Following a New York Times investigation on the abuse of juvenile offenders at New York’s Rikers Island jail, the Justice Department released its own report detailing the conditions. New York’s leaders have a lot to do to improve these conditions, reads an editorial in The Washington Post, “but the nation should pay attention” as well. “The federal government is supposed to be setting a minimum standard of treatment for minors in the justice system. It is obviously falling short.” The young prisoners, charged as adults in New York, are “locked in a toxic and abusive environment ill-suited for the sort of rehabilitation that these young people need.” An existing law already demands that adults and minors be separated while in detention, but it does not protect juveniles charged as adults. “Its baseline protections for juvenile prisoners also need some toughening,” the editorial says. “Congress should end the act’s loophole, or at least close it tightly enough that only the worst sorts of minor offenders end up uncovered by federal juvenile detention requirements. Then it should bulk up those baseline standards.”
[For the original story, go to http://op-talk.blogs.nytimes.c...12/morning-views-56/]
Comments (0)