Would You Call This Cruel And Unusual Punishment?
I’d really like to hear from some of you about this. Thank you for stopping by.
I’d like to have some opinions on this. Would you call it cruel and unusual punishment? Or does the punishment fit the crime?
I’ve had a lot of comments so I’ll say this here, it took place in Georgia and it is true, I know the people it happened to.
His cell was 7′ long by 8′ wide. The walls, floors and 2′ bench were all cement, which makes it very cold in there. There was a thick door they closed him in with. It had a very small window at the top so they could see in.
They were not allowed to wear shoes in this cell, which noone told him, so his feet froze the first day. The heat hardly ever came on, which he knew because there was a small vent in the ceiling. It was winter, so it was very cold in there. Now, sitting on a cement bench with no shoes on, in a completely made cement room, he was very cold all day.
He had to be there from 8:30 a.m. and stayed until 4:00 p.m. He was allowed to take a book to read and that was all he could do all day. He was not permitted to lay down, get on the floor (to exercise or lay down) or sleep. So all there was to do, was look at the wall, or read. He couldn’t even talk to other people next to him, in other cells.
He was not allowed to have a bottle of water or anything inside the cell. The first day he wore sweat pants, socks, shoes, t-shirt and a hoodie. When he got there he was told he couldn’t wear a hoodie and no shoes in the cell. But then they said to take the string out of the hood and it would be ok. But not to wear it tomorrow.
Every morning when he got there, he was searched and handcuffed just to walk back to the cell. Every time they went to the restroom, they were also handcuffed and when they came out at the end of the day.
So the next day, his second visit, he wore a coat, sweat pants, t-shirt, a sweater and two pair of socks. He said it was still really cold in there and his feet were just freezing. So that night he went out and bought two pair of wool socks.
On the third day, he wore the new socks, both pair, and pretty much the same as the prior day. (Including the coat) It was still cold but his feet were a little warmer.
On the fourth day, he wore three pair of socks, a t-shirt, a sweater, sweat pants, thermal long underwear, and the coat from the other two days. His feet were still really cold. There was a female officer there that day. She wouldn’t let him wear his coat in the cell, which he had worn the previous days. So he sat there, freezing all day, with no coat!
The other people that were there for the same thing, wore hoodies every day, so he decided it must be ok, still. So the fifth and last day he wore four pair of socks, barely getting his shoes on, a t-shirt, sweater, long thermal underwear, a pair of shorts and sweatpants. And this time, his hoodie. So he was a little warmer, but still cold. He said he felt the heat come on one time and stood under the vent. But it went off in about 10 minutes.
They were permitted to go to the restroom twice, once before lunch, once after. And for lunch they had a plain bologna sandwich and a peanut butter sandwich. For a drink they had one small cup of punch. They had that every day. I found out that’s the same food they serve at the Adult County jail.
One of the days they had a drill and they were all taken outside. The officers put shackles on them for this. Remember, it’s winter so it’s cold out. No coat was allowed to be worn during this drill.
You’re probably wondering what his crime was. Maybe you’re thinking, theft, burglary, assault? Well he missed 10 too many days of school, so his “crime” was truancy. Now mind you, he wasn’t even on probation when he was sent to this detention. He had never been in any trouble before, not even anything minor at school. He was 14, and a freshman.
In the beginning the parents explained to the court that he had anxiety problems and was sick to his stomach every morning, vomiting on some days.
The court ordered a psycological evaluation be done, which he did. But the therapist hadn’t sent the results over to the court yet. They sentenced him to this detention, anyway. The parents knew she had come to the conclusion he had an anxiety problem. (The therapist told them). But she hadn’t sent the test results to the parents or the court yet. The Judge wanted the results, but had the probation officer sanction him to daytime detention, anyway.
Also, the three weeks before this sentencing, he had gone to school every single day. Even though he was sick to his stomach every day when he got up. And right after those 3 weeks, this detention was ordered. AND they waited until Christmas break to have him go there.
Adult men have it better than this in Prison! They have a cot to lay on, they can talk to each other, they can exercise or sleep. AND they have heat!
Now I’m not saying this 14 year old doesn’t need to do better at getting to school. But he needs help and should not have had to go to this place before the court saw the psycological evaluation.
So, what do you think? Does the punishment fit the crime?
I’d love to know your thoughts, in the comment section.
There’s several other things about this whole ordeal. I didn’t want to bore you with all the details, but I’ll be writing more details, and then the outcome. So if you’d like to, you can subscribe to my email.
