A very bright friend recently presented a question that provided me an opportunity to enter into one of my most favorite pastimes: listening to myself speak.
a-HEM.
Actually, I thoroughly enjoy waxing philosophical and deep thinking, and the question asked of me was: are teenagers’ lawbreaking tendencies more extreme these days?
As one who firmly believes that human nature does not change, my immediate answer to this question is no. And when my subsequent thought process kicked in, my consideration gravitated toward one of the first, most pronounced criminal-justice-consuming teens to cross my path. As I stepped into the Way Back Machine, I immersed myself into the topic at hand. In the interests of preserving privacy (despite public record law so more so risking entirely unwanted litigation), I’ll refrain from stating the subject’s name though I remember it perfectly well. And, a simple search-engine exploration reveals this person has not deviated from the law-breaking path as his life weaves in and out of criminal justice circles.
Though he has served time, incarceration did not prove to be a deterrent in this case. A key question among law enforcement is whether the purpose of jail is to punish or rehabilitate.
Having started my professional US newswriting pursuits in Indiana in the late 1990s, I recall him as a repeat arrestee whose troublemaking was habitual. When my newspaper published his alleged misdeeds and follow-up circumstances, he was in his mid-late teens.
While tasked to the cops beat in small-town America, I had a morning routine that required poking my head into the local police department and sheriff’s office while also checking in with the Indiana State Police post.
But sometimes police officials would go out of their way and come knocking for me.
I was in the midst of writing about a rash of robberies from cars in which the modus operandi was the same — a window was broken then property went missing. These ‘smash-and-grab’ incidents primarily occurred within city limits, typically outside restaurants, movie theaters and similar-type sites. Investigators caught a break when one witness account cited a shock of blond hair on the head of one running from the area of a vandalized car.
A city police investigator contacted me amid this rash, asking me to write about how the community could take action to avoid being victimized, which primarily was because valuables were clearly viewable through windows of cars left unattended.
Some days later, I learned the suspect was named on a warrant and then he was picked up. Incidentally, when reading the arrest report, I happened to recall the same city officer’s name on additional arrest reports regarding the same suspect. The next time I saw that officer, which was while driving in the small city that is the county seat, I motioned to him and after he approached I asked how many times he’d arrested the suspect. Though I asked in jest, this officer rolled his eyes upward and thought for a few seconds while clearly remembering instances. He then told me he’d been the arresting officer several times.
Another memorable crime for which the same suspect was charged while I was posted to the police beat was when he had been among three people at the home of who was quite proud of his video game system connected to his television. Within a day or two, that prideful guy returned home and noticed the video game system no longer was connected to the television. His report to police regarding the missing property included whom had recently been at his home.
After the suspect was apprehended, he was housed in the local jail, which was a secure section of the Sheriff’s Office. As an early riser, I spent mornings exercising at the local community center and one reliable training partner was a longtime administrator. When I started the job, his term as sheriff had just ended and the newly elected sheriff tapped him as chief deputy. He and I referred to our morning cardio and weight training as ’sweating to the oldies’ and he’d periodically come down to the court and play PIG or HORSE with me.
During one morning exercise session, I told him that the smash-and-grab suspect had a court date within hours, also noting I was curious as to who is this person I’d been writing about and what he looks like. My training partner told me deputies would take him to the courthouse at a set time, suggesting to me that was when I should be in the office.
Later that morning, while in the office, I watched and listened as my basketball pal re-directed deputies from taking him through the sallyport. He told them to bring the suspect through the office.
Shortly thereafter a secure door opened and in walked a deputy who was escorting the cuffed suspect. I stepped back from the alley between desks and surely enough I saw the blond shock of hair on the head of the teen who did not look at me. I periodically wondered what he’d have done had he known of my role regarding his experience with criminal justice.
As of the past few years, his criminal activity has included serving as a confidential informant during a crystal meth sting with hopes of a reduced sentence, he was arrested for a probation violation involving drugs, and he partook in a jailhouse assault that negated good behavior credit he had accumulated toward earlier release.
Breaking down as crimes of violence and honesty, these offenses all are pretty serious and demonstrate a recidivism that indicates his time behind bars did not serve rehabilitative purposes.