Original subtitles

Oh.

It has been a busy week. Israel attacked Iran, setting off a conflict that's

escalating as we speak.

RFK replaced the CDC's vaccine policy advisors. The Pope wore a white socks

And in Tennessee, there was this major story.

This morning, a zebra on the run and in the air. After more than a week on the

loose in Tennessee, Ed the zebra was finally caught.

Ed has been causing chaos and confusion in Rutherford County since May 31st.

Oh, no!

But after eight days on the lam, officials finally managed to catch the

equine. Deputies quickly hoisted Ed into the helicopter harness before

transporting him to a nearby animal trailer.

Okay, there is a lot to love there. My only note is that when you show footage

of the world's chillest zebra looking bored in a flying hammock, you don't...

Call that being hoisted in a helicopter harness. You call that what it is. Last

week tonight, bait. And in case it wasn't clear, you got me. Because look

right now. I'm squawking zebra news at you and Disney isn't even paying me to

it. And look, I'd love nothing more than to spend the rest of the night

exploring questions like, is this how animals are transported now?

Getting hoisted like an adorable shipping container while, and this is

remaining upright like they're sitting in a little chair?

But unfortunately, we have to move on to a story that dominated this week, the

protests against ICE enforcement raids. You undoubtedly know, last weekend, ICE

conducted sweeping raids across the country as part of an escalation ordered

Stephen Miller, a man who, despite all photographic evidence, is somehow still

in his 30s.

Reportedly told ICE officials to just go out there and arrest illegal aliens,

suggesting they target Home Depot's or 7 -Eleven convenience stores. So, that's

what happened, and from the start, it was a mess, resulting in things like

in LA.

We have obtained citizen app video from this morning showing multiple people

getting detained by Homeland Security.

It's still unclear how many people were detained and for what reason. The man

says, my friend started yelling, ice, ice, ice. I thought he was joking, but

wasn't. Then I saw all the day labor starting to run.

That is awful. Someone yelling, ice.

It's almost never going to be a positive thing. Best case scenario, you somehow

time -traveled back to 2014 and have to do an ice bucket challenge, something,

by the way, that this guy did because he was nominated by, and this is true,

Mike Tyson, Vince McMahon, and Homer Simpson.

It was a simpler time.

In response to a race like that, LA saw days of escalating protest as community

members rallied around their neighbours, something that Trump seized upon as an

opportunity to do this.

I've deployed thousands of National Guard troops and hundreds of Marines to

protect federal law enforcement from the attacks of a vicious and violent mob.

And some of the radical left, they say, oh, that's not nice. Well, if we didn't

do it, there wouldn't be a Los Angeles. It'd be burning today, just like the

houses were burning a number of months ago.

OK, I know I'm not saying anything new right now, but he is such a dick.

There is just no reason.

because it's still very much on people's minds in LA. For the same reason, you

shouldn't open a toast at a retirement party with, wow, only milestone left

after this is death. Yeah, everyone knows that and we're all trying not to

about it.

Also, it is just so obvious when he stops reading and starts ad -libbing as

tone of his voice just completely changes. I honestly wonder if his speech

is even right to in now. If there are places where his teleprompter just says,

do a bitchy little bang.

A president... Sending in the National Guard without the approval of a state's

governor hasn't happened since 1965.

And it wasn't just Gavin Newsom who opposed it. The LAPD chief even said

nowhere near a level where we'd need to be reaching out to the governor for

National Guard at this stage. And for good reason. Because despite a lot of

sensationalist news coverage, all of this was well within the city's control.

While scenes like this are being broadcast prominently around the world,

some context.

It's all happening in a small part of downtown L .A., at and around City Hall

and the Federal Building, where detainees from ICE raids have been taken

few blocks in a county of nearly 10 million people.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass tells us the extra help is not welcome. When it

comes to the National Guard.

You say they're underutilized or just not working.

I'm saying there's nothing for them to do.

Right. And why would you send troops if there is nothing for them to do? You're

just going to have 4 ,000 soldiers wandering around L .A., swinging by the

Hollywood Walk of Fame to go, oh, Christian Slater.

OK.

Now, there was some sporadic vandalism and rock throwing and some Waymo cars

were set on fire, but those were isolated incidents not at all

the protest as a whole.

not saying that those aren't striking visuals.

I'm just saying, setting a driverless car on fire is not the same thing as

assaulting someone, unless we're somehow living in the Pixar Cars universe,

where burning one is murder, and you'd be condemned to hell by the car pope, a

real character from Cars 2, by the way, implying there's car Catholicism, car

Jesus, and presumably a decades -long car cover -up of car sexual abuse.

As for the people of LA, they seem pretty unfazed with one writer saying, I

the collateral damage ranks right above a typical Dodgers World Series win.

And that sounds about right, especially considering when the Dodgers won last

year, fans literally burned a city bus.

So the federal response felt completely over the top, especially when you

consider troops will apparently be there for 60 days at a cost to taxpayers of

roughly $134 million.

