To the editor: My first skilled job was working in a locked therapy facility, with teenagers adjudicated by the juvenile courtroom and remanded for remedy. I labored with rapists, armed robbers and boys who shot their dad and mom lengthy earlier than anybody ever heard of the Menendez brothers. My profession working with troubled adolescents spanned almost 50 years. (“Gascón gave teen killer second chance — now she’s charged again,” Oct. 3)
Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón understands that the adolescent mind isn’t sufficiently developed for a 16-year-old to know the long-term affect of the fee of a violent crime, on each their lives and on these of their victims. That’s not new info. It’s a scientifically indisputable fact.
Treating a juvenile as an grownup is as brutal and barbaric because the crimes dedicated, and the usage of anecdotes as an alternative of knowledge to win a political contest is simply one other canine whistle in an effort to oust Gascón.
The voters will resolve if we wish to usher within the outdated, already failed, regressive tough-on-teens method to the prosecution of juveniles, or if we wish to heed the info displaying the success achieved by holding minors out of the grownup penal system.
Teresa DeCrescenzo, Studio Metropolis
The author is a licensed scientific social employee and a licensed marriage and household therapist.
