The Profit in Locking Up Our Kids (Final on Media)

Let me continue with a few more pieces of research and information and end it with a personal testimony.  I want to take you directly to the school shooting incidents that forever changed the landscape of juvenile justice, the impact it had on us and the resulting carnage. 

In 1996 we have the first widely publicized school shooting when a young man in Springfield, Oregon shot his parents and then opened fire on class mates.  Not only did the network affiliates milk this for every rating point they could get, the cable channels picked up this news story and gave it as much as 6 hours of air time with replays of the incident and updates on the situation for several days after the event.  The result of this?  Polls indicated that parental concern over the safety of their children had risen dramatically. Then came the Columbine incident which received  much air time and the networks competing heavily for viewership so that regular programming was interrupted and special reports were inserted.  As a nation we were horrified to know that young people could be so violent.  Reporters got as close to victims and their families as they possibly could.  We viewed the trauma, fear and pain up close and we ingested it into our own lives.  We mourned with them.  Polls taken after this event, which were to determine the mind set of voters for up-coming elections, revealed that we were disturbed, disheartened and alarmed at the condition of our country and for our own safety.  This shaped the political platforms for the 2000 election year and for a few years after.  While we felt this way as a result of the bombardment of the single incidents of these troubled young people, the statistics did not support our fears.  In the 1990’s the incidence of violent street crime had dropped.  Robbery was down 17 percent, forcible rape was down 30 percent, murder was unchanged (for 20 years!).  Violent crime was actually below what it had been in the 1970’s! 

So while we were believing that were living in an increasingly violent world, because of the media experiences we were having through violent programming, the truth was…..we were safer than 20 years before.  While we believed that we could step out the door and come face to face with a  deranged person wielding a semi-automatic weapon, the truth was…..we never saw anything like that.  But we were fearful, anxious, and depressed. 

From The National Television Violence Profile Scientific Papers 1994-1995:  There is a general consensus in the scientific and public health fields that there are three primary harmful effects of viewing media violence:  1) learning aggressive attitudes and behaviors 2) Emotional desensitization toward real world violence 3) Increased fear of being victimized by violence, resulting in self-protective behaviors and mistrust of others.

Now for the personal testimony.  My son was a party to a high profile case.  The crime had been committed 3 months earlier with a few articles published in the paper concerning the mystery of these deaths.  March 8, 2001 my life was never the same.  My son was arrested that night and charged with 3 counts of first degree murder….at the age of seventeen……and the crimes supposedly happened at a time of day when I could testify giving my son an alibi.  I was terrified!  What was I going to do?  My son was arrested and charged with horrific crimes that he did not commit and I had to save him.  My body shook and trembled for hours after I returned home.  The next day was quiet.  No newspapers, only a couple of calls from reporters.  March 10th I awoke to reporters, with their filming crews, taking up residence in my back yard.  TV news trucks were surrounding my house, my phone was ringing and they were heading for my door.  I have a special needs daughter who was 16 at the time.  I had to protect her.  So I made a daring dash out the front door with her, her father and a few things thrown in a suitcase.  I hid them for a few weeks, while everything calmed down. 

In the mean time we had to appear at Jon’s arraignment hearing.  As we pulled into the parking lot at the court house we noticed the snipers on the roof with their guns trained on all who entered.  We were greeted by officers wearing flack jackets and carrying bullet proof shields and weapons to usher us inside the court house.  Television crews were on all sides with their cameras trained on the attendees as they entered the court house.  Words cannot express the terror that I felt and the terror of every member of my family that had come to show support for my son.  At the jail the officers were preparing my son for transport to the court house.  They bound his ankles with chains.  They put a bullet proof vest on him and bound his arms to his waist with chains.  The officers commented that they were going to make him look like Hannibal Lector (see “Who’s Afraid of The Kid” at Free-Jonny http://s246427087.onlinehome.us/2008/06/12/entry-2-june-12-2008/).

The next few weeks were a blur of images on television screens, newspaper articles and a relentless attack on my son…..before all evidence was in…..before he had a chance to present his case in court.  This media attack, which was done to promote ratings for television stations, tried my son before he ever went to court.  If the District Attorney found that there was not just cause to try my son for the crimes he was charged, he had no recourse, unless he was willing to publicly state that he was wrong.  Because of this, I believe that it would have been impossible for my son to ever walk away with any justice.  If you do not want to believe this then I ask you to research the case of Tim Masters.  He was charged for a crime that he did not commit.  Despite the fact that DNA evidence proved he was not the perpetrator, the DA’s office refused him a new trial.  Why?  Because someone would have to admit they were wrong, after a very public prosecution.  Only after public outcry was justice granted.

The power of media sways our opinion and causes us to believe or perceive things that are not true.  The cost?  Freedom, truth and justice.  You may want to pacify yourself with the belief that this was an isolated incident.  I assure you that you are wrong.  Story after story has been told to me by mothers who experienced the same thing I did. 

The effects on our laws concerning juvenile crime significantly changed following the tragedies at Springfield and Columbine.  Every juvenile that committed a crime was viewed as a monster.  We treated them as monsters with exaggerated charges, exaggerated sentences and adult prison facilities.  We forgot about rehabilitation, restoration, transformation. 

Now……turn off your TV, ask questions, walk out the door and view the world as it really is, make rational educated decisions.  Stop the buy-in to media sensationalism, violent programming and ask for truth.

The carnage?  Bulging prisons with unprecedented prison growth.  Corrections budgets that swallow up funding for education and social services.  A generation lost to a hopeless world behind bars.  The opportunity for a life.  The opportunity for grandchildren.  My son.

This entry was posted on 24. September 2008 at 14:53 and is filed under Prison Reform Advocates, Juvenile Reform Advocates. 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.

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