And usually, when that much is spent on something completely pointless, we at

least get to see one of the Avengers in it.

Honestly, much of the violence and unrest we've seen in LA actually came

the authorities.

There have been multiple incidents of police abusing protesters, members of

press. were also assaulted, and at one point Senator Alex Padilla was even

forced to the ground and cuffed when he tried asking Kristi Noem a question at a

press conference. And the fact that supposed peacekeepers were escalating

situation led to ironies like when Trump posted, arrest the people in face masks

now, and what do these people have to hide and why?

Which is pretty hard to take, given many of those in masks were ICE agents

themselves.

Something Trump borders our Tom Homan justified, saying they're trying to

protect themselves.

And honestly, at this point, the only immigration official that I really want

see wearing a mask is Tom Homan. And not even to protect his identity, just so

that I don't have to look at his fucking face anymore.

He looks like Homer Simpson photoshopped as a real person.

He looks like someone tried to carve Andre Agassi's head into a bar of soap.

He looks like baby Harvey Weinstein.

Look, protesters this week, showed admirable restraint. In fact, just watch

guy respond to getting tear gassed with an almost annoying degree of L .A.

chill. You told me you got caught up in the tear gas as well. Describe what

happened to you.

Oh, just tasted a little tear gas.

Tasted like fascism.

Has there ever been anyone more Los Angeles than that man?

snarky attitude, sunglasses at night, beanie and sweatshirt in June, and a

perfectly timed look to camera, all while looking like Travis Barker's

And look, who knows where all this is going. We're taping on Saturday during

Trump's big military parade in D .C. with mass demonstrations happening all

the country. So a lot could happen between now and when you see this.

What I do feel comfortable saying is that when everyone was warning about a

slippery slope to authoritarianism under Trump, this is it.

Because masked government agents grabbing people off the streets and

them without due process is authoritarianism.

Sending in the military to crack down on protests against those actions is

authoritarianism. And the good news is, polls show there is mounting public

outrage over all this, as did the hundreds of thousands of people in the

this weekend. Even in Minnesota, where two state lawmakers were tragically shot

on Saturday, where authorities suggested it would be safer if protesters stayed

away.

People showed up in large numbers anyway, which is honestly the sort of

that gives me real hope.

We're living through a time in American history that will be remembered for acts

of incredible cruelty.

But I hope it will also be remembered for acts of courage and defiance. Think

this administration like a loose zebra in the suburbs.

It shouldn't be there. It makes you shout, oh no, a lot.

But maybe if we all work hard enough, we can contain it until the glorious day

we get to watch it fly off into the fucking sunset.

And now, this.

And now, dads on local TV discuss what they really want for Father's Day.

What do you want for Father's Day?

Another tie.

Another tie.

Some socks.

What are the other cliche things?

Something from Yeti? A cooler? That'd be great.

I hope my family's watching. Maybe a special outing, maybe a gift card. Hint,

hint. Like, I can get my mom a spa gift card.

Done. That's a spa day for her. I can't get you guys that.

Why not?

You want to go to the spa?

I'll go hang out in the spa.

What do you want for Father's Day, Charles?

A break from working in the yard. That's all I'm asking.

Just something basic. I just want to sit.

Leave me alone.

Just leave me with the game.

It's going to be a great game.

Then later on that night, my wife will give me finally my Father's Day.

You know what y 'all do for Father's Day.

I mean, this is the nightcap. I need you to expand a little bit.

Well, typically, the little blowjobs you get, they become not as well

over the years. Over the years. They kind of fall off. Yeah. You get maybe

year. Yeah. Then for Father's Day or your birthday,

You'll get a flashback, because she'll give you a flashback on those days. Then

for the rest of the year, you suffer.

Moving on. Our main story tonight concerns kids.

You know, idiots.

They don't know important adult skills like how to do taxes or have regrets,

which is why, for years now, local news has been full of dumb teen trends like

these. They're apparently bringing back the Kool -Aid Man TikTok challenge that

first started during the pandemic.

Oh, no. If you don't remember, it's when teens mimic the commercial, pretending

to be the Kool -Aid Man, saying, oh, yeah, and then bursting through walls

fences. There's another popular dare called the Kylie Jenner Challenge, where

teens put their lips in shot glasses. They suck all the air out. It's called

Banana Peel Challenge. The challenge may seem harmless at first, but doctors say

it could really lead. to serious injuries.

This TikToker drank nothing but food coloring for 11 days just to see what

happen. You may notice my skin is turning blue.

It should come as no surprise that trying to turn yourself blue is not a

idea. Look, as far as experiments go, drinking nothing but blue probably isn't

going to win a Nobel Prize, which is just as well because we then have to

a TikTok called I ate my Nobel Prize just to see what would happen.

The point is, young people can do a lot of dumb shit, and that can sometimes

lead to them getting in trouble with the law, something definitively covered by

everyone's favourite character, Pants Bear.

Pants Bear, where did you get the candy from?

