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joefred111 t1_iwnmw0h wrote

Hm, this really brings back memories of the Kids for Cash scandal in good old PA...I know a few people whose futures were ruined by corrupt judges and for-profit facilities. One of them was on my soccer team, and testified at the trial.

There are better ways to get kids on the right path.

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BrassBass t1_iwoaudj wrote

It was never about setting kids on the right path. That jail wouldn't be overcrowded if it were.

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omganesh t1_iwpvyrj wrote

Correct, it's about profiting off of childhood trauma and poverty cycles. It's itself an act of criminality on par with war crimes. If a foreign nation was caught doing this to our kids, we would declare war on them.

https://www.prisonpolicy.org/profiles/LA.html

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Mythosaurus t1_iwsemmy wrote

If the US knew what the US was doing to US citizens, the US would invade the US and hold Nuremberg Trials for crimes against humanity.

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Gonstackk t1_iwnhvvf wrote

How will the judge and detention center make money if they can't keep them filled to capacity for such infractions as being born poor.

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WexfordHo t1_iwnmdl4 wrote

In this case it’s especially true.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/10/29/us/juvenile-detention-abuses-louisiana.html

> Ware opened in 1993, at a time when Louisiana was earning a reputation for operating one of the country’s worst juvenile systems. A series of scandals led to the closing of all privately run juvenile facilities, and in 2000, the federal government assumed oversight of those run by the state.

> But Ware was neither private nor state-run. It was a “political subdivision” of the state, created by legislation and overseen by a board composed of many of the men who met at Catfish Bend. This structure offered them and their charismatic new director ready access to tax dollars and far more independence from regulators.

The worst of both worlds, classic American “libertarian” right wing bs.

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mces97 t1_iwnuzh9 wrote

I mean, go after some more speeders.

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InflationOk300 OP t1_iwnfynv wrote

BATON ROUGE - The Louisiana Office of Juvenile Justice is pleading with the state's judges to allow some young inmates out of jail, saying the agency does not have enough beds to sustain any more teen offenders.

The letter penned last week by William Sommers, the head of OJJ, says long stays for some of those inmates and a riot that "completely destroyed" a dorm at one facility in Monroe has pushed the agency to its limit when it comes to housing those troubled juveniles. 

OJJ says it plans to start filing motions requesting releases for some inmates whom the agency believes can be "safely reintegrated" back into the community. 

"We are asking your consideration to grant these motions as there is no other way to remove youth from the local detention centers pending placement unless we first safely release those youth who qualify for community based rehabilitation services," the letter read. 

The head of the agency added that OJJ should be able to better meet current needs once the state repairs the destroyed 36-bed dormitory at Swanson Monroe and opens its new 72-bed unit at that same facility. 

WBRZ has reached out to OJJ for more information on the request.

The plea comes as Louisiana has struggled for more than a year to safely operate its juvenile detention centers. The problem had gotten so bad that the state announced earlier this year a plan to temporarily move some teens from one facility plagued by riots and frequent breakouts to a newly constructed juvenile-only wing at the Angola state prison, a controversial decision met with pushback from some activist groups.

As of November, no juvenile offenders have been moved to Angola.  

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TheNewGirl_ t1_iwnol8u wrote

> OJJ says it plans to start filing motions requesting releases for some inmates whom the agency believes can be "safely reintegrated" back into the community.

why are a bunch of kids they, the people responsible for punishing them, believe are capable of being safely reintegrated not already out of prison ...

why does any prison have any significant population of CHILDREN deemed safe to be reintegrated by the same people whose job it is to make sure thats the case

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ArrogantAragorn t1_iwo74dt wrote

I don’t think the people running the prison decide sentences for the offenders

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Bubble_of_ocean t1_iwrv2ql wrote

Wellllllllll… google “cash for kids.”

Directly bribing judges to convict more children is actually the smaller problem. The bigger problem is the sickening amount of money the prison industry pours into politics. Gotta keep people scared and “tough on crime,” can’t let the putting-humans-in-cages business dry up!

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datbech t1_iwq0k5z wrote

To play devils advocate, I live in Baton Rouge and go to New Orleans frequently. There has been an alarming number of violent crimes committed by minors in the last 6 months. Tons of normal people in “safe” areas that are getting robbed, car jacked, and murdered at random. The NOLA DA has been in hot water for releasing many of these minors, with a laundry list of previous violent crimes, because of “insufficient evidence.” There was a random LSU student killed a few weeks ago, a lady killed filling her gas at Costco, and an old woman who had her arm ripped off and bled out in front of her neighbors from teenagers car jacking her.