PART 2 – COURT WAS NEXT
I taught in public schools and this sounds just more than a bit harsh as a punishment and the parents could probably sue the school district. I have heard this and seen it happen. Thanks so much for following me and happy to be following you back now.
certainly not!! that is completely wrong! that is just awful to do a child that way bc of missing to many school days…i believe that prisoners do have it really good….if prisoners were treated the way this child was treated then maybe they would think twice! Completely wrong!!!
I do think this was cruel and unusual punishment. If I was this boy’s parent, I wouldn’t have gone along with it and probably sued the school.
yes, that treatment was ridiculous for any but the most hardened criminals, and then I’d think twice!
I feel this is utterly ridiculous!
One it is wrong to punish a kid so severely. Two it was not his or parents fault for the therapist not to send results. Three i would of sued if it were my kid.
I think it seems a little too extreme
Oh My Goodness… what… he’s 14????????? What are the parent’s doing?????? WHAT????
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They need to figure out why the truancy is happening to start with. I think they took things way too far in terms of punishment.
I think that now days they have to over react with punishment to help keep people on the right path. I do not think that making him cold in a cell was right but I think the detention time was a good thing. This is just my opinion!
i do not think that this particular punishment fits the crime
Why didn’t the parents take him out of the public school and homeschool/or put in a private school. Or why wasn’t he on meds for anxiety? Seems like there is more to this story but i don’t think he should have been treated this way.
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I don’t know what to think. I don’t like to hear stories like this, and I can’t do anything to help so it’s kind of pointless to comment.
It does sound quite a bit exaggerated. I would have to know the family & child to make an informed decision about it. At face value, of course it is too harsh a punishment for the crime.
How is this even allowed? This doesn’t even fit the crime for most committed acts. I don’t agree with this at all.
All that, for TRUANCY?!? Are they TRYING to make kids go off the deep end?!? There are MURDERERS who get treated better than that! Shish-ka-bob!
Of course the punishment doesn’t fit the crime! I missed a lot of school when I was in high school and I’m currently a year away from being a doctor (and I always had better than a 3.3 GPA all throughout high school). It means nothing – stupidness
this is insane! makes me sick!they need to figure out why he is so anxious about going to school and go from there.
I do think that is cruel and unusual punishment because the person’s physical and mental health is being put at risk.
I think it’s a bit harsh for a 14 yr old & truancy. Maybe court work program, like picking garbage off the road, would be better.
I think they should have dug deeper into the reason for the truancy prior to the punishment.
I lived in Georgia, a small town in the southern middle portion, but where I lived, this would be unacceptable, even for Prisons, much less high schools or Juvenile Halls. This was inhumane…especially for the “crime”.
When I was in high school, (though in NC), we got in school suspension and after school detention and such, plus, they held make up days a Saturday or two each month. At the end of the school year, you had to take all exams, no matter your grade or whether or not they were required, if you missed too many days. I don’t know anyone that this happened to, but our handbook stated that if you missed too many day that an officer could go to your house to find the reason why, and if there wasn’t a reason, your parents could be held accountable.
This is WAY too much, and somewhere way beyond overkill as well. I knew people who missed almost half of the semester, but with a couple of notes, were allowed to slide, (until they started demanding doctor’s notes instead of parents’.)
Because we are a military family, I plan to home school our kids. Even if I wasn’t going to, stuff like this would make me want to. This is wrong, bottom line.
Hmmmm…. It’s a tough call.
I wonder, if the child has all these issues, why had the parents not gotten him help before? Why didn’t they pull him to homeschool him? You can homeschool in Georgia and it is not hard. Even with two full time working parents, you can still homeschool in that state! One thing I think is for sure, I highly doubt he will commit any crimes after that. I am wondering how effective that treatment is for kids who are skipping school for other reasons. While it is strict, I think they need to fix the heating issue, beyond that I think the scared straight method might work. I wish they had done so with my brother before he spent so many years in real prison. He is over 30 years old now and still a mess. I feel badly for that child, I hope his parents help him more so that doesn’t happen again. I have very bad anxiety, very very bad, so I do understand but given his situation I would go to school and just puke when I had to!
That’s pretty ridiculous. When I was in school people who got into knock out drag out fights got less of a punishment than this. He was treated worse than a prison inmate.
Wow…that is serious overkill. I would love to know the validity of the story though.
Isabella Grey recently posted..
I definitely think this is way too harsh. I would NEVER allow my child to go through this. If, after the first day, they told me this was happening, I would pull them out immediately.
