Far From the Tree

by Solomon, Andrew

  1390 The quotation from Carol Carothers (“It is hard to imagine a worse place . . .”) comes from her testimony “Juvenile detention centers: Are they warehousing children with mental illnesses?,” on behalf of the National Alliance on Mental Illness before the Governmental Affairs Committee, United States Senate on Juvenile Detention Centers, July 7, 2004. In full: “The sad truth in Maine and nearly every other state in our country is that youth with mental illnesses are being held in juvenile detention for the sole purpose of awaiting mental health treatment and services. It is hard to imagine a worse place to house a child that requires health-care treatment and services for their mental illness. Surely we would not dream of placing a child with another serious illness, like cancer for example, in a juvenile detention center to await a hospital bed or community based treatment. It is outrageous that we do this to children with mental illnesses, as young as 7 years old. This takes an enormous toll on the child and the family.”

  1391 This passage is based on my interview with Brianna Gandy in 2003. All names in this passage are pseudonyms.

  1392 This passage is based on my interview with Jackson Simpson, Alexa Simpson, and Jackson’s father in 2003. All names in this section are pseudonyms.

  1393 The description of hellish conditions at the Mississippi juvenile detention center comes from David M. Halbfinger, “Care of juvenile offenders in Mississippi is faulted,” New York Times, September 1, 2003.

  1394 The quotation describing filthy, inhumane conditions in a Mississippi detention center comes from the complaint filed in D.W. et al. v. Harrison County, Mississippi, Case 1:2009cv00267, US District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi (Complaint filed April 20, 2009; Memorandum of Agreement filed June 24, 2009); see also the Southern Poverty Law Center press release “SPLC sues Mississippi county to stop ‘shocking’ abuse of children at detention center,” April 20, 2009.

  1395 Stripping and isolation of adolescent female inmates is described in David Halbfinger, “Care of juvenile offenders in Mississippi is faulted,” New York Times, September 1, 2003.

  1396 “Blender meals” are described in John Broder, “Dismal California prisons hold juvenile offenders,” New York Times, February 15, 2004.

  1397 The characterization of California’s juvenile prisons as “a dysfunctional jumble of antiquated facilities” comes from John Broder, “Dismal California prisons hold juvenile offenders,” New York Times, February 15, 2004.

  1398 Conditions at the Nevada Youth Training Center are described in Ralph F. Boyd, Investigation of Nevada Youth Training Center, Elko, Nevada (2005), as cited on page 20 of the Columbia University National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse report Criminal Neglect: Substance Abuse, Juvenile Justice and the Children Left Behind (2004).

  1399 The death of a seventeen-year-old inmate and deplorable conditions at the Miami-Dade Regional Juvenile Detention Center are described in the Miami-Dade County Grand Jury report Investigation into the death of Omar Paisley and the Department of Juvenile Justice, Miami-Dade Regional Juvenile Detention Center, January 27, 2004.

  1400 The statement from Joseph Califano (“We have fifty-one different systems of juvenile in justice . . .”) occurs on page 20 of the Columbia University National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse report Criminal Neglect: Substance Abuse, Juvenile Justice and the Children Left Behind (2004).

  1401 All quotations from Home School staff and residents come from interviews and personal communications between 2003 and 2005, and subsequent communications.

  1402 See Stephen DiMenna’s website: http://www.stephendimenna.com/.

  1403 This passage is based on my interviews with Dashonte Malcolm, Audrey Malcolm, Bishop Forbes, Mother Forbes, and Darius Stewart between 2003 and 2007, and subsequent communications. All names in this passage are pseudonyms.

  1404 Comprehensive general resources on gangs include James C. Howell et al., “U.S. gang problem trends and seriousness,”National Gang Center Bulletin 6 (May 2011); and James C. Howell, Gangs in America’s Communities (2011); for specific background on the Bloods, see the Virginia Fusion Center, Bloods Street Gang Intelligence Report (2008).

  1405 See “Interview with Leslie Van Houten,” CNN Larry King Weekend, Cable News Network, June 29, 2002.

  1406 See Suzanne Daley’s interview with Aicha el-Wafi, mother of Zacarias Moussaoui, “Mysterious life of a suspect from France,” New York Times, September 21, 2001. Since that interview, Moussaoui’s mother has recognized and publicly acknowledged her inability to recognize his transformation into a terrorist; see Peter Wilkin’s interview “Mother of 9/11 conspirator: I was blind to son’s extremism,” Cable News Network, September 2, 2011.

