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Monday, November 21, 2011, must have been Juvenile (In)Justice Day. Juvenile (In)Justice appeared everywhere, in the news.<\/p>\n
In Kashmir<\/a>, there\u2019s juvenile (in)justice<\/a>. Children charged with throwing stones are treated, formally, as terrorists. They can be jailed, caged, for up to two years without a trial. Children are placed in adult prisons, while awaiting trial and when convicted. And they will be convicted. Yes, there are laws that protect juveniles. But those laws don\u2019t matter in a state of emergency. Children don\u2019t matter in a state of emergency. They aren\u2019t `juveniles\u2019, and they aren\u2019t `youth\u2019. They\u2019re children.<\/p>\n The state of emergency, the so-called public safety crisis, is always an alibi<\/a>. States abuse children. In Kashmir, there\u2019s juvenile (in)Justice, and the excuse is crisis. In Malawi<\/a>, where there is no state of emergency, juvenile (in)justice is simply business as usual, the price of maintaining order. The law says children under 18 deserve special treatment and protection. In fact, children are tried in adult courts and then sent to overcrowded adult prisons. That is the rule of law\u2026 everywhere. Take children and maximize their vulnerability.<\/p>\n And then lie about it.<\/p>\n That\u2019s what the United Kingdom has been doing<\/a>, systematically lying<\/a> about the abuse of children of asylum seekers and, worse, of asylum seeker children. Sexual abuse<\/a>. Other forms of physical abuse. Psychological abuse. Spiritual abuse. Of course, there are no laws that address the crimes of breaking the spirit of a child. What\u2019s going on in the United Kingdom is not `merely\u2019 officials lying. It\u2019s Official Lying. The State defines democracy by lying and then chants, \u201cThis is what democracy looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe ministers lie<\/a>, the professors lie, the television lies, the priests lie. . . . And then finally, in the name of security, stability, sovereignty, and, of course, peace, the State, in this instance the United States, proposes a budget that would gorge on prisons and gouge youth<\/a> of resources, of hope, of life itself<\/a>. Again, the youth, the juveniles, they\u2019re children.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, cities, like New York, work on plans to increase the use of solitary confinement<\/a>. It\u2019s called \u201cpunitive segregation\u201d, and it preys in particular on `juveniles\u2019, those prisoners living with mental disabilities, and those awaiting trial. Maximize vulnerability. It\u2019s a kind of efficiency that brings education, mental health care, and justice itself to a screaming, screeching halt.<\/p>\n None of this is new or news, of course. The abuse of children in prison is systemic. In the United States, for example, photographer Richard Ross<\/a> has been exposing juvenile (in)justice<\/a> for years, and it\u2019s everywhere. It\u2019s the fabric of national democracy. It\u2019s today\u2019s version of burning children, as Robert Bly wrote<\/a>, some four decades ago:<\/p>\n \u201cBut if one of those children came near that we have set on fire, If a child came by burning, you would dance on a lawn, The news Monday was this. We don\u2019t burn children anymore. We send them to prison.<\/p>\n
\nThese lies mean that the country wants to die.\u201d<\/p>\n
\ncame toward you like a gray barn, walking,
\nyou would howl like a wind tunnel in a hurricane,
\nyou would tear at your shirt with blue hands,
\nyou would drive over your own child\u2019s wagon trying to back up,
\nthe pupils of your eyes would go wild\u2014<\/p>\n
\ntrying to leap into the air, digging into your cheeks,
\nyou would ram your head against the wall of your bedroom
\nlike a bull penned too long in his moody pen\u2014
\nIf one of those children came toward me with both hands
\nin the air, fire rising along both elbows,
\nI would suddenly go back to my animal brain,
\nI would drop on all fours, screaming,
\nmy vocal chords would turn blue, so would yours,
\nit would be two days before I could play with my own children again.\u201d<\/p>\n