[Vision2020] Juvenile Shooting Suspect Back in Custody

Sat Jan 30 12:24:08 PST 2010

Donovan, Donovan, Donovan . . . you need to get your story straight  J

You start out saying that the boys need to be in jail where they can get help, which is one of the most either naïve or disingenuous statements I’ve heard from you, and then you respond by making the point that you don’t have faith in our legal system.   Do you not see the obvious contradiction?

Let’s be fair:  as you well know, it wasn’t just the boys’ lawyers who got them out with strict restrictions, it was the prosecutor and the judge as well.  And, as you’ll see later, budget cuts likely played a factor as well.

And, let’s be honest:  you know as well as I that Idaho has never adequately funded our corrections system because Idahoans in general are big on retribution (as evidenced by your ignorant comments below) rather than rehabilitation in spite of the fact that the vast majority of offenders – including juvenile offenders – will be living among us again all too soon in many cases.  Personally, I’m a big fan of rehabilitation rather than retribution for appropriate offenses precisely because of that fact, but others – including those responsible for budgets – are more short-sighted to the detriment of public safety, IMHO.  So be it.

No one I know thinks corrections facilities should be theme parks, but we also don’t think any victimization (sexual or otherwise) by other inmates or staff of those incarcerated is acceptable.  At all.  Indeed, because they are in our custody, many successfully argue that makes the rampant abuses even more heinous.  Why would you want to justify or “explain away” or minimize such things, particularly with respect to our children, and especially those who haven’t been convicted?!  Did you even bother to read the DOJ’s special report regarding the crisis in our juvenile corrections facilities?  I don’t think so because if you had, I doubt you’d have responded as flippantly as you did.

You also claim:

“The budget cuts in Idaho don't impact prisons. . . You obviously aren't aware of the Governor's priorities if you didn't know this. “

Shame on you for telling tales you are intelligent enough to know aren’t true, which fewer than 30 seconds on Google would have shown:

http://www.idoc.idaho.gov/facts/fact_sheets/YearEndBrief.July09.pdf

“Idaho has cut $27 million dollars from its 2009 and 2010 corrections budget, a 14 percent reduction. As a result, the department laid off 44 positions, and ordered 4 days of furloughs for prison security staff and 10 days of furloughs for all other

employees.”

 And, for those who don’t know what the main strategy was to accommodate those budget cuts, it was to drive down the prison population!  In a positive way, of course <snort>.  You – and any interested in the facts – can read more here:

http://www.idoc.idaho.gov/facts/annual/DecBrief.08pub.pdf

Perhaps what you really meant was that you believe in punishment or “help” before conviction, which puts you at odds with our Constitution.  If that’s the case, perhaps the United States of America – where more than a few of us (the majority of current Supreme Court justices notwithstanding) actually believe in the Constitution – isn’t the place for you?

Saundra Lund

Moscow, ID

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.

~ Edmund Burke

***** Original material contained herein is Copyright 2010 through life plus 70 years, Saundra Lund.  Do not copy, forward, excerpt, or reproduce outside the Vision 2020 forum without the express written permission of the author.*****

From: Donovan Arnold [mailto:donovanjarnold2008 at yahoo.com] 
Sent: Saturday, January 30, 2010 7:45 AM
To: 'Moscow Vision 2020'; 'Tom Hansen'; Saundra Lund
Subject: RE: [Vision2020] Juvenile Shooting Suspect Back in Custody

Saundra,

If your daughter or husband was shot at by these boys driving home, would you want the person shooting at him or her to be released with just an electronic bracelet? I would hope not. Or would you want that person to be kept from weapons and the general population until their proclivities to harm others was under control?

I don't agree with releasing sexual predators into the general public either without supervision and years of rehabilitation and punishment for their crimes. Not set free with a bracelet. So your example only reinforced my lack of faith in our legal system.

I don't claim to be an expert on the juvenile system or their behavior.. However, the lawyers responsible for the release of at least one of these two young men are the ones that obviously are in need of a better education. He almost killed people, and they certainly did more damage to this young man and his family by the choice of not sending him to a correctional facility where he clearly needs assistance beyond what one or two parents can provide.

The budget cuts in Idaho don't impact prisons, they effect public education and care for the poor, elderly, and disabled. You obviously aren't aware of the Governor's priorities if you didn't know this. 

I'm sure prisons are horrible places, as you claim. Surprise! They are not meant to be theme parks. They are prisons. And the chances of becoming a victim of rape in a prison as well as any other type of victim is greater. Our legal system should do a better job of protecting juveniles from incidences which increase their chances or being hardened criminals when released. However, prisons should be places people don't want to go to as deterrent from a crime filled life. 

Your statistic of 1 in 8 for males in prison getting sexually violated, oddly enough, is about 1/2 the same statistic for women being sexually violated,  1 in 4, coincidentally, by criminals not in prison. All the better the reason to leave the people violators in prison, not out here. 

Your Friend,

Donovan Arnold 

--- On Sat, 1/30/10, Saundra Lund <v2020 at ssl.fastmail.fm> wrote:

From: Saundra Lund <v2020 at ssl.fastmail.fm>
Subject: RE: [Vision2020] Juvenile Shooting Suspect Back in Custody
To: "'Donovan Arnold'" <donovanjarnold2008 at yahoo.com>, "'Moscow Vision 2020'" <vision2020 at moscow.com>, "'Tom Hansen'" <thansen at moscow.com>
Date: Saturday, January 30, 2010, 8:23 AM

Donovan wrote:

“It is should be obvious that these two boys need help long before they are released.”

