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Mass. fails in commitment to juvenile justice

By Real Cost of Prisons Project (The Sentencing Project)

May 5, 2010 The Boston Globe RE ?JURY convicts Odgren of murder?? (Page A1, April 30): In the murder conviction of a youth who happens to be diagnosed with all sorts of mental disabilities, the real crime is that states like Massachusetts no longer consider the fact that adolescents are not adults. For certain crimes, juvenile status is all too simply ignored. It is ignored because of the politically inspired belief that juveniles are just as competent as adults. We know that they are not. A modern, civilized society such as ours requires proof of age-graded responsibilities in all sorts of spheres of life, from marriage to employment. Massachusetts once was a leader in recognizing adolescence as a distinct period of life by creating its separate system of juvenile justice, which became a model for many states...continue to full post

Full post as published by The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog on May 06, 2010 (boomark / email).