How Young is Too Young to Prosecute as an Adult?

by Ricky Williams II in Crime, January 22, 2012

Why do we think it is okay for 10 year-old boys to go to prison for 40 years?

A news article caught my eye today. Two Houston 10 year-old boys were arrested and charged for sexually assaulting an 8 year-old on a school bus. Of course the article could not disclose the names of the children involved, but it said if the boys are convicted they are looking at up to 40 years in prison. This was a complete shock to me. How have we come to a point in our lives where we think this is even remotely okay to prosecute 10 year-old boys as adults? The article only mentions at the very end that all three boys are special needs children. I have a special needs child and anyone who does have a special needs child knows they do not understand what is and is not appropriate at times. Furthermore, where did these boys learn what they did? There may be three victims here and no one seems to be mentioning or investigating that.

The minimum age for juveniles to be tried as adults is 14 in Texas. The juvenile court system is ultimately the final decision-maker on such matters, but there has not been a case in Texas where a 10 year-old was tried as an adult. Mentioning the boys could get adult time for this crime was a poor judge of words and further desensitizes us to that notion. 15 years ago, we would have been up in arms about a 14 year-old being tried as an adult and it is now commonplace. How long will it be before we see 13 and 12 year-old children being charged with adult crimes and slapped with adult prison sentences?

There is no rehabilitation in prison. How many times have we heard the phrase, “You do the crime, you do the time.” Once you do get out of prison, our government and society still does not forgive you. It is very difficult to get a decent job. You cannot vote in many cases. Convicted felons cannot receive federal aid for education nor are they able to serve in government. If you are convicted of a sex crime, you can’t live in many places. In many ways, felons are still prisoners even after they have done their time. And we sit back and wonder why we have so many repeat offenders. Now we are putting children in prison before they are able to develop quality social skills and turning them into tomorrow’s criminals. Those “adult” felony convictions will carry lifetime consequences.

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