Behind Bars – Page 51 – The Pen Hustle With Brandy Cavalli

Studies Show Girls In Juvenile Detentions Are Often Victims Of Family Violence

Girls in the criminal justice system report far higher rates of in-home sexual abuse and are detained for minor offenses more often than boys, in what becomes a self-perpetuating cycle of imprisonment.

Tanya Robinson’s time in juvenile detention started with the offense of running away.

She first ran away from home when she was seven years old, having been molested by her mother’s boyfriends for a year.

Stripped naked by and fleeing a beating from her mother, Robinson hurried into the bathroom and slipped out the window before her mother could open the door, covered her body with a T-shirt from a clothes line, and ran.

When she was 14 and still running, her mother took her to a South Carolina court as a runaway, and she was shackled and taken away.

Since Robinson, now 38, was a juvenile, the share of girls in detention has spiked more than 40%. Of those girls now in the US juvenile justice system, 84% have experienced family violence, according to new research.

Almost a third of those girls have been subject to in-home sexual abuse, according to a report from the National Crittenton Foundation and the National Women’s Law Center that looks at data from 1992 to 2012. Girls in the criminal justice system reported sexual abuse at nearly four and a half times the rate of boys.

Many of these girls have endured abuse or lived through otherwise adverse environments, and their rising population in the juvenile justice population may not be helping them.

“The literature is really clear that as a direct response and completely understandable response to this kind of environmental trauma, girls are more likely to run away, to fight at home, to use substances,” said Francine Sherman, report author and the clinical associate professor and director of the Juvenile Rights Advocacy Project at Boston College Law School. “And these are direct pathways into the justice system.”
Once Robinson was detained at 14, she was subjected to a full cavity search, and put in a “cinder block of a cell with a thin mattress” for a week until she was released to her mother. “No one asked why I was running,” she said. “No one was willing to go to bat for me.”

While girls are less likely than boys to commit crimes that pose threats to other people, they are detained for the most minor offenses – such as probation violation and status offenses, which are crimes that, like running away, are only illegal for youths – at rates higher than boys. In 2013, while 37% of detained girls had committed status offenses or technical (probation) violations, only 25% of detained boys had committed the same offenses.

Twenty-one percent of girls were detained for simple assault (without weapons) and public order offenses (like loitering), compared to 12% of boys, the report said.

Abuse and other disruptions in the home, including poverty, may cause girls to react with behaviors that are illegal for youths, like running away or truancy, and punishments for these girls, as well-intentioned as they may be, can do more harm than good.

Girls accounted for 53% of runaway cases in 2011, and runaways are at risk not only for their own safety, but also for acquiring additional charges that emanate from time spent on the street.

Even traumatized girls who don’t run away are likely to exhibit behaviors that get them arrested.

“I have cases where girls were arrested in school because they’re dealing with a lot of issues and they can’t always sit in a seat when they’re supposed to,” said Mona Ingram, attorney in charge at the Committee for Public Counsel Services in Lowell, Massachusetts. “Girls are very verbal, too, and get in a lot of trouble for things that they say rather than things that they do.” Not going to school means risking truancy, another offense that introduces girls to the criminal justice system.

According to the report, black girls are more likely to be targeted for behaviors such as speaking out of turn in school, and although more research needs to be done on race and gender, intersectional analysis shows “significant disparities disadvantaging black, American Indian/Alaska Native, and Latina girls as they move through the system process face discrimination”.

Forty percent of girls in the juvenile justice system identify as LBQ/GNCT, and “likely” face discrimination at each decision point as well. Sherman said LBQ/GNCT juvenile justice involvements, like many other cases, often begin in the homes from which they run away.

Inmates Gaining Social Media Access From Within Prisons

Via cbs46--It would almost be funny if it wasn’t deadly serious.

Shawn Mosley, known by the nickname “Juice,” has spent nearly his entire adult life in prison.