I don't remember seeing that earlier.

I forgot I got it from the candy aisle.

But did we pay for it?

Pants Bear, you cannot simply take products from the supermarket.

That's stealing. I didn't mean to steal it.

Ah!

Help!

Oh, no!

Oh, no!

For those unfamiliar, that is Pants Bear, a bear who, and this is true,

pants. And so we alike about the Microsoft Paint quality of the

clip falls under my single favourite genre of entertainment, British bears

castral punishment, so...

It was always going to be a 10 out of 10 from me.

But the thing is, in the US, a kid ending up behind bars for accidentally

pocketing a candy bar actually isn't that much of a stretch. And that is what

our story is about tonight, our juvenile justice system. We've occasionally

touched on it before. You may remember in our school police story, we talked

about kids winding up arrested for crimes like throwing skittles or having

tantrum. That's just one of the many ways.

for kids to fall into this system. And while it's true that some have committed

serious crimes, far more often they're in trouble for things like vandalism,

theft, or even so -called status offences like truancy or underage

Basically crimes that are only crimes if you are a kid.

You may have even seen stories like the one about the six -year -old who went to

court for picking a tulip from a yard at his bus stop. The point is, our

juvenile courts are busy.

In 2022, the most recent year for which state is available, they heard just over

600 ,000 cases. That same year, over 130 ,000 kids were detained ahead of

judgment, with an additional 38 ,000 locked up as a result of judge's orders.

The US actually incarcerates youth at many times the rate of other nations.

That's from the Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty, which is not a

study you want to be on the leaderboard of.

It's like hearing a urologist say, single weirdest one I've ever seen.

How ashamed we should be. It's a topping the weird dicks list level of shame.

And while we occasionally get glimpses of this system, it tends to be

opaque. Juvenile court hearings are often closed to members of the public,

does make sense in a way. It's important to protect kids' privacy, but in

practice, that creates a dangerous lack of accountability for the adult in

charge. Because the truth is, our juvenile justice system has many of the

of our adult one, except the people running it have even more power.

And the damage it can do is even longer lasting. So tonight, we're going to take

a longer than usual look at two things. Our juvenile justice system and the

facilities it can far too often funnel kids into. And let's start with

that might seem obvious, but is still worth stating.

Kids are not, in fact, tiny adults.

They are, and this is true, kids.

And research shows that in figuring out who they are and how they want to behave

in life, kids often engage in exploratory, risk -taking behaviors that

assess social, personal, and familial boundaries. Or, to put it another way...

Part of adolescence is testing the limits, and part of adolescence is not

the brain functioning to understand, gee, if I do that, it's going to get me

trouble. Right.

Kids are good at testing limits and bad at weighing consequences. Sort of like a

puppy or a pre -Iron Man Robert Downey Jr.

And we've long understood that kids need a system that takes their still

-developing minds into account. It's part of the reason why a separate court

process was created for them back in 1899.

And just watch this 1940s film, Boy in Court, which tells the story of a 15

-year -old boy who helps steal a car.

Johnny and 200 ,000 other youngsters who are arrested each year are America's

number one crime problem.

Can't something be done to help these twisted young lives and set them

Yes, something can be done. Something is being done.

Many communities believe that good juvenile courts with well -organized

probation service can make good citizens out of wayward youth.

Fortunately...

Johnny lives in a community which has such a court.

Yes, luckily, Johnny lives in a community with a juvenile court, as

the other kind of community where wayward children are sent into, the

No judgments, both are good options, whether you're talking about

or the maze.

In that film, Johnny gets sent to probation, and his probation officer

him toward youth sports. It's a process that all culminates in this happy scene.

Well, Johnny...

Mr. Benton tells me you don't need probation anymore.

You've made good.

I guess you won't steal any more automobiles, will you?

See, that was dumb, wasn't it?

It certainly was.

Well, that is nice, although is that... A kid actually reformed? Hair flicked

back, sharp suit. He may have just been upgraded to a higher class of crime.

Stealing cars was a fool's game, Your Honour. I won't do that again, or my

isn't Little Bernard Madoff.

But obviously, court never works that way for everyone and definitely doesn't

for many kids today. One investigation into this system has likened it to

Plinko, the Price is Right game, where a chip can fall any number of ways

depending on what it hits on the way down. And that is basically true here.

At every stage, factors beyond the kids' control can propel them to vastly

different outcomes. And unfortunately, many kids have no idea how to navigate

this system or even what their basic rights are.

For instance, if a young person is being interrogated by police, research shows

they waive their Miranda rights at extremely high rates, as high as 90%,

not understand the consequences of that. Take this woman who was...

arrested at 15 years old and unknowingly signed away her rights to an attorney.

She ended up getting sent to a youth facility where she met another kid who'd

been through the same court that she had and they realized they'd both been

denied something pretty important.

I said to my friend, I said, man, did you have like a lawyer?

And she was like, no, nobody has lawyers.

