Dear All:
Thanks for the
great class yesterday. Generally, our discussions involve the motivations as to
why a specific individual makes a particular decision. What is that in the micro-, meso-, or
macrosystem that force Cyntoia to kill that guy? What
forces people to make bad decisions? If you all would come back to our chart of
the ecological system, the most factors for our bad decisions are located in
micro- and meso-level. Our families, friends, and religious affiliations are what
develops us at a young age. Early phase is the
most important because the child understands the processes of development. To be
effective, the interactions with the family members, friends, and school
teachers must “occur on a fairly regular basis over extended period of time”
(Bronfenbrenner, p. 38). A negative family
characteristic, such as poor parental supervision of children, might be a risk
factor for future instability and delinquency. It is connected with a lack of
parental supervision, lack of mentorship, the low investment to the family. In Cyntoia’s case, the role of mother was really shady. My opinion may be based on my cultural perspective. For
instance, I was not allowed to the spend night outside the house until I was twenty
years old. My mother had total control over me; as a result, I rebelled. However, it
was particular appreciation of authority. Cyntoia may be missing the authority in her life. Unfortunately, the correctional system was the
entity of authority she listened to. Her mother's pivotal mistake was to give
her freedom. Freedom for those individuals whom received mentorship is
appropriate. However, Cyntoia needed particular attention due to the
circumstances around her. I know many of you have a different opinion. Here is
my first question: Do you feel that her mother did all she could to protect
Cyntoia from committing murder?
Incarceration is very tough experience for everyone. I have
done research on female offenders. Regardless of their crime, they suffer considerably
while incarcerated. It
is not going to be always like in the documentary. Does she deserve such a strong sentence? In my view, she
should have been given probation because she is too young to be incarcerated. People
who are incarcerated have difficulties with coping after being released. Is it
appropriate to incarcerate an individual whose whose life just started? Is it
normal to put this person in prison when other, more dangerous individuals, are
on parole for a similar crime? Personally, I cannot make a decision. From one perspective,
Cyntoia appears to be a very ignorant and broken person. She lacks the consistency in what she was
doing. Always looking for understanding, she was able to get
herself in many different complex situations. How can we guarantee or assume
that this "normal" appearing girl would kill because he or she
treated her badly? Again,
I truly believe that understanding of the basics of communications were not
given in childhood, it is too complicated to develop later in life. On the other hand, I cried when I saw the ending. She is just
too young. She was denied the opportunity to see another side of
life. She will never give birth. She will never play with children. She would
never have a dog or kitten. She would never travel to another country. Now, she is denied a chance to find the trust and support
that she was looking for. Here is my question: What other measures can be implemented in
order to help her to come back to the normal world?
Finally, considering the role of criminal justice system in
this situation, I would like to say that these people did not care about her. Honestly, none of them were really
interested in helping her. Psychologists explained why she might become such a person;
however, he never suggested of providing any help. I am considerably disappointed
with the lawyer. How is it possible that no one in that story attempted to help
her. No one at all. Here is my last question: What I the role of your agency in changing the
jusctice system? What system is your agency trying to reform? What system
should be reformed?
Again, thanks for the great class. Feel free to add your
thoughts that are unrelated to what I just wrote.
15 comments:
Marina, I felt the same way about her mother. There was something that made me feel her mother was not a great figure in her life at all but the "show must go on" in the words of Freddy Mercury. I found that a lot of what we saw was selective, as Sydney posited in class. Why did we only hear about Cyntoia's additional charges when she was being convicted? It just seemed off to me. I also thought it was unusual that she had run away from home three weeks prior to her arrest but no mention was made by Ellenette about her "desperation" or "despair" when Cyntoia ran away. It actually seemed that the contradictions seen between Cyntoia's statements about her mother and her mother's statements about Cyntoia said a lot regarding their real relationship. What I found especially note worthy was Cyntoia's discussion of how her mother disregarded Cyntoia's sexual and physical trauma speaks volumes about Ellenette's character.
I believe the consistent instability found in Cyntoia's early environment led to a maladaptive microsystem which subsequently ended in the murder of Johnny Allen. If Ellenette had been more supportive, as she was a central figure in Cyntoia's microsystem, Cyntoia would've had more stability in life. Cyntoia's distrust could have been avoided had this occurred. However, Cyntoia's lack of this stability led to her distrust in Johnny Allen when he "reached over the side of the bed." So to answer your question Marina...yes. Ellenette could have provided a better environment for her daughter and this situation could have possibly been avoided.
I also think that Juveniles should not be able to be tried for First degree murder. That is just crazy in my opinion. As I stated in class, we are not fully developed at the age of 16. I believe instead of incarceration she should have been involved in a program like SIST. SIST is a program which was created for sexually violent predators. Since there is only a .002 recidivism rate for SVP's, civil commitment seems severe. SIST has GPS tracking, monthly parole meetings, random parole check-ins, curfew and more. If we put a Juvenile with a severe crime in a program like this the chance of another murder would, in my opinion, be very slim. Services, what she really needs, would be provided. She could also live in a Juvenile facility to ensure her whereabouts. I just don't think prison is ever the answer for a Juvenile Offender.