Locking people up blindly and indefinitely is wrong, but releasing people has not made any progress of since COVID.

https://www.wwltv.com/amp/article/news/crime/man-who-carjacked-ran-over-woman-at-costco-arrested/289-1a157509-4a24-4859-ae21-d1976c4488c6

https://www.wwltv.com/amp/article/news/crime/elderly-woman-dragged-death-new-orleans-carjacking/289-763a761c-95c8-46a9-ad30-3ef151ec419f

https://abc13.com/amp/allie-rice-baton-rouge-lsu-student-killed-woman-found-dead-in-car-the-shed/12240380/

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TheNewGirl_ t1_iwrdf88 wrote

That has nothing to do with the issue I brought up

Were talking about kids already in prison where the people in charge of reforming them have explicitly said - these kids are safe to be reintegrated back to society

If anything if the kids Im talking about werent in Jail, there would be like more room for the kids you're talking about in there lol

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[deleted] t1_iwni51f wrote

[removed]

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karavasis t1_iwnn5da wrote

Na they’ll just send the 17yr olds to adult facilities

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DarthSnoopyFish t1_iwnhak2 wrote

I wonder how many of those kids in juvy are there because of drug offenses.

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Deranged40 t1_iwnszy2 wrote

I wonder how many of them are in there because the judge gets an illegal kickback from the juvenile detention center.

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AREssshhhk t1_iwnrsb8 wrote

90% atleast

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Weorge-Gashington69 t1_iwo1j09 wrote

Source? You’re full of shit

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AREssshhhk t1_iwo1msz wrote

I was in juvy as a kid so it’s just anecdotal

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Weorge-Gashington69 t1_iwo27os wrote

And I worked in juvie for five years. Almost every single kid in there had multiple violent felonies on their records and were clear dangers to the community. That’s my anecdote

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AREssshhhk t1_iwo2csl wrote

Yah usually the violent stuff is related to drugs in my experience

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TroutCreekOkanagan t1_iwpbcc8 wrote

I assume they teach these kids labour skills working on a cannabis farm and making goat cheese.

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AREssshhhk t1_iwpl0fc wrote

They only taught us how to beat the shit out of each other, but really we taught that to ourselves

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blackhornet03 t1_iwnmxic wrote

There is something seriously wrong with people in Louisiana.

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Tylevian t1_iwnyyjy wrote

As someone in Louisiana I can confirm this is correct.

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Guac__is__extra__ t1_iwno8kr wrote

Same in South Carolina. Except for some reason the genius’s in charge only built one juvenile detention center for the entire state, which has an official capacity of 75-80 kids. They relied on a few counties around the state to supplement the capacity with their own detention centers, but those have shut down due to manpower issues.

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Amerlis t1_iwocm94 wrote

Setup to throw tax dollars at for-profit private prisons to come in and “save the children!”

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shebazz42 t1_iwocw74 wrote

You can’t let them out! Think of the chil… oh right, hmmm.

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fullload93 t1_iwoop8o wrote

Holy fuck they wanted to send juveniles to the fucking Farm???? Once you go to Angola, there’s no coming back. Everyone knows that.

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johndoe30x1 t1_iwojmrx wrote

How bad were conditions that the kids rioted and destroyed a facility? Jesus.

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Peoplegottabefree t1_iwnpy81 wrote

Hey, just let all the kids out in there because they got caught with a little weed, that will empty out the place ! Duh

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RedneckLiberace t1_iwowcjv wrote

Right. They're ALL in jail because they got busted with a couple joints.

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Weorge-Gashington69 t1_iwo1qin wrote

Highly doubt any of them are in there for weed. More like homicide, aggravated assault, carjacking, 1st degree assault, rape…you know, things that people should be incarcerated for

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flamingtoastjpn t1_iwo9uv9 wrote

Louisiana is notoriously harsh with drug convictions. Probably a fair few in there for weed.

I looked it up out of curiosity. possession of a half ounce or more is up to 6 months in jail for the 1st conviction, and the jail time goes way up for multiple offenses.

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mari0br0 t1_iwnp78z wrote

I wonder how many are there because they got caught with weed or something

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TroutCreekOkanagan t1_iwpbkbz wrote

They were arrested for their own rap videos, quite paradoxically. Hip hop: not even once.

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zetabur t1_iwr85ho wrote

Investigate the judges. No doubt this is a pay to fill the rooms scam by the judges. Especially if this is a private for profit prison.

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Mythosaurus t1_iwsewmg wrote

Can’t say I’m surprised that a state of the former Confederacyand Jim Crow apartheid is recreating the outcomes of those systems.

These problems will continue to rematerialize until the US fully reckons with its own history and stops the cycle of trauma that it’s addicted to

And a great start would be demolishing that cursed plantation prison at the center of this crisis.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_State_Penitentiary

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ZZZ-Top t1_iwv8m67 wrote

Not a shocker, someone I know has a son in there he got 90 days for skipping school

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