Kiddie prison post coming soon . . . and that Duke thing

I took a fascinating tour of three of the state's juvenile institutions last week, and I am working on a nice, long post about it all. The short story is that they weren't as bad as I thought they would be, but still not someplace we should be sending kids except in extreme circumstances. In the meantime, check out David Feige's (of Indefensible) spot-on analysis in Slate of why disgraced Duke prosecutor Mike Nifong's disbarment is a "freakish anomaly" rather than a precedent for the criminal justice system.

Texas Youth Commission Scandal Grows and Grows

I'm still incredibly busy, but I couldn't go any longer without at least blogging about the growing scandal surrounding the Texas Youth Commission. The Texas Youth Commission runs all the state facilities for juvenile offenders. It's like the Board of Prisons or Department of Corrections for kids. Apparently, the conditions at the facilities are terrible, with numerous investigations underway, and the most serious charges being that adult guards were routinely coercing teenage inmates to have sex, and that those children who refused were given extended sentences. Last week, the entire board of TYC was forced to resign. In addition to coverage in Texas, the New York Times has been covering the story extensively. I haven't seen a single thing about this on the cable or network news, though. I guess they're too busy looking for lost boy scouts and speculating about what caused the death of a known drug addict to care about the systematic sexual abuse of troubled children.