A 10-year old Pennsylvania boy with mental health concerns is currently sitting alone in an adult prison cell, charged as an adult in the killing of a 90-year old woman. Prison officials provided the boy with coloring books and crayons, and guards make sure he has time to “play.”
When we have to schedule “recess” in prison, something is terribly wrong. Prosecutors had no choice but to charge him as an adult—Pennsylvania law requires it—but they can, and should, quickly agree to move the boy’s case to the juvenile justice system.