And I was like, but haven't you seen Law and Order? Like, everybody has lawyers.

Like, you're supposed to have a lawyer. Like, that's what, if you don't have a

lawyer, you get one assigned to you. Like, isn't that the, and she was like,

guess it doesn't work that way for kids.

That is ridiculous.

Every kid in court should at least have access to the stuff they have on Law and

Order. Which, as we all know, is a lawyer, two quippy detectives, a guy

loosely connected to the case but played by a suspiciously high -profile guest

star so you know that they did it, a dead body being played by a Tisch

getting their big break, and, as always, an abrupt smash cut to the name...

Exactly. You know, the usual.

Now, without access to an attorney, she ended up being sentenced to three months

in a youth facility with six months probation.

all for the crime of harassment, which incredibly consisted entirely of making

this MySpace page mocking her school's vice -principal.

And if you're wondering how on earth a kid wound up getting locked up over

it's because the judge decided that he should be. That is the whole reason.

Because in most cases, when a kid goes to trial, there is no jury, meaning the

judge has sole discretion in deciding the fate of that child. And to be fair,

some use that power judicially to dismiss or divert.

which can take many forms, including writing an apology letter, doing

service, or participating in counselling, or treatment for substance

judges can also go the other way, placing kids in a youth facility, or

kicking their case up to adult court. We do that for over 50 ,000 kids a year,

which is actually down from its peak of 250 ,000 in the mid -90s, when there was

a lot of bullshit fear -mongering about so -called teenage super predators.

Back then, sending kids to adult court was actually a popular campaign promise

for judges like this guy.

As judge, if given the opportunity to try a juvenile offender as an adult, I

will. If you're a teen and convicted of murder, rape, or violent crimes against

our children or the elderly, you can expect that I will impose the maximum

sentence allowed by law.

Mark Chivarella, a judge to protect all of us.

Okay, I have a lot of questions there, starting with, what on earth is he

walking in front of?

That certainly doesn't scream I'm a noble warden of justice as much as my

homemade ninja warrior training course fell down.

So this is my backup career plan.

Chivarella was the judge who sentenced that girl to three months behind bars

over a MySpace page, and she wasn't alone.

Over a five -year period, he and another judge routinely committed juveniles to

two private detention centres, in many cases giving out lengthy sentences for

minor infractions, which sounds bonkers until you learn they allegedly received

massive payouts from those centres, totalling over $2 .7 million.

It's a scandal that later became known as Kids for Cash.

And when it all came out, the outcry tended to focus on the cash part. But to

clear, funneling kids into those facilities, even for free, is not okay.

Especially when you learn some of those minor infractions included smoking

cigarettes on school property, opening a yo -yo in a convenience store, pranking

a schoolteacher by hiding her purse, and stealing a Hershey bar, which I will

remind you is the exact crime Pants Bear committed.

And we all know what happened to him.

Oh yes, Pants Bear.

In hindsight, you're just lucky you didn't get tried as an adult.

And the fact judges have so much discretion means their individual biases

have a huge impact on sentencing. And one of the most glaring impacts is the

racial disparity in who gets sentenced to what. 46 % of kids who get

incarcerated are black, even though black kids comprise only about 15 % of

nation's youth. It's a discrepancy that this head of a New Orleans... juvenile

center, points out with some heavy sarcasm.

They're all African -American black, young black kids.

Today, my population is 100%. Yesterday, my population was 100%. My population

has been 100 % most of the time that I've been here. We have an anomaly in

Orleans Parish in that white kids don't go to detention.

Apparently, they don't commit car burglaries. Apparently, they don't get

school fights and commit assaults. Apparently, they're not selling drugs.

Because if they are, they're not winding up in detention.

Okay, any time the population ends up 100 % all one race, something is up.

doesn't happen by chance. Even at a black wedding in a black church,

got a work friend.

There are so many stories.

of kids who face starkly different repercussions for the same activity.

Eric, a 13 -year -old boy who was watching a movie and saw someone with a

Molotov cocktail. He thought it was cool and wanted to see if he could make

something that looked like that. So he grabbed an empty bottle and filled it

with household products. Then he taped it up with black tape and put a piece of

toilet paper under the cap, which, importantly, is not a Molotov cocktail,

a bottle that looks like one. He left it in his backpack by mistake and brought

it to school, where he was pulled out of class, questioned by police...

arrested, and charged with possession of a Molotov cocktail, which he did not

have, attempted arson, which it could not do, and carrying a dangerous weapon,

which again, it wasn't.

Eric is black.

And when his lawyer told that story at a conference, a white woman walked over

and said, my son did exactly what you described, so crucially, he faced a very

different punishment, and his school rearranged his class schedule so he

take a chemistry course.

And there is just no clearer disparity in punishment than the one between gets

arrested and gets class credit.

And to see just how naked these differences can get, look at Rutherford

Tennessee, where black children make up around 16 % of the local population. But

from 2010 to 2021, they accounted for 38 % of those locked up by the county. And

at that rate, you'd almost think they were making up reasons to put black kids

into detention.

