Date Published: April 11, 2008
Timothy Kane was 14 years old when, led by a 19-year-old and a 17-year-old, he agreed to participate in a burglary. The two older boys killed a man and a woman. Timothy Kane, who had had no criminal history, got two life sentences with a minimum of 25 years. He has been in prison for 16 years.
Kenneth Young was 14 years old when he was charged with two counts of robbery with a weapon. Within a month, after turning 15, he was charged with three counts of robbery with a weapon and grand theft. Led by an adult crack dealer to whom his addicted mother owed money, Kenneth Young took money from four motels and an office while the crack dealer held a gun to the clerks and shouted orders. No one was injured or killed. Yet Kenneth got four consecutive life sentences. He is now 22.
Timothy Kane and Kenneth Young are among the 713 inmates in Florida prisons who were 16 years old or younger when they committed crimes. A proposal going nowhere in the Legislature would give some of those 713 inmates the opportunity of parole.
Paolo Annino, director of Florida State University's Public Interest Law Center, which helped draft the legislation, estimates that about 20 percent - including Timothy Kane and Kenneth Young - would become eligible for a hearing. No guarantee of release. No clemency. Just a hearing to determine whether, after at least eight years served, they have shown enough educational improvement and good behavior to be considered for parole.
The legislation, Senate Bill 2030 and House Bill 1137, deserves to pass. It recognizes that a child's brain is still developing through adolescence, that children - biologically different from adults - "have a greater capacity for rehabilitation." It also distinguishes between a child who was "a principal to the criminal act or an accomplice to the offense, a relatively minor participant in the criminal conduct, or (who) acted under extreme duress or domination by another person."
Children who had prior criminal records, especially of violent crimes (murder, assault, violence against the elderly, cruelty to animals and other offenses); who were sex offenders; or who have had discipline problems in prison would not be eligible for parole. The opinions of the victim or the victim's family would have to be considered. Said Dr. Annino, "We don't want people who are dangerous to be released."
Florida is paying for more than a decade of wrongheaded approaches to juvenile justice. In a year, the state spends nearly $43,000 per child on residential and correctional facilities, compared with $2,000 per child for prevention services. The number of juveniles in Florida transferred to adult court increased to 3,408 in 2006-07, up 17 percent from the prior year. Too many are warehoused in jails and prisons, unable to learn how to read, earn a GED or gain the life skills necessary to eventually have a productive life in society.
Legislators hide behind slogans and political ads urging a get-tough-on-crime mentality at all costs. But that allegiance has made Florida one of the main contributors to the record-breaking statistic: For the first time, more than one in every 100 adults in America is in jail or prison. According to the Pew Center on the States' Public Safety Performance Project, which released the report in February, of the seven states with the largest number of prisoners, three grew last year, including Florida.
The Children in Prison Rehabilitation Act has the support of the Florida Parole Commission, which has noted that the change would save the state money. The Governor's Blueprint Commission on Juvenile Justice, which has proposed ways to increase prevention and rehabilitation instead of after-the-fact, costly punishment, supports the change. Some advocates for victims, including the Palm Beach County-based Mothers Against Murderers Association, support the change. A former corrections officer who, as one of Dr. Annino's students, helped draft the legislation, has pointed out that it even would aid those guarding prisoners because it provides motivation for inmates to behave.
The legislation is anchored in the belief that: "Children are different. Children can be rehabilitated." The same could be said of Florida's approach to troubled children.
Elisa Cramer
Palm Beach Post
April 11, 2008