalcy and wanted to be around friends.

“He insisted on going to school and said he just wanted everything to be, you know, normal,” Fritz said.

She said she supported his decision.

He showed up to school a little late and went to the office because he was tardy, where he was quickly accused of smoking marijuana, she said.

An assistant principal then called her.

“I think I dropped to my knees at that moment,” Fritz said.

Byron Nelson High School is part of the Northwest School District.

Lesley Weaver, a district spokeswoman, said she could not discuss Robertson’s case because of privacy laws.

In general, she said, students are not suspended without “multiple indicators” of drug use.

His mother showed NBC the district’s paperwork detailing the case against him.

An office worker claimed to smell marijuana on him, the documents said.

The school nurse reported his eyes were bloodshot, he appeared “jittery,” and his blood pressure was elevated.

The nurse also noted that his behavior and mental state were “normal.”

The district did not find any marijuana, and nobody claimed to see him smoking.

His mother said the district’s “evidence” proved nothing.

Her son suffers from allergies and was still emotional from his father’s death, she said.

“I said, ‘This is all you’re giving me?'” Fritz said. “In the blink of an eye, my son’s whole high school career was going down the tubes. And he’s dealing not just with a loss but a horrific event.”

She said administrators ignored her repeated pleas to reconsider the suspension and that they were mistaking his grief for drug use.

His mother described her son as an A and B student.

He plays on the junior varsity golf team.

After the assistant principal called her, Fritz said she picked her son up and took him straight to his doctor, who gave him a urine test.

A lab report showed he was clean — not just for marijuana, but for a number of drugs.

“I know my son, and I know he’s not using drugs, and I told them that,” Fritz said.

When she returned to school with the proof, she said administrators agreed to shorten the
suspension and withdraw the transfer, but they never apologized.

“No condolences, no sympathies, no apologies for the lack of compassion, the way they mishandled him, the false allegations, nothing,” she said.

Fritz said she wants the district to admit its mistake and to remove any mention of the suspension from his file.

NBC

Update: The principal has apologized but a lot of damage has already been done to this young man.

A high school principal has apologized to a teen suspended after he came to school with red, watery eyes.

Kyler Robertson’s father had been fatally stabbed two days earlier, and his mother told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that she e-mailed teachers about the death.

But Tuesday, when Kyler arrived at Byron Nelson High School, officials said he smelled of marijuana, along with having the other symptoms. He was suspended three days and assigned to an alternative school.

Wednesday, a urine test showing no evidence of drugs, and administrators canceled the alternative education placement. The suspension was lifted the next day.

Principal Linda Parker apologized on Friday.

A 53-year-old man faces a murder charge in Richard Robertson’s death.

Reading this report from Oregon one has to truly wonder — WTF?

Two fifth-grade students face felony charges for allegedly trashing classrooms at Scenic Middle School on Labor Day.

Central Point police contacted the two 10-year-old boys and their parents Wednesday afternoon after a teacher recognized one of the boys seen in surveillance video.

Police charged both boys with second-degree burglary and first-degree criminal mischief.

I don’t know about you.  But I have come across tons of 10 year old boys in my lifetime and they are known to do many stupid things.  I hate to put this in the category of dumb things that little boys do… But this is a dumb thing that little boys would do.

Here’s more from the story:

Officials noted that the boys were among the youngest suspects seen in a criminal case here.

Children younger than 7 can’t be said to have a criminal state of mind, explained Central Point Detective Brian Day.

Day said that the boys likely didn’t mean to cause the level of harm they did when they slipped over a cement-block wall into a courtyard, then made their way into a group of four science classrooms in the middle school’s B building.

They are suspected of scattering soap, lab chemicals, books, paper and candy around the rooms, including over computers. Profanities were scrawled in marker across various surfaces, including lockers, white boards and teaching materials. Police estimated the “huge mess” caused about $10,000 damage.

“Typically these types of crimes are crimes of opportunity, like grabbing a purse from an unlocked car,” Day said. “It’s not premeditated. They are just kind of messing around at school and something is available and they make some bad decisions.

“It would be more alarming if they had a plan,” he said.

First, this case is a prime candidate for some sort of restorative justice intervention.  Please get these young people out of the clutches of the juvenile legal system and let the entire community work together to figure out an appropriate consequence for their actions.

Second, I find the quote attributed to police officer Day to be flabbergasting:

Children younger than 7 can’t be said to have a criminal state of mind, explained Central Point Detective Brian Day.

I should certainly hope NOT.  When we start getting to the point that we are going to lock up 5 and 6 year olds labeling them as criminal masterminds, I am officially moving to Canada.

I will end with this part of the article:

“We’re not designed to deal with 10-year-olds,” said Joe Ferguson, deputy director of the juvenile division of Jackson County Community Justice. “We try to work with parents and find community resources for them and the family.”

He said the department evaluates all young offenders to gauge their risk of reoffending and tries not to mix low-risk kids with others.

Look, I think that the young boys should be asked to make amends and provide restitution for the damage that they caused.  However, it is critical that this intervention take place in a community-based setting.  The latrogenic effects of the juvenile legal system are well well documented.  This situation cries out for an alternative to a juvenile legal approach for addressing the problem.

Earlier this year, I was privileged to be invited to work with my friend Lisa Lee who is the director of the Jane Addams Hull House Museum to help facilitate a community-curated exhibition about the history and current manifestations of juvenile justice in the United States.

