Effort growing to end Florida shackling of juvenile suspects

CURT ANDERSON
Associated Press

MIAMI - Across Florida every day, children accused of juvenile offenses are routinely brought to court in chains regardless of their age, size or alleged crime. Groups of kids are often seen shuffling and clinking along in courthouses wearing handcuffs, leg irons and belly chains - shackles that aren't used for adults unless they are deemed dangerous or an escape risk.

"They herd them like cattle, all of them in chains," said Carlos Martinez, chief assistant public defender in Miami-Dade County. "It's just insane. They forget about the Constitution. They have prejudged these kids as dangerous."

Led by Martinez and the Florida Bar, an effort is growing to end Florida's practice of routinely shackling virtually all juvenile suspects. A bill is being drafted for introduction in the Legislature early next year that would make major changes and the Florida Supreme Court will also be asked to impose new statewide rules.

"The whole purpose of this system is rehabilitation," said Gerard Glynn, a professor at the Barry University School of Law and chairman of a Florida Bar committee on children's legal issues. "By shackling children this way, we are not building self-esteem. We are telling them they are criminals. That's the wrong message to send."

In response to motions filed by Martinez and other public defenders, some juvenile judges in Miami-Dade and Broward counties have banned use of shackles on children in their courtrooms. But advocates of change say such patchwork efforts will take far too long.

The Florida Bar panel chaired by Glynn voted unanimously in September to oppose indiscriminate use of shackles on juveniles in Florida and to push for new laws, court rules or executive action. The Bar's full Board of Governors is expected to take up those recommendations in early December.

Officials with Republican Gov.-elect Charlie Crist's transition team did not respond to a phone call and e-mail message seeking comment.

The state Department of Juvenile Justice defends its practices, arguing that the chains are necessary for public safety and rejecting criticism that their use is indiscriminate. Agency spokeswoman Cynthia Lorenzo said youths are placed in chains during transport from detention centers to courtrooms to ensure they won't escape and that it is not a blanket policy.

"Our agency is responsible for ensuring the safety and well-being of the public. Some youth in our care are accused of serious crimes, such as murder and armed robbery," Lorenzo said in an e-mail message.

While legal motions filed by the department say shackling is based on risk, other legal observers say it most often appears that all children are routinely chained during court visits. The Washington-based National Juvenile Defender Center said in an October report that chains "appear to be the norm" in most juvenile courtrooms, including for "very young children."

"Observers heard no legal justification for this practice of shackling every single detained youth for court," the report found.

Martinez said that he visited a Tallahassee courtroom recently and saw an 11-year-old girl, under 4 feet tall, led to court wearing handcuffs and leg irons. In Miami, a 13-year boy was chained after he was arrested for loitering in bushes near a causeway in Miami. Other children are forced into chains for misdemeanors or other relatively minor volations.

Psychologists and juvenile legal experts say shackling prejudices their ability to receive a fair trial, sends a signal of disrespect and leads children to believe they must be guilty. Being forced to wear chains sends a particularly troublesome message to black youths, experts say.

"The young person who feels he or she being treated like a dangerous animal will think less of him or herself," psychologist and juvenile justice consultant Marty Beyer of Cottage Grove, Ore., said in an affidavit to the Florida Bar. "For youth of color, being degraded in public may be experienced as racism, which is extremely harmful to the development of a positive identity."

In court filings, state juvenile justice officials said use of shackles "is not an effort ... to inflict physical or mental anguish, or to torture or humiliate detained youth" but is instead intended to prevent young people from attempting to escape or otherwise get into further legal trouble.

"All in the courtroom should share the common goal of seeing that youth do not become more deeply involved in the juvenile justice system," said Brian Berkowitz, chief assistant general counsel of the Department of Juvenile Justice, in court papers.

Martinez, however, noted that a federal judge recently ordered shackles removed from alleged al-Qaida operative Jose Padilla during Miami court hearings in his terrorism support case. Youthful offenders around the state should be treated at least as well as someone accused of assisting worldwide terrorist groups, he said.

"That's the best possible contrast," Martinez said. "We are hoping to get some attention to this and get people to really think. There is no proportionality."