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I was listening to the Diane Rehm show the other day....

Ok, I love Diane Rehm. LOVE her. One of these days I'm going to do something interesting enough for her to feel the need to interview me. Either her or Ira Glass from This American Life. Deities. Both of them. I'm not sure what I need to do to get their attention short of dancing naked in front of their respective studios quoting Mark Twain from a bullhorn ("Be good and you will be lonesome"), but I'm willing to go the distance in order to convince them that by God, I'm fascinating!

Say you: Naked?

Say me: Naked. Sauced on beer and tequila, obviously, but naked. With a new pedicure. Perhaps a toe ring for the occasion. And a tattoo of Ira's face on my left cheek. On my face! Temporary! God, get your mind outta there!

Of course, this would call for travel, which is costly in time and expense. Given the current financial crisis right now, I'm not sure this would be a prudent course of action. And there is that minor civil disobedience thing to consider. But I'm not ruling it out! Obviously such a classy show of affection and dedication is worth some air time. I'm tucking it away for later deliberation.

I digress.

Her second show on Wednesday was about juvenile offenders. Her guest, Laurence Steinberg, is an advocate for this population. He fervently believes that when juveniles commit a crime, there should be some other course of action other than convicting them as adults and essentially throwing them to the wolves. He was thoughtful, rational, and I think made a hell of a lot of sense.

But then again, I AM a social worker.

Here are some points he made in the show:

Every year 250,000 kids below the age of 18 get placed in the adult justice system

Many of them are convicted of non-violent crimes, especially drug related crimes (e.g. possession, paraphernalia and the like)

90% of juvenile offenders quit committing crimes, regardless of the crimes they've committed, once they become young adults

100 kids in 2007 were arrested for murder out of 1.6 million kids arrested in general. Or, to put it another way, .0065% of kids arrested were arrested for murder last year. The murders, of course, are what the general public hears about via the media, and this tends to drive legislation.

There are states where kids can get sent to detention for truancy

Contact with the justice system typically makes people worse

It costs between $50,000 and $100,000 (depending on your state) a year to incarcerate a person

Rarely are kids' crimes pre-meditated

Kids coming out of the adult system offend more often and offend sooner once released than kids that were in a juvenile system.

So the author's model, from what I understand, is that first time offenders under 18, any non-violent offender, and anyone under the age of 15 should serve time in a different facility (not with the adult population) in conjunction with counseling and working with families. He argued that in the long run, it costs society much more to treat juveniles as adults than to treat them for what they are: teenagers.

Huh. Advocating that society not be judgmental, punitive, dogmatic, or self-righteous.

It's a concept.

You can listen to the episode for free here. Naturally, the guest was peddling a book--I haven't read it. Presumably he goes into much further detail about the kind of program he's proposing.

Have a great weekend! ->