In CJA, I wouldn't say we really challenge this system. We may be helpful in some ways, however. For example, we provide a background of the defendant to the judge so he/she has an idea of the person's connection to the community and if they can hold down a job or have family to support. I think this may be helpful because it humanizes the offender. This man or woman could have a family, job, or community service obligation just like any other citizen. In a way, we help lay out the microsystem for the Judge.
I apologize for the lengthy post. There is so much to discuss!
I completely agree with Marina and Lauren: Cyntoia's adoptive mother could not have been as invested in Cyntoia's life as she lead us to believe in the documentary. I think the fact the that Cyntoia had been missing for three weeks prior to the arrest, and the arresting officers did not recognize or notify her mother(from what was said in the documentary) shows that Ellenette did not even report her missing. She either knew her daughters whereabouts, she sexual dysfunction and activity, or she didn't care where her daughter had went. Three weeks with out knowing your daughters whereabouts and not reporting it is inexcusable.
I also don't think juvenile offenders should be tried for first degree murder. I have a hard time believing that a 15 year old girl, who has been repeatedly sexually assaulted could premeditate killing a man who she did not know. Other than possibly theft--which was not explained in the documentary, but I looked it up and it was $140 and his car--I do not see a premeditated motive for her to kill him. What she actually stole was a measly petty cash and a car, which she most likely stole because he lived out in the middle of nowhere.
The system completely failed her. With her background and the events surrounding the incident they had so very many defense options and they took absolutely none of them. The defense that they did mount probably insured her sentence because they presented her in such a deplorably inconsistent and disturbed beyond help way that a conservative jury saw ample reason to convict. The psychologist seemed to want to help her, but he idiotically sealed her fate by diagnosing a 16 year old with a personality disorder. Your not even allowed to do that!! Labeling her with a lifelong incurable and highly untreatable personality disorder just screams lock me up! I mean she may have had it, who knows, but from what I saw it seemed more like an attachment disorder not a full personality disorder.
Jobpath has nothing to do with the criminal justice system...
Hey Stacy, I understand that Jobpath does not have anything to do with criminal justice system. But probably, it touches the issues of stigmatization. I believe that Cyntoia was stigmatized in some way. In my view, it was almost none who wanted to help her during trial. Why is that? Is that because she was a girl of color from a poor neighborhood? Can it be the case? WHy some people and organization does not want to really address people's issues?
I agree... The mom could and should have been much more involved. This behavior is not appropriate for a 15/16/17 year old. She should not have been out and about at all hours of the night - or you know 3 weeks. That's not acceptable I know I wasn't allowed to do that. This is something that is reckless and careless on the moms part. It's irresponsible. The flip side to that is that It's scary that we live in a society in which we need to obsess over safety and security specially for young girls. Maybe if we lived in a more just society we wouldn't feel the need to overprotect because maybe there wouldn't be so much danger or risk of danger attached to being a girl.
As everyone's been saying I'm also totally confused about the robbery charge. That's literally only mentioned when the verdict is read in the documentary.
Again, to repeat previous points made Cyntoia's childhood and the lack of attachment in early childhood plays a huge role in how things ended in this trial. The level of trauma that exists in not only her life but her mother's and her grandmother's
life. This intergenerational trauma is the beginning of an explanation as to why things ended the way they ended. It is really scary and shocking how much our society is out of tune with mental health awareness and with trauma informed care. When you look at juvenile residents in these facilities it's definitely one of the common denominators that all of theses young people have traumatic experiences and have survived experiences that could absolutely not be imagined by some of us coming from a place of privilege. Trauma informed care literally revolutionizes how we look at tons of different populations (such as court involved juveniles) and the mental health care that we offer. I think this is a huge part of what all these juveniles need. This is part of what's needed to get to the root of the problem.
We could really change thousands of lives by practicing and using trauma informed interventions. If Cyntoia had received the appropriate trauma informed care that she deserves maybe her life would have ended up differently. She wouldn't have to live with the stigma of a diagnosis at age 16.
CASES- thankfully and fortunately- offers trauma informed care & does year workshops with ALL staff! CASES is actually where I was introduced to this & where I had a reality check as to how much trauma really affects every single one of us...
I think we need to be careful about gravitating to the well-rehearsed narrative of the Bad Mommy. This was a spectacular pageant of dysfunction. Indeed, doesn't Eco-system Theory make it harder to see the individual as singly responsible (Cyntoia, or Ellenette or Johnny Allen)? I'm not saying Ellenette didn't give off a funky vibe (though I support Sydney/Lauren's point about the film itself -- what is shown/not show? what gets edited in order to drive what narrative?). But Ellenette, with her own complex eco-system, inherited a really murky situation (Cyntoia is like the Iraq that Obama inherited). Perhaps she didn't rise to the task. But someone bought that cheerleading uniform, drove her to practice... The three weeks, in the absence of any context, seem inexcusable. But who knows what Ellenette was told/chose to believe?