  1407 This passage is based on my interview with Dan Patterson in 2004. All names in this passage are pseudonyms.

  1408 See Lionel Dahmer, A Father’s Story (1994).

  1409 The quotation from Lionel Dahmer occurs on pages 127–28 of A Father’s Story (1994). It has been condensed. In full: “And so, my life had become an exercise in avoidance and denial. I had grasped at every hope, evaded every unpleasant truth. In the months that followed, my conversations with Jeff continued on the same, anesthetized plane they’d been on from the time he was a teenage boy. We spoke, but we did not converse. I made suggestions. He accepted them. He gave excuses. I accepted them. It was as if we had agreed to speak only in half sentences, communicating only what it was safe to communicate, and never moving to penetrate the wall that had come to exist between us.

  “Now, when I think of those final days, I see myself in a kind of mental crouch, half expecting some sudden blow, but hoping against hope that it would never hit. I had come to accept the wall that separated me from my son. I had even come to think of it not so much as a wall, but as a shield which both of us needed if we were to communicate at all. It was as if we had agreed to speak only of the most banal things, because each of us knew that there were other things which, if honestly confronted, would tear us both apart. We had tacitly agreed to severely limit the subjects about which we could talk. We would discuss only the most trivial things in life, and let all the more profound and troubling ones drop from our conversations. We would live in a world of shallow exchanges, and let everything else remain unsaid. This dreadful silence we called peace.”

  1410 See Rachel King, Capital Consequences: Families of the Condemned Tell Their Stories (2005). For a summary of King’s work and conclusions, see her article “The impact of capital punishment on families of defendants and murder victims,” Judicature 89, no. 5 (March–April 2006).

  1411 The story of Dave Herman and his family is told in chapter 7 of Rachel King, Capital Consequences (2005), pages 221–45. The quotations from Esther Herman (“I had two very active businesses . . .” and “Dave had been a good person . . .”) occur on pages 223 and 231. They have been condensed.

  1412 This passage is based on my interview with Noel Marsh, Felicity Tompkins, and Steve Tompkins in 2003. All names in this passage are pseudonyms.

  1413 Studies of aggression in monkeys include Maribeth Champoux et al., “Serotonin transporter gene polymorphism, differential early rearing, and behavior in rhesus monkey neonates,” Molecular Psychiatry 7, no. 10 (2002); and Allyson Bennett et al., “Early experience and serotonin transporter gene variation interact to influence primate CNS function,” Molecular Psychiatry 7, no. 1 (2002).

  1414 See Avshalom Caspi et al., “Role of genotype in the cycle of violence in maltreated children,” Science 297, no. 5582 (August 2002). For a general review of research in this area, see Terrie E. Moffitt, “Genetic and environmental influences on antisocial behaviors: Evidence from behavioral-genetic research,” Advances in Genetics 55 (2005).

  1415 The quotation about the benefits of “a positive family environment” occurs on page 457 of Karol L. Kumpfer and Rose Alvarado, “Family-strengthening approaches for the prevention of youth problem behaviors,” American Psychologist 58, nos. 6–7 (June–July 2003). It has been condensed. In f
ull (citations omitted): “Tested causal models find that a positive family environment (e.g., positive parent-child relationships, parental supervision and consistent discipline, and communication of family values) is the major reason youth do not engage in delinquent or unhealthy behaviors. These protective family factors are even stronger predictors for minority youth and girls.”

  1416 The statement “The parental attachment factor explains delinquency” occurs on page 32 of Jill Leslie Rosenbaum, “Family dysfunction and female delinquency,” Crime & Delinquency 35, no. 1 (January 1989); see also Joseph H. Rankin and Roger Kern, “Parental attachments and delinquency,” Criminology 32, no. 4 (November 1994).

  1417 This passage is based on my interviews with Karina Lopez and Emma Lopez in 2003 and 2004 and subsequent communications. All names in this passage are true except for “Cesar Marengo,” which is a pseudonym.