Well, guess what?

All right, well, in Tennessee, a judge under fire for illegally jailing black

kids for watching a fight back in 2016. The alleged crime, listen to this,

criminal responsibility of conduct of another.

One of the problems, that's a fake law.

Yeah. Criminal responsibility for conduct of another is not an actual

And you can't just invent reasons to arrest people you don't like.

I'd love to put whoever thought a cologne should be sponsored by Johnny

jail. You have chosen one of the only men on earth who looks like he

smells like feet and ayahuasca.

That feels like a crime to me.

But at least I acknowledge that it isn't one.

In the end, 11 elementary school children were arrested.

And this all happened under a juvenile system run by Judge Donna Scott

Davenport, who had set up a process under which even kids accused of minor

violations must be taken into custody and transported to jail.

And did you hear her tell it?

She was just doing what was necessary to stamp out a wave of youth crime,

saying, we were in a crisis with our children in Rutherford County. I've

seen it this bad. And calling herself the mother of the county. And again, in

the sense that the queen from Aliens was a mother, sure, I will allow it.

Davenport even had a radio segment where she talked about how she had no choice

but to do what she was doing.

I've locked up one seven -year -old in 13 years, and that was a heartbreak.

But eight and nine -year -olds and odor are very common now.

Okay, I'm not a judge. I'm not a criminologist.

My expertise is mainly sitting behind a desk, digesting lactose poorly, and

telling you which of these guinea pigs can get it. From left to right, yes,

yes, yes, and yes. That's a full house, ladies, but I am confident in saying

that if putting eight and nine -year -olds behind bars has become very common

for you, maybe you are the one who should be in fucking prison.

The point is...

Which judge you get is one of the big variables in the Plinko board of your

case. The next is what sort of punishment you get. Because if a judge

opt for leniency, they have a number of tools at their disposal, including

putting you on probation. That's the thing that little Joddy got earlier.

Some judges will give kids probation either instead of locking them up or for

time after. And on its face, it does sound better. Kids get to stay at home

at least theoretically get access to community -based support.

But the terms can be so easy to violate, they can still end up behind bars for

what amounts to standard teenage behavior.

A few years ago, there was a case in Michigan involving a girl called Grace.

She'd been sent before a judge for stealing at school and fighting with her

mother. And she was sentenced to, quote, intensive probation, which included a

GPS tether, regular check -ins with a court caseworker, counseling, no phone,

and the use of a school laptop for educational purposes only. She was also

required to do her schoolwork.

But this was all happening at the start of COVID and remote school, which, as we

all know, was very difficult for some kids. Grace lost some of the support

she'd been getting at school and missed some assignments. And before long, she

was handcuffed and locked up because she hadn't done her homework.

The judge called her a threat to the community, a characterization that Grace

strongly disputes.

Do you feel that at any point you've been a threat to the community?

No, no.

No, because if we called every person who's taken something or every person

who's got an argument with their mom a threat to the community, like, I'm

sure everybody would be a threat to the community.

Exactly. That clearly doesn't make sense, because if she'd done her

she wouldn't have been considered a threat. But the second she missed a

worksheet, suddenly she's Tony fucking Montana.

Studies have found that juvenile probation is at best deeply ineffective,

worst it leaves kids more likely to recidivate. And yet the sad truth is, it

still preferable to the harsher alternatives, which brings us to the

of this story, youth incarceration, essentially locking kids up.

That might mean a juvenile detention centre where they await trial, like a

or a long -term facility after they've been sentenced akin to a prison. But a

lot of these facilities don't like using terms like jails or prisons, preferring

to go by state schools or academies or youth centres.

But as this interview with the woman who oversaw this facility makes clear,

those euphemisms are not fooling anyone actually inside one.

Taylor calls itself a centre.

The state lists it as a correctional facility.

The leadership calls the juveniles clients, not inmates.

One of the young men I talked to today said, they call us clients, but we're

clients. We're prisoners.

You can call whatever you want. You're in a prison.

Does he have a point?

Well, we do still control their movement.

They are still, certainly.

in an environment that we are in control of, and they're not. And that probably

feels like prison.

And you have barbed wire.

Yes. And doors that lock.

Yes. In front of you and behind you.

Yes. One of the toughest things for my job, certainly, is to always balance

the needs of the client and public safety.

Okay. Putting aside the use of the word client there, it probably feels like

prison. Yeah, of course it does. It's fucking prison.

Lots of people feel like prisoners, but they actually aren't. You know, people

trapped in loveless marriages or a cameras -on -work call or a studio

where the subject of the alleged comedy show is kids' prisons. But when there is

barbed wire and kids locked up in a cell, it's not just a feeling, it's a

reality. Because whatever you call these facilities, once you're inside, it is

painfully clear what they are.

From the outside, it looks like an office building. But go inside, and it

like a prison.

These are single occupancy cells.

