Reviews for Judging Children as Children: A Proposal for a Juvenile Justice System

The average rating for Judging Children as Children: A Proposal for a Juvenile Justice System based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-03-08 00:00:00 Andrew Dodds i wonder if any of you have been following the case of qing hong wu-- my friend drew, who knows i have an interest in this sort of topic, forwarded me an article on his case. he's been in america since he was five, but, until today when the governor pardoned him, he was facing deportation after coming forward to seek naturalization. the problem is, he has a juvenile record. i guess he fell in with some bullshit in his early teens and was involved in a string of muggings. the judge in the case-- the author of this book-- sentenced him to 3-9 years in a juvenile facility, urged him to use the time as an opportunity to turn things around, and said to him "if you do that, i am here to stand behind you." and wu turned it around i guess. upstanding guy--out in three years, helped get his family in order, started his own business, and so on and so forth. and then he came forward to finish the project-- the seek naturalization. but immigration law in this country is so fucking rigid that even a sympathetic judge couldn't find a way around the law that says if you have a juvenile record, you have to go. anyway, enter judge corriero. fifteen years later or whatever, he fought like a bastard for this guy, who has just been pardoned. but what i really like about this story is that it drew my attention to this book. i don't know what better barometer their is of our cruel and inconsistent intuitions about the nature of responsibility and punishment than the public conversations that happen around children who have committed crimes, and our justice system obviously reflects not just our lack of attention to the topic, or the lack of resources available for addressing it, but a deep ambivalence in our basic thinking about what it means to be responsible, and what the function is of holding responsible. i can't imagine a topic that is more deserving of some systematic thinking, and some empathetic thinking, and some pragmatic thinking. i really can't wait to get started on this one.

Review # 2 was written on 2010-03-14 00:00:00 Gordon Celliers I can't help it, I gave it four stars because I agree with the guy. Reforming our prison system should be a national priority. Our juvenile justice system sends many children to jail, and releases them a few years later with no skills and few ties to their old community. What do we expect to happen?