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| Deputy warden refuses to give up on young inmates |
| By freep.com |
| Published: 09/03/2009 |
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With this state having some of the nation's toughest laws for young criminals, Michigan's adult prisons hold 537 inmates 15-18 years old. Most of them don't learn much, except how to become more skilled and hardened criminals. In one of the few states that treats 17-year-olds as adults, juveniles can be automatically charged as adults at 14 for certain serious crimes. Kids of any age can be sentenced as adults. Nearly 350 Michigan inmates are serving mandatory life sentences for crimes they committed as juveniles. These misguided policies are driven by heinous, high-profile cases like that of 12-year-old Demarco Harris, who could be sentenced to life in prison for the fatal shooting of 24-year-old Trisha Babcock. Most of the juveniles sent to adult prison are locked up at Thumb Correctional Facility in Lapeer. Adult prisons aren't made for treatment, so I didn't expect to find much hope when I visited Thumb last week. I was wrong. What's starting to happen there is a model -- rooted in acting Deputy Warden Dewayne Burton's belief that young people can change. It's a radical idea in a state that has virtually outlawed second chances, but Burton, 42, is no typical prison administrator. Walking through the yard, he greeted inmates by name, stopping to talk along the way. "I had a brother who did seven years in prison," he told me later. "My great grandmother was a drug dealer and my uncles were pimps. But I had a father who stepped in and pulled me away from all that. I know what can make a difference." Read More. |
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