Ok- first- kids tend to exaggerate. Where you physically there during his “treatment”. Yes you may know the person but in working with kids I have learned that things are not always what they seem. Second- there are security reasons for some of the things they did- the no string thing- was so the person couldn’t try to hang themselves (trust me it does happen) the now shoes is for the same reason- because of laces. And as to the cell- I guarantee you that is the same cell they use for other criminals because systems do not have the funding to make special cozy cells for even the most minor offences. As to the truancy issue- the state should of waited for the psych eval before proceeding and sending him to detention. But the purpose of detention is to make it so kids do not want to go back it isn’t meant to be a make friends sit on a comfy couch with a tv time. They are suppose to think about what they did. That is why there are so many repeat offenders- the prisons systems are TO easy on them.
That is horrible and definitely way too harsh.
Isn’t that like child abuse? Ridiculous.
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Not judging here, but my questions would be 1. Does the school have a handbook (rules given to every student at beginning of the year) that states how many days before they are considered truant? If yes, why did the parents not get doctors notes? Even for anxiety? If it became that big of a problem and they were letting him stay home anyways why not just consider cyber school? Home School? 2. Question would be, don’t they have a school psychiatrist they could have been working with? I just don’t see it going this far if the parents had been working with the school. A regular family doctor would be able to give a note. Truancy at my childs school is 3 days unexcused. I’m shocked they let it go to 10.. As for the punishment, that does seem a little harsh for a child, especially if the parents allowed him to stay home.. Seems they should be punished not him, if the court really needs to go this far. If the parents didn’t allow and he just did it anyways then I guess maybe he won’t next time? I know this sounds harsh and will probably Tick a few people off, but seems there must be a lot more to this story?
Kelli Avery recently posted..
I would just like to add 1 more question that has been crossing my mind over this, is he only having anxiety while going to school? If so perhaps there are other reasons? Bullying?? and if not, then definitely more the parents fault than his. I suffer from anxiety as well and it doesn’t happen from just one thing, it happens off n on over numerous different things, and sometimes when nothing at all in the world is going wrong. I could be having the best day of my life and boom anxiety attack.. Again why I wonder if there is just not enough details to make a judgment on this. However with that being said, I hope in the end it brings this family closer together and all the issues get worked out.
Kelli Avery recently posted..
this is sickening that this could happen to a child! I had a hard time going to school, too lots of kids do. with the system doing this to a human being, all it does is make their situations worse, this is a form of torture that no one should have to go through.
I think it’s way too extreme for truancy. I do have issues with the truancy though, especially considering that his teachers are responsible for his learning even though he’s not at school. Is it fair that they could lose their jobs because he won’t show up? If he hates the punishment, he can go to school.
That’s just wrong! A lawyer couldn’t do anything? I’m thinking it made his anxiety worse and might even have gotten really sick from it. I would sue the county or state or whoever made him do this.
Mary Walker recently posted..
I believe in teaching lessons, but this is too extreme!
Erinn S recently posted..
I think this was to harsh. If he never did a crime or anything else but miss school, them it is completely wrong.
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That is INSANE! My husband worked in prison confinement for the first few years of his law enforcement career and I don’t think their confinement was like that…. for SERIOUS criminals! There would be one heck of a lawsuit involved if it were my kid!
Punishment should always fit the crime. In this case it is most certainly not. Very sad.
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I think this is absolutely terrible, there are so many other ways to handle truancy without being cruel!
Karren Haller recently posted..
This is insane! I completely understand the want/need to keep a child educated and a need to provide consequences for not meeting the educational standards, but this takes it too far. I think a far more appropriate response would be some sort of situation that involved learning! No reading? Why is the kid even there if he’s not getting educated? Let’s punish a kid for missing out on education by making him miss out more on education…makes TOTAL sense. (Note the sarcasm there.)
Extremely cruel and unusual punishment. I am Canadian so I know our system is different but I believe the system is definitely broken. Government itself is completely corrupt and completely broken. What punishment befalls them?
I could go on all day about this subject. I feel for these kids.
thanks for sharing.
I definitely think this is a bit much! I know I missed a ton of school when I was that age and my sisters from being nervous — if that ever happened to me I don’t know what I would do. I don’t think that punishment fits AT ALL.
Stevie recently posted..
I think it’s pretty harsh for truancy. I don’t this would help the child with his anxiety problem would probably even make it worse.
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A bit strict….
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Ridiculous punishment! Does not fit the crime at all! My 14 yr. old son has Autism and has kidney disease and most days he is sick to his stomach. I force him to go to school and he ends up throwing up and I have to go and get him from school at lease twice a week. The school can’t expect me to take him to the doctors every time he throws up and they only have 7 parent notes allowed, so my son already has 4 unexcused absences. Last year, we almost had to go to court over it, but we avoided court by my son doing a report and interviewing 3 business people. I guess we’re facing the same thing again this year. What a nightmare! All I can say is if they do this to my baby, I would sue!