  1418 The murder of Luis Alberto Anaya and the prosecution of José Monroy Vega, Juan Carlos Ortiz-Mendoza, and Ramiro Montoya Pineda were covered extensively in the Minneapolis Star Tribune; see, e.g., Paul Gustafson, “Gang member found not guilty of St. Paul killing,” May 6, 2004; “Doubts about witness lead to acquittal in murder case,” July 24, 2004; and “Gang member sentenced for shooting death of rival,” August 20, 2004. Sureños (also known as Sureños 13) is an alliance of Mexican-American street gangs that originated in Southern California during the 1970s and has since spread throughout the United States. In 2009, the Minnesota Metro Gang Strike Force estimated that Sureños 13 was the region’s fastest-growing gang, with 106 members residing in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area; see Metro Gang Strike Force, “2008 Annual Report” (2009).

  1419 Statistics on single-parent families come from pages 10–11 of Howard Snyder and Melissa Sickmund, Juvenile Offenders and Victims (2006); see also Stephen Demuth and Susan L. Brown, “Family structure, family processes, and adolescent delinquency: The significance of parental absence versus parental gender,” Journal of Research in Crime & Delinquency 41, no. 1 (February 2004).

  1420 This passage is based on my interview with Jamaal Carson and Breechelle Carson in 2003. All names in this passage are pseudonyms.

  1421 The quotation from John Bowlby (“comfortless and unpredictable, and they respond either by shrinking from it or doing battle with it”) occurs on page 208 of John Bowlby, Margery Fry, and Mary D. Salter Ainsworth, Separation: Anxiety and Anger, vol. 2: Attachment and Loss (1973). For further discussion of abuse and neglect as a contributing factor to delinquency, see Frank J. Elgar et al., “Attachment characteristics and behavioural problems in rural and urban juvenile delinquents,” Child Psychiatry & Human Development 34, no. 1 (Fall 2003). The increased incidence of crimes committed by abused and neglected children is reported on page 3 of Cathy Widom and Michael G. Maxfield, An Update on the “Cycle of Violence” (2001).

  1422 This passage is based on my interview with Huaj Kyuhyun in 2003. All names in this passage are pseudonyms.

  1423 For discussion of exposure to violence as a risk factor for delinquency, see Cathy Widom and Michael G. Maxfield, An Update on the “Cycle of Violence” (2001); Karol L. Kumpfer, Strengthening America’s Families (1999); Sally Preski and Deborah Shelton, “The role of contextual, child, and parent factors in predicting criminal outcomes in adolescence,” Issues in Mental Health Nursing 22 (March 2001); and Carolyn Hilarski, “Victimization history as a risk factor for conduct disorder behaviors,” Stress, Trauma & Crisis 7, no. 1 (January 2004).

  1424 For the report of the study finding increased risk of engaging in violent behavior in children exposed to violence, see Terence P. Thornberry, Violent Families and Youth Violence (1994); additionally, criminologist James C. Howell discusses and analyzes Thornberry’s study on pages 113–14 of Preventing and Reducing Juvenile Delinquency: A Comprehensive Framework (2003).

  1425 The quotation from Jess McDonald (“The Child Welfare System is a feeder system for the juvenile justice system”) occurs on page 32 of the Columbia University National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse report Criminal Neglect: Substance Abuse, Juvenile Justice and the Children Left Behind (2004).

  1426 This passage is based on my interview with Ryan Nordstrom and his parents in 2004. All names in this passage are pseudonyms.

  1427 At least one study has found an association between early exposure to pornography and offending: David L. Burton, George Stuart Leibowitz, and Alan Howard, “Comparison by crime type of juvenile delinquents on pornography exposure: The absence of relationships between exposure to pornography and sexual offense characteristics,” Journal of Forensic Nursing 6, no. 3 (September 2010).

  1428 David P. Farrington summarizes a major inquiry into youths’ high-risk behavior in “The development of offending and antisocial behaviour from childhood: Key findings from the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development,” Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry 36, no. 6 (September 1995).

  1429 See Judith Rich Harris, The Nurture Assumption: Why Children Turn Out the Way They Do (1998), especially the discussion of “groupness” on page 128. The tendency of juveniles to commit crimes in groups is discussed on page 370 of Child Delinquents: Development, Intervention, and Service Needs, edited by Rolf Loeber and David P. Farrington (2001).

  1430 For discussion of the contribution of the social environment to juvenile delinquency, see Kenneth C. Land, “Influence of neighborhood, peer, and family context: Trajectories of delinquent/criminal offending across the life course” (2000).

