Finch had acted as court appointed defense counsel for Tom Robinson, and had defended him against a perjured rape charge leveled by Ewell and his daughter.
Finch replied, “I’m too old to fight.”
But what are real-life prison guards at Harrisburg Juvenile Detention facility supposed to do when incarcerated delinquents who have turned 18 (adult) spit in their faces?
There was a time when if a convicted juvenile delinquent spat in a guard’s face, the spitter found himself in solitary confinement for a period deemed sufficient by the prison authorities to deter such misconduct. Then the American Civil Liberties Union and the federal court got involved, and the use of solitary was severely curtailed by the federal judge’s “Remedial Plan.”
As summarized in the ACLU’s most recent pleading, the plan “specified limited purposes for which [solitary] confinement may be used behavior management [not to exceed 24 hours] ... and specifically provides that ‘All other forms of confinement shall be prohibited, including, but not limited to for purposes of disciplining or punishing a youth.”
The ACLU now alleges that those delinquents who have turned 18 (become “adults”), are now being prosecuted for aggravated battery, and upon conviction sentenced to adult prison or probation -- spitting on someone is a battery, and when that someone is a correctional officer, it becomes aggravated battery. The ACLU argues “this kind of excessive punishment is ruinous for young lives.”
But if you are 18, and on the street, and you spit in a cop’s face, you’ll certainly be charged with battery. And if you have a prior significant record, either as a juvenile or an adult, you may be charged with aggravated battery and face adult prison. So why should an incarcerated 18-year-old juvenile be treated more favorably than another 18-year-old on the street and not incarcerated, who spits in the face of a policeman?
Do you really think judges send delinquents to Harrisburg for “insignificant” first offenses? Probation is almost always tried first, except for serious or violent offenses.
But assuming for purposes of argument that “rehabilitation” is the only purpose of a delinquency proceeding, that is not true in an adult prosecution. Therein, while rehabilitation remains a goal of sentencing, it must be balanced against the need to punish, and deter the offender and others, and protect the public.
Yet, in its pleading, the ACLU pooh poohs the Harrisburg staff’s concerns:
“The staff are concerned that there are fewer consequences for serious misconduct and they express the questionable opinion that the threat of being placed in [solitary] confinement is a valuable deterrent to aggressive and assaultive youth.”
OK. So, what other “meaningful alternative” is there? What if each of the roughly 126 delinquents at the Harrisburg spits in the face of every guard who comes within range? What if just five do? What if one or more of the spitters carry AIDS or some other infectious disease? What if 24-hour detention is inadequate to stop the spitting?
If you can’t put the spitters in solitary, and/or prosecute those who have reached the age of 18 as adults for aggravated battery, what are the guards supposed to do? Wear hazmat suits?
I have long believed, that except for the most serious abuses, judges are not competent to run prisons. Federal judges have no jurisdiction to prosecute inmates for state law violations, such as disorderly conduct, battery or aggravated battery. Their injunctions typically only tell the prison authorities (not the inmates) what they can or cannot do.
If you enjoin the use of solitary confinement, and adult prosecutions, what’s left?
Can a guard whack a spitter with a billy club? Perhaps up to three times, but not too hard? If solitary for more than 24 hours is “cruel and unusual punishment,” why wouldn’t billy clubbing be deemed worse? The pillory have been verboten since colonial times. Is the judge going to approve the guards using self defense? Can they spit back? Punch the spitter in the nose? Or are they expected to imitate Atticus Finch?
What would the ACLU attorneys do if every time one of them visited a Harrisburg inmate, the inmate spat in his face? What would the federal judge do if he became the target?
Rehabilitation of juvenile inmates is a worthy goal. But rehabilitation requires the cooperation of the juvenile. Spitting on correction officers hardly seems consistent with the juvenile seriously working to “rehabilitate” himself.
Posted: QCOline.com August 1, 2017
Copyright 2017, John Donald O'Shea
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