Smells Like Broken Teen Spirit

Rikers Island’s culture of violence against teen prisoners makes broken teen spirit, and shows a deeper social ill.

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“For adolescent inmates, Rikers Island is broken. It is a place where brute force is the first impulse rather than the last resort, a place where verbal insults are repaid with physical injuries, where beatings are routine while accountability is rare.” Preet Bharara, United States attorney in Manhattan

Our prison system is broken. And, especially when it comes boys and the justice system, society is broken too, and it breaks our youth in return.

NY Times.com posted, “U.S. Inquiry Finds a ‘Culture of Violence’ Against Teenage Inmates at Rikers Island.” This article opens a door on the blatant abuse of young prisoners.

“In just one measure of the extent of the violence, the investigation found that nearly 44 percent of the adolescent male population in custody as of October 2012 had been subjected to a use of force by staff members at least once.”

The abuse of juvenile prisoners on Rikers Island is only a symptom of the system that is based on abuse. Abuse runs through the history of the USA, from slavery and indigenous genocide to the ‘positive’ words we speak to children that encourage them to not be kids.

When it comes to disadvantaged youth, the more likely crime is seen as the only option they have, the more likely they are to get involved in it. We often hear the phrase “you gotta pull yourself up by your bootstraps.” This statement comes from the position of privilege, the privileged don’t always see the privilege they have. Nobody gets to an elevated social position solely by themselves. There are many who give a ‘hand up’ to help us achieve success. Individuals, families, communities—and also systems which have been designed to give those hands up to a select few. Education systems, economic systems, systems of justice. The self-made man is a myth.

When you come from a position of social disadvantage, there are not many ‘hands up’, and of the hands being offered, many are dangerous, exploitive, or illegal. Those in a privileged social position, who, due to privilege blindness, ignore the ‘hands up’ that got them where they are, tend to fail to extend a ‘hand up’ to help others. The lack of helping hands perpetuate the cycle of disadvantage with claims of ‘bootstraps’ and demands to pull yourself up by them. And in disadvantaged social systems, children are called at a younger and younger age to pull themselves up by imaginary bootstraps that only others can see.

The road of disadvantage has led us to Rikers Island in New York, and what it means to be a young person of social disadvantage facing the abuse of the prison system. There is no real recourse for the abused. The power and control system of the detention facilities prevails unpunished, even in the face of uncontrolled physical and psychological abuse.

“One of the teachers interviewed said he heard ‘thumping’ and ‘screaming’ during the altercation and said he heard the inmate ‘crying and screaming for his mother.’”

Do we live in a society that hates youth to the point that we must consume it?

We have already thrown these boys away. Once you are in the criminal ‘justice’ system in the USA, it is nearly impossible to get out, and without some ‘hands up,’ it is impossible. When incarceration is purely punishment, with no real rehabilitation, we literally thrown these boys away. Once they are tossed out, is it really necessary that we shred and pulverize these boys and young men with abuse?

Lacking social advantage, lacking opportunity or a hand up, lacking rehabilitation, rising youth consumption culture … can we really be surprised at the state of boys and young men in the USA?

“The department relied to an “excessive and inappropriate” degree on solitary confinement to punish teenage inmates, placing them in punitive segregation, as the practice is known, for months at a time.”

Not only are the boys disposable when they lack social advantage, but now the penal system is grinding them up for mulch. To subject juveniles to long term solitary confinement is not just cruel, it is developmentally damaging. Young people need social interaction for healthy mental and social growth. Confining boys in solitary is only guaranteeing another broken spirit. The same goes for handcuffing and otherwise restricting the movement of the body. The model of control being used in these facilities runs counter to everything known about the importance of physical activity for education and development.

Why is punishment for breaking a law breaking the spirit as well?

The consumption of youth resonates through pop culture—from the ever growing younger boy bands, and their fans both young and old, to the way media and society devour the inevitably fallen pop icon. The list of young fallen stars is decades long in the culture of the USA.

Pop culture consumes the most advantaged youth at a rapid rate, and we watch it happen live. Disadvantaged youth are more brutally consumed out of sight and limelight. Whether it is in our face or not, the consumption of youth continues, and we end up with situations like Rikers Island.

“129 cases in which inmates of all ages were seriously injured last year in altercations with correction officers.”

As juvenile detainees they are still minors (though automatically charged as adults in New York State.) How is this NOT child abuse? Can we really be shocked and outraged when the least advantaged youth in the USA are consumed mind, body, and spirit once they enter the ‘judicial’ system?

Outraged, yes, definitely. There needs to be a great outrage. Unfortunately shock—the rare times it happens—is fleeting when it comes to the destruction of youth in the USA. The decline has been steady for some time.

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De-youthing children begins in the praise we might give a child. When I was growing up I heard, “He is such a young Man,” at age 7. Later, “The man of the house when dad was (unavailable)” at age 9. “A real grown up care giver,” at age 12. We de-youth children with words for boys that encourage them to become men as quickly as possible.

When I compare kids I worked with in the USA with the children of the same age in China, I found that the kids in China enjoy much longer time to just be a kid. It is almost like there is a social maturity gap of 5 or 6 years. Children in the USA get 5 or 6 years less time to be young.

The consumption continues in public education. The budget of many public school systems have been depleted. Many public schools have become a combination of temporary holding jail and potential combat zone. The de-youthing and consumption is demonstrated most blatantly in the lack of budgetary importance education carries.

Education in decline leads to more youth involvement in crime.

The ‘judicial’ system likes to charge kids as adults, sentence them to adult prison, and provide little opportunity for rehabilitation. Or, send them to juvenile facilities like Rikers Island where they most likely will face various forms of abuse. This is the fast track to “criminal college” for many kids who start entering the judicial system at young ages through the juvenile system. I can’t ignore the correlation between street gang recruitment and the criminal justice system: get them young, get them a reputation, and guarantee they stay.

Can we be shocked when boys and young men are faced with extreme structural abuse inside the children’s prisons?

“In one January 2012 episode, a correction officer became incensed after an inmate splashed her with a liquid and began punching him in the face after he had been restrained by other guards. A captain ordered her to stop, and she punched another officer who tried to pull her off the inmate. An investigating captain later concluded that the officer’s use of force was “not necessary, inappropriate and excessive.” But a superior, backed by the investigative division, overruled the captain, concluding that the use of force was necessary.”

This abuse is torture. This torture is spirit-breaking and once spirit is broken, the person is easier to control. Yet, the spirit is unlikely to heal.

“One inmate said that he was continually harassed by the correctional staff after reporting that he was raped by a guard and that he was warned by guards not to speak about the episode in an interview with a consultant on the investigation.”

Kurt Cobain, another victim of pop culture’s consumption of youth, said it “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” Today, it smells much more like broken teen spirit.

Pop culture gives young icons fame and fortune few in this world are prepared to deal with. We sing along with them for a while, but eventually we watch them fall. As a society who participates in the consumption of youth, we really shouldn’t be shocked at the news of extreme abuse of boys and young men inside the judicial system. The shock is that we don’t want to admit that it has been going on for a long time.

“The report found one officer had been involved in 76 uses of force over a six-year period and had been disciplined only once.”

Outraged is what we need to be. Outraged at this one juvenile detention center in New York, outraged at similar centers all over the US, and outraged at our participation in the consumption of youth in the USA.

How can we channel this outrage into giving disadvantaged boys a hand up?

Can we stop using juvenile detention now, and start using juvenile intervention that focuses on interactivity, movement, learning, and growth?

Can we end our consumption of youth?

I believe we can. However, we need to bring the discussion of the state of youth back to the front of the line.