Justice for Juveniles: Interview with Susan, an Advocate for Juvenile Offenders

When juveniles break the law, should they be tried as an adult? If found guilty, should they be housed in an adult facility? This is my interview with Susan, an advocate for juvenile offenders. She speaks about her activism, the groups she is active with, and some of the cases she is working on. She tells us about the case of Eric Hainstock, a juvenile from Wisconsin.

Could you give us a bio of yourself?

I'm Susan from the Chicago area, 46 years old, married, mother of 2 teenaged sons. I have a Bachelor's degree in Music and have worked as a teacher in the past, but currently am a school Bus Driver believe it or not! The hours and pay are great for a part-time job giving me time to work on Advocacy projects and be home with my boys. I am also reminded every day of how immature and impulsive children can be which ties in with the Advocating I do to keep children in Juvenile courts. I'm also very spiritual having studied many religions since high school and currently finding some answers to 'Life' from the great psychic Sylvia Browne. I also just watched 'The Secret', and totally believe in the power of positive thinking which our God works through us if we only stop to listen.

How did you get started advocating for juveniles, and was there any specific thing that influenced this?

I have been an Advocate for Human and Animal Rights in small ways forever, but it was the case of Christopher Pittman, a 12-year-old boy from South Carolina who really got me involved with being a Juvenile Justice Advocate. Christopher killed his beloved grandparents in 2001 after being put on adult dosages of Zoloft, an antidepressant, which his supporters believe caused him to become Involuntarily Intoxicated, take his grandfather's rifle, and kill the 2 people he loved most in the world. South Carolina tried and sentenced this child as an adult to 30 years in prison. Thankfully his case was heard before their state Supreme Court in October, and we are still waiting for the decision which we hope will be in his favor and help other children's cases in the future as well.

By advocating, what exactly do you do, and what do you hope for the youth in our nation?

I personally write letters to Congressmen, Judges, Attorneys, and News Editors voicing my opinion about cruel and unjust laws governing our nation's children. I have attended a rally at the South Carolina Supreme Court in support of Christopher, donate money to children's Canteen and Legal Funds, and correspond with some of the children we support. The goal of Juvenile Advocates is to make our voices heard in hopes of changing the tide of public opinion about putting children under 18 in adult courts. Several states currently have Bills being considered exactly to this effect, so we urge them to pass these laws in every way we possibly can.

Do you work alone, or with any other organizations or groups?

I am the Assistant Administrator of www.WhoopAssforJustice.org
A Moderator at www.KidsinCourt.net and
An active member of www.JusticeforJuveniles.org

We monitor current and past cases, do our daily work to make our voices heard, and spring into action as a Team when a critical issue is at hand such as a Trial or Appeal in progress.

About how many youths do you currently advocate for?

We have dozens of cases listed on the forums above, some are active, others are not. Currently, I am very active in the case of Eric Hainstock who will have a trial as an adult in July for shooting his school principal in Wisconsin last year. I run his MySpace page with another Advocate which is www.myspace.com/saveerichainstock. I actively support Kenneth Bartley of Tennessee who is currently recanting his plea in hopes of getting a trial to prove he is not guilty of 1st Degree Murder in the shooting of his school principal. I support Krista McDaniel of South Carolina who is serving 30 years for being at the scene of a murder. She is applying for Post Conviction Relief currently. Also Glenn Dove of Texas who is now 41 and was imprisoned at 15 for Life. He was deemed to have the mentality of a 10 year old at the time of his crime, yet still tried and sentenced as an adult. I have written his attorney and the Parole Board several support letters since I know him through corresponding for nearly 2 years. There are other children I write support letters for when the time is critical as well....so many to list but you get the idea of what I do.
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Who is Eric Hainstock from Wisconsin?

This is a very complex case of child abuse, bullying, and emotional disorders. I will quote some of the information from his MySpace page that my Advocate friend Pam wrote about him:
"
Eric Jordan Hainstock is an abandoned, abused, & bullied 15 year old boy who has been charged as an adult with First Degree Intentional Homicide for allegedly shooting his school principal. If he is convicted in adult court, he will face life imprisonment. Although Eric had "special needs" at Weston High School, and was working at below grade level even after repeating a grade, he is in the 75th percentile. Not in class rank, but in the class of young perpetrators who had suffered severe, ongoing bullying before they committed an act of violence against their school. It has been reported that the resultant emotional damage had a significant impact on the attackers and was a key factor in their decision to strike out against their school. Yes, Eric fits snuggly into that 75% category of abused, neglected children who have committed three-quarters of the school shootings. Eric claims he brought the weapons to school to get someone to listen to him. Since dead people can't listen, murder didn't seem to be his intention. In a desperate attempt to stop the bullying he used the threat of a gun. Eric's plan went chaotically wrong that day. As guns will often do, instead of getting someone to listen, they got someone killed.

