Children are not adults. We know this in almost every aspect of life: We restrict their rights, monitor their activities and understand that their decision-making capabilities are limited. And we generally try to teach them and guide their behaviors, so they one day do grow up to be functioning, capable adults.
When it comes to the judicial system, however, we somehow seem to believe that some children become adults once they’re accused of certain crimes and should be treated as such. This is illogical and unjust.
The Maryland General Assembly has a chance to correct this policy. On Wednesday, legislators will hold a hearing on Senate Bill 215, which seeks to remove legal provisions that prevent some children’s cases from being adjudicated in the juvenile system, where young people are more likely to be provided with the rehabilitation they need to return safely to our communities and become productive citizens. (A hearing on the House version, House Bill 471, is scheduled for Feb. 23.)
Three years ago, I adopted then-19-year-old Robert Richardson, who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, severe depression and child abuse syndrome. At age 16, he killed his father following many years of extreme, systematic abuse and torture. Robert was automatically charged as an adult under Maryland law and held in an adult detention center. Because of this, he had to make life changing legal decisions on his own, without adult guidance and in spite of his worsening psychiatric disorders.
Robert accepted a plea deal, following two years of solitary confinement for 23 to 24 hours a day. At the time, he felt that prison would be an improvement over the extreme isolation of the county jail, which exacerbated his psychiatric disorders. He had not considered the long-term consequences of his decision. And they are long: 18 years long.
As part of his plea deal, the judge, the state’s attorney and Robert’s public defender agreed he should be sent to a Department of Corrections (DOC) program for juvenile offenders. Robert was told that he would finally be offered counseling and rehabilitative opportunities to begin healing from a life filled with trauma.
Unfortunately, the corrections system is not made to manage juvenile offenders. Once Robert was remanded to the DOC, he was not sent to the juvenile offender program but to an adult prison in Hagerstown. Robert is now 21, and he’s been in the DOC for three years. Despite earlier promises, he was not offered counseling and is not eligible for the rehabilitative programs that are offered at the prison until he is much closer to a release date or has served at least 13 years of his 18-year sentence. The prisons offer a variety of training programs and some college level classes, but many inmates are paroled having never had the opportunity to participate.
Children are amenable to rehabilitation much more than adults. Our juvenile system is designed to offer rehabilitation to children in need of additional support and guidance. Robert still yearns for opportunities to help him improve his life and character, but those opportunities are thus far denied to him.
Robert, and others like him, will one day return to our communities. It only makes sense, in order to protect ourselves, that we ensure that these troubled children learn to become productive adults. The chances of that happening are significantly higher in the juvenile system than the adult system. Robert will be successful because he has a new family that loves and supports him. Many others do not have that support, and in prison they are easily manipulated and further victimized by adult inmates as they search for opportunities to end the monotony of endless down time.
Robert’s bar for his own life has been set so low — lower than most of us can imagine. He says his life has prepared him for disappointment, and he has learned to not expect good things to happen. Wouldn’t it be better if we taught him, as a society, that he has the ability to accomplish great things? Children deserve the best that we have to offer. Committing a crime does not make a child an adult. Children should never be defined as the worst thing they have done, and, in fact, should be given every opportunity to be successful. We must do all we can to ensure that these kids will one day be good neighbors and citizens.
Eileen Siple is a Harford County resident, proud mom of Robert Richardson and an advocate for youth charged as adults through Community Law in Action’s Just Kids Campaign (www.justkidsmaryland.org). Her email is eileensiple@verizon.net.
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