But look closer. This haunting picture shows who's inside.

Children barely taller than door handles.

Jesus Christ.

And honestly, props to that kid for turning the creepy factor up to a

He saw someone with a camera and said, let me show you assholes what it is

actually like in here.

Because that looks exactly like an adult prison. And typically we tend to try

and tone things down if they're designed for children. It is the entire business

model behind Kidz Bop. And Kidz Bop takes a lot of shit.

But who else is changing the Macklemore Lyric and Thrift Shop probably should

have washed this, smells like R. Kelly's sheet, to probably should have washed

this, smells like my baseball cleats.

No, no.

Well, thanks.

have no minimum age to be sent to one of these facilities, and some others set

the age at seven or eight, which is horrifying enough even before you

what it can be like inside them. Just listen to this mother describe the

conditions of a facility that her son was kept in in Michigan.

They had flooding from sewage. My son literally called me and said, Ma,

there's literally poop. I can't say the word he said.

floating through the hallways, urine and feces.

Look, I really appreciate that she's going out of her way to be polite there,

but if your child tells you they're living in a state -sanctioned shit

you should absolutely be allowed to curse on local news.

In fact, you should be actively fucking encouraged.

One employee at that facility even said, I would sell my soul if it was my kid

in there to get them out.

Because the conditions are so bad. And while that facility has since closed,

there are similar stories of unsanitary conditions all over the country. And the

thing is, these places are supposed to be rehabilitative.

But basic services like mental health counselling can be non -existent. It's

estimated that up to 70 % of youths in the justice system have a diagnosable

mental health problem. But as few as 20 % of them ever receive mental health

services in there. As for education services, they are not much better.

A child in South Carolina reported receiving only a single day of education

the course of nine months.

And a lawyer in Michigan said her young clients didn't have anything to write

with to complete the schoolwork packets that they were given. And a mother there

said that her son hadn't been attending school at the facility, but instead had

received a word search to complete. And clearly...

That is not an adequate education. Although, for the record, that is also

only time that you'll ever find me bad -mouthing word searches. Because that

shit is fun.

A letter mystery where your eyes are the detectives? Don't mind if I do.

I'm a word slut who loves to be right. Up, down, backwards, diagonal, it's

Cirque du Soleil for your mind.

And when you find a word that is not only diagonal, it's backwards, honey,

honey?

Fuck me stupid, I'm wet for that.

So...

It is hardly surprising researchers have found that detained students have

significantly worse academic outcomes, with one study in Washington finding

16 % of detained students there graduated from high school, compared to

non -detained students.

And it's not just lousy buildings or a lack of services. There is also physical

violence, sometimes actively encouraged by the staff.

30 Los Angeles County officers charged, accused of staging what prosecutors are

calling gladiator fights inside a juvenile detention center. After video

of those fights, first obtained and published by the L .A. Times last year,

helped trigger an investigation.

Parents of one of the teens speaking with NBC Los Angeles horrified at the

footage. They say the guards appear to do nothing to help, even appearing to

shake hands with one of the boys who hit him.

That is horrifying.

Even the Roman emperor who invented gladiator fights, whoever that was,

look at that and go, what the fuck is wrong with you?

Also, how did you get it to be light in there without a fire? Also, what am I

watching this on? But mostly, what the actual fuck is wrong with you?

And staff can be active participants in abuse. There have been multiple reports

of staff and facilities doing things like withholding sanitary pads or

withholding prescribed medications as collective punishment.

And I won't even get into all the many examples of physical abuse that we found

researching this story. Suffice to say, a guard at one facility in Florida

apparently beat his detainees with a broomstick that he nicknamed Broomy.

And if all that wasn't bad enough, which it very much is, Some facilities also

use solitary confinement, which, as we've discussed before, is widely

torture. For kids and teenagers in particular, prolonged isolation can

exacerbate mental disabilities or other serious mental health problems. And yet,

it has been used routinely.

There have been reports of kids kept in isolation for 22 hours a day or more,

often for days, weeks, or even months on end.

Just listen to this man, who went through Judge Davenport's facility as a

teenager, explain how he wound up in solitary.

Me and my best friend, we had gone out at night and we had opened up some

unlocked cars.

They didn't steal the cars, but they did take some change.

It was a nonviolent offense.

But Dylan was held in solitary confinement for four days waiting to see

Four days doesn't sound like a lot until there's absolutely nothing to do. I

mean, just go shut yourself in a closet for four days and you'll know what I

mean. Yeah, that would absolutely be torture. You try shutting yourself in a

closet for four days. You will quickly lose your mind. Sure, you'll maybe

initially check the back to see if you've got any chance of a Narnia

But even then, you're dealing with some needy talking animals and some pretty

heavy -handed Christian allegory. You might be better off on your own. And

remember, that wasn't even his punishment.

He was just waiting to be seen by a judge.

And this happens all the time.

Though some facilities won't use the term solitary, instead calling it

seclusion, isolation, segregation or room confinement.

