« Baby Blogging: Maddox Gets Smeared

Home
Review: The Long Way Home, Part 1 »

Texas Contemplating Mass Releases Of Improperly Imprisoned Juveniles

Posted by Ampersand | March 26th, 2007

This is a pretty astonishing story. Rachel blogged recently about Shaquanda Cotton, a Black 14-year-old girl sentenced to seven years in Juvie Prison in Texas for shoving a hall monitor. Cotton’s mother is an activist who has often criticized the school system; her theory is that her daughter’s punishment was actually about punishing her for activism. If this new story is accurate in what it implies, Cotton’s case was part of a pattern. Shaquanda Cotton is, according to a Chicago Tribune story, one of the most likely candidates for release.

Curtsy to Chittlin’s and Chopsticks; head over there to read the complete story.

CHICAGO TRIBUNE UPDATE
Texas reviews scandal-plagued juvenile prison system
By Howard WittTribune senior correspondent
March 26, 2007, 8:02 PM CDTHOUSTON –

The sentences of many of the 4,700 delinquent youths now being held in Texas’ juvenile prisons might have been arbitrarily and unfairly extended by prison authorities and thousands could be freed in a matter of weeks as part of a sweeping overhaul of the scandal-plagued juvenile system, state officials say.Jay Kimbrough, a special master appointed by Texas Gov. Rick Perry to investigate the system after allegations surfaced that some prison officials were coercing imprisoned youths for sex, said he would assemble a committee to review the sentence of every youth in the system.

The goal, Kimbrough said, is to release any youth whose sentence was improperly extended without justification or in retaliation for filing complaints. In his initial review of sentences, Kimbrough said, he had found many questionable extensions, adding that some experts estimate that more 60 percent of the state’s youthful inmates might be languishing under wrongful detention.

Such a mass emptying of a state’s juvenile jails would be unprecedented, experts said. Among the leading candidates for early release is Shaquanda Cotton, a 14-year-old black girl from the small east Texas town of Paris, who was sent to prison for up to 7 years for shoving a hall monitor at her high school while other young white offenders convicted of more serious crimes received probation in the town’s courts.

Again, Chittlin’s and Chopsticks has the complete story.

This entry was posted by Ampersand and is filed under Race, racism and related issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

6 Responses to “Texas Contemplating Mass Releases Of Improperly Imprisoned Juveniles”

  1. Sailorman Writes:
    March 27th, 2007 at 7:32 am

    well, THAT’S an improvement.

    nice.

    (not “nice” because it should be a problem in the first place, but “nice” in that it’s being fixed.)

    This comment was written by Sailorman.
    Report this comment to the moderators
  2. Myca Writes:
    March 27th, 2007 at 8:10 am

    Well thank freaking god. This can’t possibly come soon enough.

    As I’ve noted elsewhere, the ongoing double standard when it comes to teenagers sickens me. The idea that teenagers are children when they want their basic human rights or they want to have sex with someone, but (WHOOPS!) they’re adults when we want to toss them in jail for a decade or more speaks to a deep dysfunction in our country.

    —Myca

    This comment was written by Myca.
    Report this comment to the moderators
  3. aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South Writes:
    March 27th, 2007 at 12:32 pm

    [O]fficials at the Ron Jackson Correctional Complex have repeatedly extended Shaquanda’s sentence because she refuses to admit her guilt and because she was found with contraband in her cell–an extra pair of socks. Via Alas, a blog.

    This comment was written by aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South.
    Report this comment to the moderators
  4. IST Control Center Writes:
    March 28th, 2007 at 8:03 pm

    s Still Alive: Senate Supports Non-Binding Timeline  - Mar 27, 2007  - Rachel S. Into The Fifth: Stories From Iraq  - Mar 27, 2007  - Ampersand Review: The Long Way Home, Part 1  - Mar 27, 2007  - Maia Texas Contemplating Mass Releases Of Improperly Imprisoned Juveniles  - Mar 26, 2007  - Ampersand Baby Blogging: Maddox Gets Smeared  - Mar 26, 2007  - Ampersand

    This comment was written by IST Control Center.
    Report this comment to the moderators
  5. fawnapril Writes:
    March 29th, 2007 at 4:57 am

    worse

    This comment was written by fawnapril.
    Report this comment to the moderators
  6. Pacific Views: Shaquanda Cotton Freed Writes:
    April 1st, 2007 at 11:41 am

    […] And she was a sock smuggler, too. So I can see why authorities were concerned. Nonetheless, considering that her sentence may have been partly motivated by dislike of the girl’s uppity mother, it seems hardly fair. Perhaps they should have jailed her mother, instead. Jayzus. […]

    This comment was written by Pacific Views: Shaquanda Cotton Freed.
    Report this comment to the moderators

Leave a Reply

If you have questions about the moderation policies here, please read this post. Short version: treat other posters with respect.

(Need to know how to create blockquotes and links, i.e., linked text?)

If your submitted comment fails to appear, without even an error or "waiting for moderation" message, then our spam-blocking program may have blocked your comment by mistake. When this happens, please contact the moderators right away so we can rescue your comment!