Not only was Eric severely bullied and preyed on at school every day from a young age, he was abandoned by his mother, abused by his father and stepmother and neglected at home. Family members have said Eric was bullied at school and abused at home. He had no where to turn, he could do nothing right. They said Eric raised himself. His father, Shawn Hainstock doled out unorthodox, humiliating punishments. Hot peppers and hot pepper sauce was forced down Eric's throat, induced physical exhaustion such as forced running, being forced to stand in prolonged torturous positions. Also, Eric was beaten with belts and other objects; he was bitten, denied after school snacks and seconds at dinner, and was living in filthy conditions at home including animal excrement and clutter at fire hazard proportions. He was left home alone for entire weekends to watch the house at the age of 12. Although Shawn Hainstock claims total disability since age 25 yet, he beats and wrestles Eric to the ground
to pour hot sauce down his throat, plays horseshoes at the local bars and hauls Amish on a regular basis. Even though totally disabled, Shawn Hainstock kicked Eric so severely when Eric was 10 years old, he was charged with Felony Child Abuse. The charges were eventually expunged and life went on as usual for Shawn and Eric Hainstock. No follow up by the courts or social services agencies. The charge was dropped, but the abuse never stopped. The deferred prosecution paved the way for a violent Shawn Hainstock, capable of severe child abuse, to legally own guns. The judge who fixed a three-quarter million dollar bond on Eric, is the same judge who didn't investigate the "innuendo" of child abuse when Eric was a toddler. How ironic.

A sophomore classmate of Eric's was quoted in the Madison State Journal saying that "Eric Hainstock was the most picked on person in the whole school". She also claimed Eric often smelled of smoke, wore the same clothes for days, had greasy hair and appeared to not shower on a daily basis, seemingly justification for ganging up on and bullying a fellow student. Premeditated destruction of a fellow student. A family member has said a teacher at the high school made fun of Eric in front of the whole class during roll call when he asked Eric if he was the Special Needs Kid. Eric asked his aunt when he told her about it, "Why did he have to say that? Apparently this teacher deserves the "Rotten-Apple Award". The is also the teacher who after Eric was down and cuffed continuously slammed Eric's face into the concrete floor every time he tried to move his head breaking his glasses and giving him a black eye. It is clearly visible in his arrest photo. The police had to drag the teacher of
f of Eric. This teacher also defended his "jock" students calling Eric the bully not the "jocks" who amused themselves by referring to Eric as "fag" and faggot". In fact counter to what one of Eric's classmates said above, Eric's special needs teacher, Mr. Nowak, said that it was a "crock" that Eric was bullied and in fact he was the bully. But the statistics don't bear that out. The bully is never the one responsible for the school shootings.

School authorities and the community seem to be in complete denial about the bullying of Eric Hainstock. All the signs were there. Teachers and school administrators would have had to be deaf, dumb and blind to have missed this child at risk, based on the other school shootings across the country. Eric cracked when he threw the stapler at this special needs teacher, but instead of heeding those warnings of a bullied child, frustrated student reaching the end of his rope, the students started calling Eric psycho. Does it really surprise anyone that this school has now become a statistic? Does it surprise anyone that like Columbine, everyone in the community is in denial?

This is a horrible tragedy. Mr. Klang was a wonderful person from all accounts and didn't deserve this nor did his family. Mr. Klang was the victim of a child who was abused, neglected and severely bullied his entire life both at home and at school. Eric in turn was the victim of irresponsible adults. The dangerous bully predators had a very negative effect on this one picked-on child and in effect pushed him over the edge contributing to this preventable tragedy. When will the bullies be held accountable? Do they feel the appropriate amount of guilt? Will the school face up to what really happened here? Will they have the courage to seek the truth? Will they go for revenge against this child? Does justice come in the form of vengeance?