A group of terrific community activists, advocates, and juvenile justice professionals met in March to share ideas about what should be included in an exhibition about juvenile justice.  There were dozens of ideas and each one was better than the next.

As part of putting together this exhibit, Lisa very much wanted to incorporate the voices of incarcerated young people as well as youth who have been impacted by the juvenile justice system in other ways.  She embraced an idea that I advanced to work with incarcerated youth on creating mini-zines about their lives while also working with youth on the outside to create a graphic novel about juvenile justice.  We hope to release that book next Spring.  It will be used to educate young people and others about how the system operates and its impact on all involved.  Another part of the exhibit provides an opportunity for direct engagement of the public with youth on the inside through video conferencing.

The Hull House Museum reopened on Wednesday after an $800,000 renovation.  This was the first renovation of the house and museum in 50 years.

Our local ABC affiliate interviewed Lisa about the reopening and the celebrations surrounding the 150th anniversary of Jane Addams’ birth.

Here is another report about the reopening museum that provides a look inside some of the renovated spaces.

Finally, I have been unwell for the past few days and so sadly I missed the People’s Block Party to celebrate the reopening. As such, I have not yet seen the Unfinished Business exhibit. I look forward to seeing it in the very near future. It was truly exciting to be a part of this process.

One more terrific feature of this community-curated exhibit involves a series of rotating “action” stations that will feature various campaigns and advocacy efforts currently being undertaken around issues of juvenile and criminal justice. I am proud that my organization is currently featured through our UN-marked campaign that seeks policy changes around the expungement of juvenile criminal records. Here is a great photo that Lisa sent me yesterday of our action station in the Unfinished Business exhibit. I find it poignant and moving to see this young child participating in an exhibit intended to get the public to consider the importance of erasing criminal records.

I encourage all of you who are interested in immigration history, women’s studies, and juvenile justice to stop by the museum to see all of the wonderful artifacts and catch the Unfinished Business exhibit (which will be up for one year).

Jeremy Price

Quoting from the story:

A teenager who was charged with manslaughter and had escaped from a mental health facility while awaiting a final resolution on the case was fatally shot Monday night in Mattapan, officials said yesterday.

Police said Jeremy Price, 18, was shot on Astoria Street about 8:30 p.m. Price was taken to Boston Medical Center, where he died of his wounds, police said.

At first blush, this appears to be another story of a young man who is shot on the streets of one of our cities in America. In just these few words, we are made aware of several details that on their own would be tragic. The young man was mentally disabled. He was charged with manslaughter. He was shot dead by an unknown assailant. These are the facts offered.

The story continues:

Price was charged with manslaughter in the 2007 killing of 41-year-old Michael Hansbury, a father from Mattapan, a spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley confirmed yesterday. Price, who had an IQ at the level of mental retardation, was 15 when he allegedly punched Hansbury after being encouraged to strike him by friends.

Hansbury fell into a coma after hitting his head and died a week later.

Asked about the circumstances surrounding Price’s death, spokespersons for Conley and the Police Department would say only that the investigation is active. No arrests have been made.

Heartbreaking. A 15 year old is dared by his friends to punch a stranger who is then killed. Then he himself is killed by an anonymous assailant. Terrible.

Still more from the story:

Price made news in May when he escaped from Tewksbury State Hospital, where he was being held while his manslaughter case was pending. He was apprehended two days later when a cousin, Jessica Lewis, persuaded him to go to her Dorchester home so he could turn himself in.

Price had also escaped from a New Hampshire facility after his arrest and was barred from another program in West Springfield because of his history of fleeing.

Suffolk Juvenile Court Judge Leslie E. Harris dismissed the manslaughter case against Price in July because he was found mentally incompetent to stand trial, the judge said in a telephone interview last night.

Harris said Price was released to the state Department of Children and Families until he turned 18 in late August. Price was released to family members after he turned 18, Harris said. The judge said he thought Price was staying with family in Fall River.

“I really hoped he would stay out of Boston and get himself established,’’ Harris said.

My only comment here is to highlight the fact that he was “released to the state Department of Children and Families until he turned 18 in late August.” I think that our failure as a society to find a way to provide ongoing compassionate support for the mentally ill is CRIMINAL.

Finally:

Lael Chester, executive director of the Boston-based Citizens for Juvenile Justice, an advocacy group for overhauling juvenile justice in the state, said the Price case illustrates the need for early intervention services for children who are mentally disabled.

“What was going on [with Price] in first grade? What was going on in second grade?’’ Chester asked. “Some of these things had to have been known.’’

She also said that while the state Department of Youth Services, which has custody of juvenile offenders, works hard to help children in its care, the agency does not have the resources to help mentally disabled inmates.

“I think with a lot of these cases, the agency is struggling to find a right fit, but it’s really not what they do,’’ she said.

The fact that the juvenile justice system “does not have the resources to help mentally disabled inmates” is NOT what I find appalling. Rather, I agree with Lael Chester who asks the right questions about where the early intervention services were in this case for this young person. We need to invest at the front end rather than relying on the criminal legal system to handle problems on the back end. Instead during this terrible economic climate, states and localities are CUTTING back on preventative services and on intervention services. This will only lead to more tragedies like this one which I believe can and should be prevented. Just awful.