To the editor: My first skilled job was working in a locked therapy facility, with teenagers adjudicated by the juvenile court docket and remanded for remedy. I labored with rapists, armed robbers and boys who shot their mother and father 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 likelihood — now she’s charged once more,” Oct. 3)
Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón understands that the adolescent mind is just not 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 data. It’s a scientifically undeniable fact.
Treating a juvenile as an grownup is as brutal and barbaric because the crimes dedicated, and using 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The voters will determine if we need to usher within the outdated, already failed, regressive tough-on-teens method to the prosecution of juveniles, or if we need to heed the information displaying the success achieved by preserving minors out of the grownup penal system.
Teresa DeCrescenzo, Studio Metropolis
The author is a licensed medical social employee and a licensed marriage and household therapist.