Where exactly do you think they’d get help locked up, particularly given the current budget gutting in Idaho?  And, it’s not like they were released without a laundry-list of restrictions, including electronic monitoring, for Pete’s sake.  Besides, convicted sexual predators are routinely released all over Idaho to get themselves to & from “counseling” – do you really think these two boys present a greater risk than convicted sexual predators?!

Clearly, you are ignorant about the state of the juvenile justice system in our country.  I highly recommend reading Nicholas Kristof’s shocking & powerful editorial entitled “Kids in Crisis (Behind Bars)”:

 <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/28/opinion/28kristof.html?ref=opinion> http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/28/opinion/28kristof.html?ref=opinion

Maybe Rodney would have been safer in a juvenile correctional facility, but then again maybe not. A stunning new Justice Department  <http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/svjfry09.pdf> special report, released just this month, underscores how widespread rape is in youth correctional facilities. It found that almost one youth in eight reported being sexually assaulted while behind bars in the last year.

That means that a child in custody is about twice as likely to be raped as an adult behind bars, based on similar surveys of adult prisoners. As The New York Review of Books  <http://blogs.nybooks.com/post/321666354/the-crisis-of-juvenile-prison-rape-a-new-report> wrote on its blog, we face a “crisis of juvenile prison rape.”

The National Prison Rape Elimination Commission, a blue-ribbon panel that issued  <http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/226680.pdf> its final report last year, described how a 14-year-old boy weighing 98 pounds was assaulted after he was made to share a cell with two older teenagers. Both were 6 feet 2 inches, and one weighed 160 pounds and the other 195 pounds. 

Surprisingly, the new survey suggests that the biggest predators are not other inmates but prison staff — and female staff members offend as much as the males do. More than 10 percent of boys in juvenile correctional facilities said that they had had sex with staff, most of whom were women.

Among girls, almost 5 percent said that they had engaged in sexual activity with staff, most of whom were men.

Sadly, those in the know have long recognized that juvenile detention facilities – even here in Idaho – are far more likely to turn out hardened offenders with increased criminal skills than anything else.  While it may be a necessary evil for those convicted, it doesn’t seem a particularly wise or desirable move for unsophisticated juveniles who haven’t been convicted of anything yet.

If you have the stomach for it, do take the time to read the Justice Department’s special report, which you can find here:

 <http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/svjfry09.pdf> http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/svjfry09.pdf

Saundra Lund

Moscow, ID

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.

~ Edmund Burke

***** Original material contained herein is Copyright 2010 through life plus 70 years, Saundra Lund.  Do not copy, forward, excerpt, or reproduce outside the Vision 2020 forum without the express written permission of the author.*****

From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com] On Behalf Of Donovan Arnold
Sent: Friday, January 29, 2010 6:23 PM
To: Moscow Vision 2020; Tom Hansen
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Juvenile Shooting Suspect Back in Custody

Dare I ask the obvious question here; "Why the hell where this two released in the first place?"

Come on, I mean get a freaking clue. They were shooting a people. What kind of messed up legal system do we have that lets people that shoot other people out of lock up?

It is should be obvious that these two boys need help long before they are released. 

Your Friend,

Donovan Arnold

--- On Sat, 1/30/10, Tom Hansen <thansen at moscow.com> wrote:

From: Tom Hansen <thansen at moscow.com>
Subject: [Vision2020] Juvenile Shooting Suspect Back in Custody
To: "Moscow Vision 2020" <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Date: Saturday, January 30, 2010, 12:48 AM

Courtesy of the Lewiston Tribune.

------------------------------------------------------------

Juvenile shooting suspect back in custody after pipe bomb found

HELMER -- One of the two juveniles arrested in connection with the
shooting of up to 20 vehicles on State Highway 8 last week has been taken
back into custody after investigators found a pipe bomb at his residence
during a search Thursday, according to the Latah County Sheriff's Office.

Deputies were executing a search warrant as part of the investigation into
the Jan. 22 shootings, according to a news release this afternoon from Lt.
Brannon Jordan.. Officials evacuated the area around the home, and a bomb
squad from Spokane responded and neutralized the device, according to
Jordan.

Austin Blake Medlock and Austin James Rickert, both 14-year-old freshmen
at Deary High School, allegedly used two .22-caliber rifles and a crossbow
to shoot at the vehicles, according to court records. The news release
does not specify which teen was taken back into custody, and a dispatcher
at the sheriff's office said she was told not to release the suspect's
name.

The teen arrested Thursday is now charged with felony unlawful possession
of bombs or destructive devices in addition to the earlier charge of
unlawfully discharging a firearm at a vehicle, according to the news
release.

County Magistrate John Judge released Medlock and Rickert to their parents
after a hearing Monday on the condition that neither leave the sight of
one of their parents, that all guns be removed from their homes, that they
not touch a firearm, that the parents take them to and from school, that
they both wear electronic monitoring devices and that they agree to be
searched at any time by authorities.

No one was injured in the shootings, but one bullet passed through the
passenger compartment of one car, narrowly missing two girls.

------------------------------------------------------------

Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change
and the Realist adjusts his sails."

- Unknown

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