Montgomery, Ala. (AP)-Jeani Jean-Pierre spent his 17th birthday in a small district prison in the village northern Alabama, where he disappeared for more than half the school year in anticipation of a lawsuit.
On the advice of his 51-year-old teammate Jean-Pierre avoids contact with others in prison. A black teenager of Haitian descent has seen prisoners with swastika tattoos and witnessed the beating, and he did not have personal or virtual visits from his parents for almost six months in which he was behind bars.
“It’s hard,” Jean-Pierre told the Associated Press. “I just stay in my cell.”
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His case emphasizes the potential danger of state laws, which automatically send suspects to teenagers to adult retention facilities.
Jean-Pierre is accused of first-degree robbery, second-degree attacks and two offenses and is closed under Alabama law, which gives judges a greater judgment to refuse a guarantee for some people accused of violence crimes. He had no previous arrests, but if he was convicted, he could be sentenced to life in prison.
Local activists and defenders of the justice of minors say that teenagers deprived of adults are more vulnerable to abuses and that the situation of Jean-Pierre apparently violates state and federal laws forbidding minors, “where they may have vision, sound or physical contact with prisoners. The sheriff says that to comply with these laws, Jean-Pierre will have to be alone, which can also be severely harmful.
The number of teenagers in prisons or prisons for adults in the United States dropped from the highest from two decades from 10 420 in 2008 to low 2250 in 2021, according to the latest data on the statistics of the Bureau of Justice. Almost 90% of these teenagers are in local prisons, where people are usually kept before the sentence.
Jean-Pierre’s story
Prosecutors said “several eyewitnesses” saw Jean-Pierre, then 16, use a gun to steal a loaded gun from someone to a party in September. No gun was fired and no one was injured.
Acting on a tip, an employee of school resources detained him during football practice the next day and found the stolen firearm in his bag. Jean-Pierre has also been accused of attacking a school resource employee.
Authorities said Jean-Pierre was arrested for theft of the gun, but that there was no evidence that he intended to use it at school.
At that time, Jean-Pierre’s lawyer said his accusations and detention were racially motivated, given the tensions in Albertville around the growing Haitian population of the small town. Nearly 1,000 people signed a petition, a witness to the teenager’s character and supported his transfer to a minor court, where the cases are sealed and minors are held in youth facilities.
But Marshall District Attorney Jennifer Bray said state legislation and evidence, including witnesses’ testimony, prevented her from blaming him as a minor. Bray is optimistic that he will find a resolution with Jean-Pierre’s lawyer, who balances accountability with compassion so she can make positive changes in her life, she wrote in an email.
In the best interest of the community
The law of the laws that came into force in 2024 have escalated penalties for teenagers, against the backdrop of a wider return to a difficult approach to a crime across the country. Maryland, North Carolina, Tennessee and Louisiana make it easier to charge teenagers to the adult court. Proponents say these laws increase public safety. Opponents claim that changes threaten the safety of minors accused of crime.
In Alabama, laws that automatically send teenagers to adult prisons have existed for years, which means that some minors are kept in a common population with adults in violation of federal law, said Charlotte Morrison, a senior lawyer for the equal justice initiative.
Morrison recalled at least five counties in which she worked or learned about teens who were abused because they were held with adults. Adult facilities cannot safely house children and teenagers, she said, and the focus should be their reintegration in the community.
Richard Rice, a civil rights lawyer representing Jean-Pierre, said the teenager was a strong student, but that he did not have access to school materials in prison.
“Giovanni deserves compassion and a second chance to learn from this experience, not to subject him to unnecessary detention, which fails to serve his best interests or those of the community,” Rice said.
The alternative is a seclusion
Minors are eight times more likely to experience sexual abuse in adult prison than prisoners over 18 years, according to the Ministry of Justice, and more than twice more likely to die of suicide than prisoners between the ages of 18 to 24 years. One study found that minors are in freedom with adults, 33% more likely to die before they reach 39 compared to all other teens.
Numerous public defenders, justice attorneys and minors lawyers told the AP that they were shocked that Jean-Pierre was not separated from adults in prison.
“We know that now it is such a well -regulated law that you cannot house children with adults,” says Preston Ship, a former Tennessee Prosecutor and current director of the Campaign Policy for a fair condemnation of youth. “This is no longer a gray area.”
Marshal Phil Sims sheriff said the prison did not have the ability to harvest Jean-Pierre separately from the adults without putting it in solitude.
“This is more persistent than anything else, especially for mental health,” Sims said.
He said that Jean-Pierre was placed with people accused of non-violence crimes and that he had no disciplinary problems.
Jean-Pierre said his original roommate, who is now in another facility, is an invaluable resource.
“If it wasn’t for my roommate, Marcus, I don’t know,” said Jean-Pierre. “He just continued to be positive, saying,” The troubles would pass, accepting it as a lesson. “
Jean-Pierre hoped he would be assigned to play football in college or join the army.
Now, he said, uncertainty in his future is the most difficult thing.
“I want everyone to know I’m not a bad person. I just made a mistake, ”he said. “I hope that when I can go out, I can change everyone’s opinion, I can handle it correctly.”
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Riddle is a member of the Associated Press/Report body for America Statehouse News Initiative. The report on America is a non -profit national service program that raises journalists in local news halls to report insufficiently concealed issues.