Video: Public Defenders Ask To Unshackle Juvenile Defendants

MIAMI -- Public defenders are arguing that it is unnecessary to shackle juveniles accused of crimes when they are taken to court.

All defendants taken to court from the Juvenile Justice Center are shackled at the hands and feet. Public defenders argued Monday to Judge William Johnson that with police and bailiffs in courtrooms, judges equipped with panic buttons to summon help and in a building with security screening for all who enter, shackling all juvenile inmates is unnecessary.

"They have kids in leg irons for misdemeanor offenses. That's outrageous," said chief assistant public defender Carlos Martinez.

Public defenders argued that shackles for all juvenile detainees, regardless of age or the accusation against them, does psychological harm to kids. One anti-shackle lawmaker, state Sen. Frederica Wilson (D-Miami), said shackling especially does harm to black children.

"I think it is uniquely offensive because, as you know, we were chained and brought to America," Wilson said.

The shackles are part of a statewide policy that thus far has been upheld by courts. The superintendent of Miami's juvenile jail said escape risk is a real concern.

But critics argue that at a courthouse that is physically attached to the juvenile detention center, the policy is particularly over the top.

A public defender who talked to children in the secure hallway leading to the courtroom found many of them unshackled there.

"They weren't shackled until they were brought up to come into the courtroom," said Miami-Dade County public defender Andrew Stanton.

But when Stanton raised the shackling issue with Johnson, the judge said he had no problem with taking the chains off most defendants.

Judge Lester Langer, chief of delinquency courts, said judges can make case-by-case rulings on the need for shackles, although public defenders said that has not been Langer's position all along.

"The response we got from him was what they would do is they would only take shackles off for trials," Stanton said.

But at least in one courtroom on one day, the chains came off. Public defenders said they hope it is the beginning of the end of the policy.

"Obviously it's too much of a hassle to put on shackles just to have them immediately taken off outside the courtroom door," Stanton said.

Public defenders will fan out across courtrooms again Tuesday with their motions to unshackle young defendants, hoping that other judges will follow Johnson's lead.