John Lash

The Myth of the Young, Black Male: A More Subtle Racism

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When I was a kid, around 10 or 11, I loved fantasy novels, especially The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia. I read these books over and over, and with my friend Michael would act out the various scenes of the books. We would run around the yard with toy swords and trash can lids for shields, battling monsters until it got too dark to play any longer. One day we were pretending we were wizards, casting spells and dispensing vague wisdom to our imaginary comrades. As part of our costumes we made hoods out of pillow cases, and were blithely going about our business when my dad came home.

Pot-Smoking Teens and a Skirmish Not Worth Fighting in the War on Drugs

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The last time I smoked pot was in 1989. I had been in prison a few years then, and even though I preferred drinking “buck,” marijuana was a lot easier to get. Buck is what we called homemade wine, and it was a pain to make. We had to assemble all of the ingredients, find a place to hide it, and then transport it to the dormitory to drink. We got caught more often than not, and all of our work would go down the drain, literally.

Behind the Thorazine Shuffle, the Criminalization of Mental Illness

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In Atlanta the prison dining room was glass-walled. We could sit there eating our meals and see up and down the sidewalk. Directly across the way was D-Building. When the doors to that dorm opened up a strange group of men would exit. They would seem to be in a hurry, but unable to coordinate their movements.

The Humane Options For a Teen Killer in Ohio

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I have known hundreds of murderers, and befriended many of them. Most were teens or young adults when they committed their crimes. Some killed several people, some killed random victims, and some were mentally ill. Others killed family members or robbery victims. Some of them have been released from prison, usually after 20 or more years. None that I have known have killed anyone else.

Closing, and Opening, Youth Detention Centers for the Right Reasons

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Several times during my incarceration I was housed at prisons under threat of closure. As in any work place that is in danger of being shut down there was a great deal of fear on the part of staff. Often prisons are located in areas that do not have many other local jobs. Employees face not just loss of their jobs, but also forced relocation to other parts of the state. Each time this happened the genesis of the issue was a proposed budget cut to the state agency.

On Juvenile Detention, a Place Where the Right Meets the Left

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Today’s problems with an overcrowded and aging prison population are in part a direct result of efforts in the 1980s and ‘90s to “get tough” on crime. Several strategies were adopted across the United States that were intended to protect society and send a message to would-be criminals. Mandatory minimum sentences, increased penalties, removal of parole for certain crimes and life without parole were all part of the plan. Juvenile criminals were also included in this crusade against crime. Many of the laws passed in relation to juvenile crime were based on the now discredited “super predator” theory put forth by John DiLulio of Princeton University and James Fox of Northeastern University.

Chicago’s Cease Fire Making a Difference in Lives of Youth

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Earlier this week, PBS’s Frontline aired The Interrupters, a documentary by director Steve James. James, best known perhaps for Hoop Dreams, spent a year filming in Chicago. He documented the efforts of Cease Fire, an organization that works to reduce and prevent gang violence in some of the most deadly parts of the city. The film highlights the model developed by Cease Fire. It is an approach to youth violence and crime in general that deserves more attention.

Looking for Reasons for Racial Imbalance in the Juvenile Justice System

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It doesn’t take a lot of research to see that racial disparity in incarceration of both adults and juveniles is alive and well in the United States, but it is not so easy to say why. When I entered the Georgia prison system in 1985, blacks made up about 70 percent of the inmate population. That same year, blacks were 30 percent of the population of my home state. I grew up in a town in south Georgia with a large black population, and I had friends in school who were black. But I had no real consciousness of the inequality that existed in the justice system.

Bringing Down Youth Prisons and Building a Better Place

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I saw the movie Weeds in 1989. It was a “prison movie,” and I wasn’t particularly interested, but my friend Russell insisted that I watch it. Honestly, I do not recall much of the plot, but one scene has remained in my memory ever since. Nick Nolte’s character, who starts an acting troop while serving a life sentence, speaks about visiting the ruins of an old prison. “I saw a prison near Plymouth Rock, and it was overgrown with weeds … they sprang from every crack.

Top Judge Speaks the Truth About Georgia’s Juvenile Justice System

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Anyone who has spent much time around a prison realizes it is usually not a place of healing or rehabilitation. The truth is prisons are mostly warehouses these days, places where we send people just to have them out of the way. A lot of those people have diagnosed mental health problems, and a lot more have, or also have, substance abuse and addiction issues. I can’t speak to all prison systems, but in Georgia the “treatments” that both of these groups have received in the past have been, well…, laughable. Short appointments with a psychiatrist and enough medication to keep them sedated was the course of action for guys with mental health issues, while guys with substance abuse problems attended “classes” where they heard a mishmash of moralistic judgments and pseudo-scientific theories.