He’s currently serving a 15-year sentence for aggravated assault and possession of drugs with intent to distribute. Yet, even inside one of Georgia’s high-security prisons, Mosley has been keeping in touch with more than 3,500 family members and friends.

“It’s unbelievable,” said Cobb County District Attorney Vic Reynolds.

We showed the prisoner’s Facebook page to Reynolds. When we asked him what he thought, Reynolds said, “My initial reaction is how in the world does he have a Facebook page when he’s a convicted felon inside of a state prison system. And then, be inside the prison system, apparently showing money, tattoos. I don’t understand how that can happen.”

If it’s any consolation, Facebook does seem to cause “Juice” some of the same misery as a lot of you on the outside.

For instance, he has a girlfriend who keeps an eye on his timeline and, well, “It’s complicated.”

Also, like a lot of other Facebook users, Mosley often posts pictures of the dinner he’s about to eat.
More unusual — pictures of the drugs he boasts of selling, and using, behind bars.

“This isn’t something that somebody is hiding,” Reynolds said. “He’s bragging about it.”

Posting under aliases like “Eskabar Juice,” Mosley has been a prolific Facebook user since 2010, and he even manages to update his page during prison emergencies.

“Why y’all on lock down again?” writes his mom in one entry.

“Juice” explains that another inmate has been stabbed.

“Dang!” his mother responds.
“It’s mind boggling. I mean, I would think that the people who run that state prison system would want to be aware of this and would do something about it,” Reynolds said.
Homer Bryson is commissioner of the Department of Corrections. He’s new to the job, appointed by Gov. Nathan Deal in February.
“We think we’re going in the right direction of what we’re doing, how we’re managing our inmates,” Bryson said.

When asked about drugs and guns in the prisons, Bryson said, “We’re investigating all of that.”

Commissioner Bryson didn’t want to talk to us himself, but did allow us to interview Ricky Myrick, who is his top investigator.

“Facebook is not extremely cooperative with us on pulling down the pages,” Myrick said. “Basically, the way they look at the violations of their conduct policly, being an inmate does not fit the bill.”

Myrick already knows there’s a serious problem. Not everything Georgia inmates post on Facebook is harmless.

“[It] allows them to intimidate witnesses, threaten and harass their victims that they currently were dealing with. It allows them to coordinate their efforts to defeat out security measures.”

Travis Morgan doesn’t even bother using an alias on his Facebook page. In August, Morgan used the internet to access the Department of Corrections own website, searching out and then re-posting photos of Kevin Lattrell Holloway, a convicted sex offender.

“Warning, Faceook…” he wrote. “This aggravated child molester goes by the name of Bankhead…and is now located at Calhoun State Prison.”
“The call has been made,” Morgan proclaimed. ‘So remember his face!”

Not only for child molesters, but they put hits on individuals that are rival gang members and so forth,” said Myrick.

Prison authorities are taking the threat seriously, but didn’t know about it until we told them.

By now, you’re probably wondering the same thing we were. How in the world do inmates even have access to the internet?
Well, it’s not as if there are computers in the prison library. They’re using cell phones.

WATCH: Jamaican Druglord Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke In Custody Following Manhunt Arrest

A video was shown to The Tivoli Enquiry commission of Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke sitting on a bed inside a cell at the Jamaica Defence Force’s headquarters, Up Park Camp.

In the never-before-released video, soldiers are seen inspecting the cell while Coke, decked in a white polo shirt, sat on the bed looking relaxed as he leaned back on both hands.

He engaged the soldiers in a seemingly friendly conversation and assured them that he would not try to escape. He asked about seeing his attorney and was told by Lieutenant Colonel David Cummings that arrangements are being made for him to see his lawyer.

Another picture was shown of a smiling Coke standing in the cell.

The enquiry was also told of a letter from Coke’s attorney, Tom Tavares-Finson, commending the soldiers for the way in which Coke was treated while in their custody.

Peep the video.

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