Since when is Truancy not the parents’ fault anyways? We’re responsible for our children and their actions until they are of legal age, which is not 14. Also, when I was in school and missed too much school, or was late too much, we had this thing called Detention and Saturday School and In School Suspension. Or how about just regular ol’ suspension? This is insane! What state is this, anyway? Here in NE, we have a school review board who takes care of these things. I had surgery when I was 16, and was out of school for 2 whole months, all that happened was I lost a couple credits, which I had to make up. No bid deal. And this “psychologist” should be sued as well. Ok, I’m done, keep us updated!
Thank you for commenting! The state is Georgia.
Without knowing the particulars…I’m hesitant to comment. I don’t feel comfortable giving an opinion based on such little information…sorry ..
Wow. There are so many faults with the system. I’ve worked with kids who have done way more than this and only get suspension. That type of punishment should be given to other serious offenses. Geez
no it doesn’t! sometimes courts/judges are so unjust. every punishment should fit the crime committed. for example, there shouldn’t be plea bargains for people who murder or rape or do crimes such as those, but crimes that haven’t hurt anyone then a plea seems ok. now on this case, i don’t consider that there was a even a crime done! what a waste of resources and more importantly, the judge didn’t care to know what was really wrong with this child, how is he advocating for the kids in his community? outrageous!
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Crime doesn’t fit punishment! I thought they were going to be in there for a horrible crime, not missing so many days of school.
If he has anxiety issues, this punishment will not help – it will probably make it worse! Either way, the detention described is way to harsh for truancy.
Whoa. That is insane. I would freak out if someone treated my kids that way.
This sounds way to extreme for a 14 year old who doesnt get in trouble. If the court ordered the exam, why would they not wait for the therapist’s results before ordering the punishment. This just makes me sad for him.
This absolutely disgusts me! This is such cruel treatment and this is happening in America! Why can he not have his shoes on! Or why is there no heat!!! I am so angry!!! I am livid that this young person is treated like this! It is inhuman and very cruel!!!!
Ok, it really sucks that there are so many kids these days that are absolute terrors. And it sucks even more that good kids have to pay such harsh penalties because of the punk ass brats. Yes, I do think that was not right doing that to him, for truancy. But, there are so many other kids that do deserve it, it gets really hard, and theres not enough time to analyze every single person who goes thru the courts. He knew he would get in trouble if he didnt go to school. He knew what he was doing was wrong. He just didnt know it would be that hard to pay the price. I think they need to make it super hard on them when they start getting into trouble so young. It just seems like kids these days dont care if they get in trouble or not anymore. And they just keep getting worse and worse. But, Im going to turn around and contradict myself, and say, if this was my kid, Id be raising hell, too.
I would like to know was it ONLY truancy or was he doing other things while being truant. If that is the case then I would need more info. Plus I’d like to know where this took place. It seems that some of the story is left out so all you here about is the supposed cruelty. Media is a funny thing. They only tell you parts of any story. Is there any way to get more info on this than just going by what I assume is something found online, which could be false entirely. I would have to check it out on Snopes.com. They have the facts of things that are supposedly true. A lot of times these things you see online is false to begin with.
Yes it was only truancy. He had never been in trouble before. He never gets in trouble at school. It was in Georgia. This is true, I didn’t just find it online. I know the person it happened to. And yes he had missed a lot of days, but we just think they should’ve waited for the test results. And to treat them that way is just ridiculous. They knew he missed that many days for at least three weeks, then waited until Christmas vacation to make him go there. And yes he had been told he go could go to daytime detention, but they had no idea he would be treated in this manner or get that many days. And he was sick to his stomach every morning, and to go to the doctor every time, got to be very costly. And besides the Family Medicine Doctor couldn’t really do anything to help him. So they were just buying school notes, really. Thanks for your comment! I appreciate it.
yes… cruel. Not attachment at all.
I do think this was a bit much. I get that you want to teach them a lesson or whatever but this was just cruel.
I agree that he needs to go to school but what they did to him was completely cruel & absolutely horrible! I feel so bad for this poor kid!
i’m gonna go with yes
Not to sound cold but maybe it will teach him a lesson and save him from getting in trouble when he becomes an adult!
I think that sounds way too extreme…
Chelle Thompson recently posted..
This is absurd. Absolutely terrible. There are better ways to deal with truancy and this makes me so sad.
This is absurd. Absolutely terrible. There are other ways to deal with truancy than this type of inhumane punishment for a CHILD. So very sad.