{"id":249242,"date":"2010-01-29T12:20:00","date_gmt":"2010-01-29T17:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"tag:criminaljustice.change.org:\/\/e88d8dd566a1fb1c513315a18cc3efe3"},"modified":"2010-01-29T12:20:00","modified_gmt":"2010-01-29T17:20:00","slug":"a-u-s-blind-spot-kids-in-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/249242","title":{"rendered":"A U.S. Blind Spot: Kids in Prison"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"New York Times<\/em> columnist Nicholas Kristof devoted his column yesterday<\/a> to an issue he called a personal \u201cblind spot:\u201d U.S. prisons. While the august columnist has devoted his pen to obvious human rights offenses inside of Guant\u00e1namo Bay as well as Chinese and North Korean prisons, he’s never touched the issue of prisons in the U.S. But now, reports of widespread sexual assault in juvenile facilities across the country have inspired him to take up the cause of prison reform.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s great to have such a prominent voice and a persistent human rights advocate on our side. One way to thank Kristof for bringing awareness to this issue — and to encourage him to stick with it — is by posting comments on his blog<\/a>, which I’d urge you to do.<\/p>\n

In his column, Kristof points to the deplorable statistics released recently the Department of Justice<\/a>, which indicate that almost one in eight youths report being sexually assaulted behind bars. He echoes a sentiment I\u2019ve heard from prisoners over the last decade: how is it possible that\u00a0Guant\u00e1namo gets so much attention from pro bono firms, while garden-variety U.S. prisoners get skipped over? The answers there might be obvious —\u00a0Guant\u00e1namo\u00a0has a much higher international profile, et cetera. But while\u00a0Guant\u00e1namo litigation is crucial, it doesn\u2019t change the need for legal help in less marquee cases across our prison-filled nation.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The good news is that Kristof\u2019s column, and his explicit discussion of prisons as a blind spot, are a sign that national media is waking up on this issue. Just Detention International<\/a> has a list of major outlet stories on its homepage that probably wouldn’t have been nearly as long five years ago. New York Magazine <\/em>this week has a heartbreaking feature<\/a> on New York\u2019s Tryon Residential Center, a juvenile facility with a sad history and murkier future. (Hat tip: Ken.)<\/p>\n

As the Prison Rape Elimination Commission report<\/a> pointed out last year, there are ways to prevent sexual assault and violence in detention facilities — close, compassionate management of these facilities is far superior to the free-for-alls that many facilities (including kids\u2019 prisons) have become. The only justification for sending a kid to prison is if all other remedies have been thoroughly exhausted.<\/p>\n

Photo Credit: publik16<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof devoted his column yesterday to an issue he called a personal \u201cblind spot:\u201d U.S. prisons. While the august columnist has devoted his pen to obvious human rights offenses inside of Guant\u00e1namo Bay as well as Chinese and North Korean prisons, he’s never touched the issue of prisons in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-249242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249242\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}