Shackling juveniles.

• Author: Kaimowitz, Gabe
• Position: Letters - Letter to the editor

Among the annual reports from sections, divisions, and committees in the June issue, one sentence caught my attention: "Proposed Rule 8.100(b) prohibits the indiscriminate use of chains and shackles on detained juveniles in the courtroom."

I recalled a state legislator being chided as "Chain Gang Charlie" because he advocated, thankfully without success, the return of shackled adults to the state's prison work system. Then I would have laughed in disbelief, if someone told me that chains and shackles routinely were being imposed in a court of law--not on adults, but on detained juveniles. I'm not laughing now. This year, I began to represent juveniles in Alachua County, home of the state's flagship university. I had represented juveniles for years in the shadow of the University of Michigan. I do not recall having seen a single child shackled in that juvenile justice system, after the shameful practice was harshly criticized there more than 30 years ago.

I did know then that there were children in Florida subjected to corporal punishment so severe that black and blue marks would remain visible, weeks after they were inflicted, even on dark-skinned children. I looked at photos of them, which were being shown for a challenge taken to the U.S. Supreme Court to end that form of punishment, as being cruel and unusual in violation of the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Florida prevailed. By a 5-4 vote, this state was allowed to continue to beat children in the classroom. Years later, I had the satisfaction of getting damages for a child who was victimized by that practice in Orlando.

But Florida apparently still does not get the message about what can be done by the state to a child who is said to be delinquent. In 2008, in Gainesville, Florida, not Abu Ghraib, not Guantanamo, detained juveniles come shuffling in orange sack-like jump suits with shackles around their ankles. Those are linked to hand restraints. The children are accompanied by at least two and sometimes three bailiffs. Those burly adults hover over them as they are brought to the microphone to stand next to a strange attorney or some other adult while the judge stares down at them politely, until he is satisfied that they know how to say "yes, sir," without rolling their eyes or being disrespectful.

When the proceeding is over, they may be asked to sign a form. The handcuffs remain on while they sign, before they are shuffled out again into detention.

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