One even sent kids to what they called reflection cottages.

Which honestly sounds like a place on The Bachelor where the contestants go to

masturbate.

And some facilities can be pretty shameless about this. Take the Richard

Centre in Knoxville.

It's known to lock kids alone in a cell more than any other facilities in their

state. And here's its head and namesake, Richard Bean, laying out his general

philosophy when it comes to juvenile detention.

And used to, we paddled kids.

In 1986, we stopped when the state ruled you couldn't.

And had a lot of problems since then. We didn't have any problems.

They thought I was about half crazy. I'd whip six or eight a year.

And it runs pretty smooth.

What we do is treat everybody like they're in here for murder.

And you don't have any problems if you do that.

You know what?

I do have a problem, actually.

And it's not just that your name is Dick Bean or that you have a literal kid

jail named after you. It's not even that you smack your lips like you're

recording ASMR for sociopaths.

It's that you should not treat every child in your care like a murderer. And

the record...

Most of the kids in Dick Bean's facility are not yet convicted of anything.

Most have only been charged with a crime and are awaiting court dates. And yet

kids have been put in solitary there for things like talking back and forgetting

to bring their books to class. But when local news spoke to the centre's board

chairman, he saw nothing wrong with what they were doing.

It's not like we're putting them in a cage somewhere. They're in their normal

bedroom. It's their bedroom. This is...

The solitary confinement.

It's just you go to your room.

What are you laughing at there, you deeply weird man?

The only way that playful giggle makes any sense is if just out of frame a

Keebler elf was tickling his balls with a feather.

I want this by no means the point. I just want to take a minute to address

episode of hoarders happening behind this man. What is going on in that room?

count. four American flags, one aquarium for hanging dress shirts, two bookends

with no books between them, a whole collection of elephants, one Trump doll,

Obama doll that either evens things out or makes things much worse, one portrait

of Richard Nixon, and one actual Richard fucking Bean. What are you doing back

there, dick? Sit anywhere else!

You're too old to be lurking in the background without suggesting some kind

Weekend at Bernie's situation's happening.

Tennessee's Department of Children's Services has been documenting the

use of seclusion at the Bean Center for years, and yet they continue to approve

their license to operate.

And while Richard Bean himself is finally retiring later this year in the

of yet another scandal at the facility, he's doing so at age 84, and not only

will the facility stay open, this devil's egg is still the head of the

there. And that is to think it. Nothing I've brought up tonight is new

information. We've known about abuse in juvenile confinement facilities for

decades. And it's worth remembering that if public safety is your priority,

locking kids up by the hundreds of thousands just isn't the answer to that.

Detention actually increases the likelihood that youth will be arrested

punished later on. One study in Washington state found that every

spent in detention increased the odds of felony recidivism by one percentage

point. Meaning that locking kids up over the long run makes no fucking sense.

As this critic of New Jersey system points out.

95 % of kids who are locked up here are black.

At a cost of more than $250 ,000 per kid per year.

More than an Ivy League education. Much more per year, much more than four years

of an Ivy League education.

And that youth coming out of these places reoffend at a rate that exceeds

So we know we're buying a whole lot of failure for a whole

lot of money.

Yeah, on top of everything else, this nightmare is not even cost effective.

I can actually recommend a book that talks more about that. It's called The

Purely Economic Argument Against Ad -Hoc Child Torture. You know, if that's

something you needed.

The truth is, we don't do this because it works, because it doesn't. We do this

because we want to.

Because we're afraid of these kids, or we're mad at them, or we just can't

imagine that they could be ours, and so we don't give a shit.

There's even a pervasive sense that whatever happens to these kids in these

facilities is somehow what they deserve, even if what happens to them is

horrifying. Kids in Louisiana's Ware Youth Center reported enduring, among

other terrible things, sexual abuse from guards at the price of phone privileges

or in exchange for food, despite a horrendous... pattern of abuse there.

had only prosecuted three guards in her 13 years in office and even then gave

them all plea bargains to keep them out of prison and off sex offender

registries. Because she said she did not like the idea of burdening someone with

a charge that they did not deserve.

And when asked if the cases made her concerned about the safety of children

that facility, she responded, we're talking about armed robbers and

and these girls haven't even hit the age of 18 yet, some of them. Do I worry

about their safety? No, I don't. I think that they're quite capable of taking

care of themselves.

And it is pretty telling who she's comfortable reducing to a label there.

murderers are fine on their own, but let's not call these poor, sex

guys sex offenders. They have their whole life ahead of them. They can

That kind of indifference is sadly all too common throughout this system. And

you want to see the tragic consequences of it from start to finish, take the

case of Solon Peterson, a 13 -year -old who was arrested after an incident at

his school. His parents asked that he go to a mental health facility.

But instead, he was sent to a juvenile detention centre. As it happens, the

one where those guards were sexually abusing girls.

While there, Solon disassembled the life in his cell and was sent to isolation.

Under Louisiana state rules, isolation shouldn't exceed four hours.