  1431 Statistics on the percentage of juvenile crimes committed by females come from page 4 of Charles Puzzanchera, Juvenile Arrests 2007 (2009).

  1432 For further discussion of precursors to female offending, see Leslie D. Leve and Patricia Chamberlain, “Female juvenile offenders: Defining an early-onset pathway for delinquency,” Journal of Child & Family Studies 13, no. 4 (December 2004); and Jill Leslie Rosenbaum, “Family dysfunction and female delinquency,” Crime & Delinquency 35, no. 1 (January 1989).

  1433 Statistics on the incidence of childhood sexual abuse among female criminal defendants come from George Calhoun et al., “The neophyte female delinquent: A review of the literature,” Adolescence 28, no. 110 (Summer 1993); and Margaret A. Zahn et al., “Causes and correlates of girls’ delinquency,” US Department of Justice (April 2010).

  1434 Statistics on the percentage of chronic juvenile offenders who are gang members come from James C. Howell’s report to the US Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Youth Gang Programs and Strategies (2000).

  1435 Statistics on gang membership come from the National Youth Gang Center, National Youth Gang Survey Analysis (2011), http://www.nationalgangcenter.gov/Survey-Analysis/Measuring-the-Extent-of-Gang-Problems (“The most recent figures provided by law enforcement are that approximately three out of every five gang members are adults.”)

  1436 This passage is based on my interviews with Krishna Mirador, Carol Malloy, and Raul Mirador from 2003 to 2009, and subsequent communications. All names in this passage are pseudonyms.

  1437 For the Indian court decision finding that Ananda Marga was the intended recipient of the arms drop in the Purulia arms drop case, see State v. Peter James Gifran von Kalkstein Bleach et al., Purulia arms dropping case, Sessions Trial No. 1, Calcutta Court of Session, judgment issued June 1997, http://www.cbi.gov.in/dop/judgements/padc.pdf. The case was extensively covered by the Times of India.

  1438 As Krishna noted, many gangs started out as neighborhood baseball teams; see Robert Chow, “Barrios’ rivalry began with sports, cars,” Orange County Register, August 6, 1990.

  1439 Website of the Ananda Marga center in La Limonada, Guatemala City: http://www.guatemala.crimsondawn.info/.

  1440 See Elizabeth Bishop, “Questions of Travel,” Questions of Travel (1965).

  1441 Vatos locos is Spanish for “crazy guys.”

  1442 This passage is based on my interview with Tyndall Wilkie in 2003. All names in this passage are pseudonyms.

  1443 This p
assage is based on the story of Mitt Ebbetts as recounted to me in 2004 by a member of staff at a juvenile facility. All names in this passage are pseudonyms.

  1444 An official study found that nearly half of Castington inmates anticipate difficulty finding work after release; see Her Majesty’s Young Offender Institution, Castington and Oswald Unit, “Summary of questionnaires and interviews,” February 16, 2010, at http://www.justice.gov.uk/downloads/publications/inspectorate-reports/hmipris/2010_CASTINGTON_YJB_survey_rps.pdf. In response, Berwick MP Alan Beith has advocated for increased provision of reentry counseling and services; see James Moore’s article “Acklington and Castington prisons may be privatised,” Journal, July 14, 2011.

  1445 The survey of juvenile caseworkers is described on page 387 of Rolf Loeber and David P. Farrington, Child Delinquents: Development, Intervention, and Service Needs (2001).

  1446 Figures on the cost of jailing juveniles come from page 16 of Peter W. Greenwood et al., RAND Corporation report Diverting Children from a Life of Crime: Measuring Costs and Benefits (1996), estimating $21,000/year; and page 32 of Karol Kumpfer, Strengthening America’s Families: Exemplary Parenting and Family Strategies for Delinquency Prevention (1999), estimating $34,000–$64,000/year.

  1447 For more information on prison programming and its role in reducing recidivism, see the discussion on pages 210–11 of James C. Howell, Preventing and Reducing Juvenile Delinquency (2003); Cole Barton et al., “Generalizing treatment effects of functional family therapy: Three replications,” American Journal of Family Therapy 13, no. 3 (Fall 1985); and Roger Przybylski’s report to the Colorado Division of Criminal Justice, What Works: Effective Recidivism Reduction and Risk-Focused Prevention Programs (2008).