Eric should be tried as a juvenile in Juvenile Court so he receives treatment and rehabilitation not revenge and retribution. Vengence is not justice. A productive society works to heal. The victim's legacy should not be the destruction of a child's life in prison, but a rebirth of that child through rehabilitation and care. What better legacy to serve the memory of an educator."

What are you hoping for Eric?

Our current hopes for Eric is that he is not found guilty of 1st degree murder. There are so many mitigating circumstances surrounding his actions on that tragic day, that we hope a jury will give this young man a chance at rehabilitation and not sentence him to Life in prison. This would be yet another tragedy in his short life once again.
We question where a fair and impartial jury can be found anywhere in Wisconsin given the high profile media coverage of his case as well. This child is worth saving. We would like to see him put in a facility where he would receive treatment for all of the traumas he has suffered, then have his case reviewed as he matures in time allowing a judge to determine whether he can return to society at some point in his life.

How can we help your cause? (websites, links, etc.)

We need everyone who understands the need for change in the Juvenile laws to make their voices heard in any small way by signing petitions, writing letters, and supporting Bills in their states that are seeking to amend these laws. Please visit the websites I belong to where there is a wealth of information with petition links, addresses, and current articles about legal reform in order to educate yourself on these issues.

When juveniles enter adult prisons, what are some of the problems that arise?

Numerous studies are showing that juveniles who are put in adult prisons return to society as hardened criminals with high recidivism rates. In essence, the 'Tough on Crime' laws are not serving as a deterrent to juvenile crime which was high in the late 1980's to early 1990's which caused lawmakers to enact these more stringent laws in the first place. Now, after about 2 decades, we are seeing the ineffectiveness of trying juveniles as adults. The costs of imprisoning a child for Life far outweigh the costs of offering rehabilitation in juvenile facilities where our youth can be afforded therapy rather than pure punishment. We are grateful that these statistics are coming out in favor of helping our children now after so many have been doomed to the depths of hell and abused in every way imaginable.

Approximately how many juveniles are currently in our Nations prisons?

We currently have over 2,000 juveniles serving Life sentences across various states. That is more than all the rest of the world combined. The United States and Somalia have yet to sign the Declaration of the Rights of the Child which is a sad commentary on this country which calls itself the Leader of the Free World. In fact, Jamie Fellner, US program director at Human Rights Watch said in a recent report the following:
"For years, the United States has held the dubious distinction of incarcerating more people and at a higher rate than any other peacetime nation in the world. Yet its appalling addiction to incarceration continues. According to statistics released today by the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics (Prisoners in 2005), the number of US residents behind bars has now reached more than 2.3 million. The rate of incarceration has risen to 491 sentenced inmates per 100,000 US residents, up from 411 a decade ago. Four states - Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi and Oklahoma - have incarceration rates of more than 650 per 100,000, with Louisiana soaring above all other states with the astonishing rate of 797." Those statistics are for adults, but the ratio of juveniles in prisons is equally disturbing. A whole other topic would be to discuss the Prison Industry as yet another profit-making big business.

Can these youths be rehabilitated, and educated?

So many scientific studies are showing the lack of rational thinking present in the growing adolescent brain. Reasoning, judgment, a realistic grasp of consequences are among the last areas of the brain that mature until a person is in their early 20's. Juveniles are certainly the best candidates for rehabilitation which our states are once again recognizing. We are seeing a trend in 'fixing' the system which will be to allocate more funding towards programs which will give our youth the needed tools to help them mature into responsible adults. Most are amenable to treatment, and we cannot call ourselves a progressive society without offering these things to our children. Advocates seek to deal with juveniles as the children that they are, even 16 and 17 year olds are developmentally immature despite their adult size. No matter the seriousness of their crimes, we strive to give them the chance of redemption at some point in their adult years rather than simply lock them up and throw away the key. The 'key' is to have that strength to recognize potential rather than seek immediate revenge which diminishes us as a collective society.

Dee, thank you so much for allowing me to be a voice for Juvenile Advocates. It is our greatest goal to see more and more citizens help us change the tide of public opinion towards a more favorable juvenile justice system in our country. 2 quotes from Mahatma Gandhi come to mind:
"You must be the change you want to see in the world" and
"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong."

Susan~~~

www.christopherpittman.org

www.kidsincourt.net

www.justiceforjuveniles.org

www.whoopassforjustice.org

Susan does great work for these juveniles. We hope to bring awareness to the problem of juvenile offenders in our society, and how they should be treated. I urge everyone to go to the websites she has provided and read more on this subject.