Solon was kept in isolation for four days.

At one point, he reportedly told the guard that he wanted to die, to which

guard replied, if you want to be killing yourself, just do it.

And I'll let this news story pick things up from there.

Solon took his own life in solitary confinement at the Ware Youth Center in

Cushatta. The 13 -year -old was there because he'd set a roll of toilet paper

fire at Houghton Middle School.

Solon's death raised serious questions about whether he should have been sent

where in the first place.

He had no criminal history and was battling PTSD and ADHD with the help of

medications. We feel very confident in knowing that if Solon had lived 15 miles

in the opposite direction, that he would not have been in this situation because

the judge in that jurisdiction...

would have made a different choice for his case yeah that is heartbreaking and

yet the where you center remains open and if you're thinking how can a system

treat kids like this i'd argue it's what happens when too many of us stop

thinking of them as kids some of whom may have done terrible things many of

haven't and none of whom deserve this because look We've all done stupid

in our youth. Maybe you shoplifted or committed vandalism or roasted a teacher

online or got in a fight or, God forbid, opened a yo -yo in a convenience store.

Any of the things that you've heard kids get in trouble for tonight, and maybe

you didn't face lasting consequences.

But it's worth remembering that for the variables of race or class or how the

Plinko chip happened to fall, things could have ended very differently for

So what can we do?

I would argue that the whole system I've shown you from start to finish here

needs reform. When it comes to the juvenile justice process, kids should be

provided access to legal counsel at every step of the system. If they want

waive their right to an attorney, it should only be after a discussion with

And if they're going to be given probation, it should be designed in such

that rewards and incentivises good behaviour instead of penalising a kid

every mistake they make. But in general, experts suggest diverting kids... into

things like family -focused multi -dimensional therapy models, mentorship

programmes, and investing in community -based interventions is in most cases

best approach.

One of the most comprehensive studies ever undertaken in this field followed

over a thousand adolescent boys for five years after they'd been arrested for

low -level offences. And it found that diversion isn't just better for the

It actually promotes public safety through reducing violence, which serves

everyone. The good news is...

There are lots of organisations that have been working hard to deliver those

services. The bad news is they're among the ones getting hardest hits by the

Trump administration's massive funding cuts.

Now, when it comes to incarceration, I will concede there are some kids who may

be a threat to themselves or others and may, for a time, need to be in a secure

setting. But even then, I'd argue any residential treatment they get should

no resemblance.

to adult incarceration.

I'd also argue that adult incarceration should bear no resemblance to adult

incarceration, but that is for another time.

That's for another time.

To their credit, all these states have passed some rules or statutes limiting

the practice of locking kids up over minor probation violations, which is

And all of these in D .C. have passed laws aimed at improving conditions in

youth facilities. So I will warn you there that cosmetic changes can be

reassuring. There have been numerous stories of facilities that bragged about

new approaches like pet therapy and yoga, only for it to then emerge that

were hung to the same abuses as traditional facilities, just with more

coloured walls.

So reform can't be a discrete event. It has to be an ongoing commitment to

reimagining this entire system. And for the final time, I get that some kids can

commit heinous crimes, but our anger at those crimes...

shouldn't be the main thing dictating our treatment of those kids.

Especially when you consider kids' brains do change as they get older.

indicate that even psychopathic traits decrease with age in the majority of

youth, whether they're involved with the justice system or not. The point here

is, no matter what they did, kids deserve safety, respect, protection, and

chance to grow beyond their mistakes. They deserve to be treated like

individuals with potential and value even, and I would argue especially.

On their worst day.

Being an adult is hard.

Becoming one is even harder.

And we need to work as diligently as we can to make sure that we are not

wrecking kids' lives by mindlessly throwing them into these prisons or

or youth centres or freedom -challenged inside yards or whatever the fuck you

want to call them.

And if we can do this, then hopefully one day we'll be able to look back on

absolute disgrace of a system.

As a thing of the past. And just like happy reformed Johnny, say, gee, that

dumb, wasn't it?

And now this.

And now, KLAS reporter Ozzie Mora loves to show, not tell.

Think of social media being a tree like this one. Each branch representing a

different platform.

Las Vegas is one of the places with the highest eviction rates. Some of these

rocks that you see here can be hidden around parks in trees.

light pole, and table.

The ladies train six to eight hours every weekend.

Telling me the overall goal is to provide opportunities for women. Every

licensed educator needs to renew their license five to six years, depending on

their degree.

This yoga course that we're in right now offers six hours towards the 15 hours

they need to renew.

But when you open these doors, the opportunities are endless. Students can

up in any of these stations in class, whether it be connecting wires.

Or cutting up some wood.

Or hammering away.

And the numbers show just how many students are struggling. For the school

2022 -2023, the department had 4 ,100 referrals from either parents or

pediatricians. CCSD is not even halfway through this school year and there are

already 2 ,000 referrals.

That's our show. Thanks so much for watching. We'll see you next week.