South Carolina Criminal Defense Blog

SeattlePI.com has posted a video of Kings County Deputy Paul Schene and friend busting a 15 year old girl's head in a holding cell. (H/T a public defender) The girl had been arrested for taking her mother's car without permission:

Too often in juvenile court I see kids whose parents can't or won't raise their children, who think calling the police on their child is the answer. I can't say that is or isn't how this teenager ended up in the jail, but it raises the issue in my mind. I have had parents stand up and tell the court "I need you to discipline my child for me, she needs to be taught a lesson," and I've had parents whose child would have gone home on probation except the parent refused to take them home. I've stood up in court and said that the parent needs to be locked up, not the child, knowing full well that cannot and will not happen but just fed up and determined to speak the truth as I see it. The child gets sent to DJJ or to an evaluation center because there is nothing else that the judge can do. DSS is ordered to do a home study before the child returns to court, but nothing comes of it.

Any parent who thinks the juvenile justice system is better equipped than they are to discipline their child should take a look at the video above. They should also take a tour of the DJJ facility where their child will be locked up, or the Coastal Evaluation Center - which is located next door to Lieber Correctional Facility (which also houses South Carolina's Death Row) and is surrounded by barbed wire and concrete.

There are situations where the juvenile justice system is necessary, but there is something terribly wrong when a parent has to call the police every time their child does not listen to them or when they act out, and when a parent thinks that a night in jail (or 45) is appropriate discipline for a child. Back to the video above - children are especially vulnerable to abuse; because they are small, because they don't know how to protect themselves, and because no one listens to them. The officers above should never be allowed to wear a uniform again, and, like these judges in Pennsylvania, should answer for their crimes in court.