I also think that once we stop thinking that this is a story where X failed her (Ellenette, the shrink with the bad diagnosis, etc.) we can consider this: what if this is not a story of failure but rather an expose of how the system WORKS? Perhaps the real sorrow here is not that someone failed Cyntoia, but that this is how our system is designed to work. Humans are woefully fallible -- there will always be bad mothers, abusive fathers, stupid professionals, rebellious children, addicts, johns -- what we need is a system that works to minimize the damage we can do to one another and ourselves.
I think on so many levels, the various systems conspired against her. From a young age, she lacked stability, in her relationships and her environment, she lacked the appropriate guidance, and role models who would look out for her. Her family had a strong history of suicidal tendencies. She was perceived as black and poor by the system.
By virtue of being perceived as black, poor and female she was caught in the matrix of oppression. So how does the system respond to someone like that? In class we discussed how the foster system failed her. And later the justice system. I think there’s a very strong punitive streak in the justice system that works much to the detriment of such individuals. It’s hell bent on exacting its pound of flesh but turns a blind eye to the person it is punishing. Not only has one life already been lost, but Cyntoia’s is on the verge of being lost as well.
In response to your question Marina, to sentence Cyntoia to 53 years in unconscionable, but consider the penal philosophy of the justice system (macrosystem): in the 80’s and 90’s there was a shift towards the belief that young offenders deserve punishments reserved for adults because while they were thought to be capable of forming malicious intent to commit crimes, which of course runs contrary to a large body of psychological and neuroscience literature.
I think the justice system needs to respond with an approach that is holistic enough to meet Cyntoia’s needs; to correct and rehabilitate her (with counseling and an education to channel her strengths) instead of dooming her to a life behind bars. Easier said than done of course. As much as we advocate for youth offenders, attitudes within the justice system has to change to allow for a more merciful attitude towards the most psychologically and mentally vulnerable of offenders.
Cyntoia’s stoty is an appropriate example that shows the long-term effect of the culture of poverty. I think the filmmaker of this documentary was not trying to prove her innocence, but instead was making a wakeup call to the system through Cyntoia’s story, by showing how bad life is out there in the ghetto and to what extent this culture of poverty can lead us.
The movie does not provide us with all the necessary information for us to pass a conclusion. If we are to go with the little that we know, Cyntoia is guilty in many respects, which I am not going to mention in this post. However, let examine this situation through the African proverb, “It takes a village to raise a child”
Indeed, it takes a whole community to raise a child, who would later become a valuable member of that community. In Cyntoia’s story, this was not the case. Besides her respective family, I would assume that at 16 Cyntoia was still in high school, although the movie does not touch on this but I think it still worth mentioning. My questions now are:
Was her school concerned about her where about during the 3 weeks?
Didn’t the school notice that she was acting indifferently in school?
To answer Marina’s question, what leads people to make bad decisions?
I think there is no definite answer that would answer this question. In Cyntoia’s case, we can count her family history with mental issues and the environment in which she was brought up. We cannot say that she didn’t know what was good or bad, for she was not insane. However, most of what she perceived to be normal was in fact factors that we would consider to be abnormal. Prostitution, drug use, violence were normalized in her community. For example, when she talked about how she came to have sex with some guys, she refers back to a porn movie that she watched, where a woman walked inside a room and found guys and just started taking off her clothes.
In this case, Cyntoia is more of a victim rather than an offender. The system just got her where it wanted her to be from the early beginning. I hope that state officials in Tennessee would review Cyntoia’s case and use it as a starting point to make change in neighborhood that are no different than that of Cyntoia. And hopefully enforce legislations that sets age limit on, who gets to access porn movies, buy cigarettes, use marijuana, alcohol, etc.…
How much is the local government doing to enforce these legislations?
Prostitution, how much is the state of Tennessee doing in response to stopping prostitution in their state?
This is a national problem, now I am wondering how many Cyntoia’s are out there?
I think its great what everyone has written so far. I have to agree with Professor Reitz that we cannot assume the "bad mom" card. We only received snip bits of their relationship. Cyntoia mentions the strained relationship in the letter at the end of how she refused to let her mother be a part of her life. I loved that letter and feel the need to quote her "Secrecy was a code I practiced for my life". We are assuming the mom was terrible (except for the 3weeks...that was bad). I have known many friends who have had strong relationships with their family but have gone through the criminal justice system. As Marina stated the early stages of childhood, the micro and meso level. This film wanted us to see some parts but not all. Unfortunately, Cyntoia didn't have the emotional support she needed from coping with the emotional trauma. Prison is where she had the time to think of herself and her life journey. She writes "Looking back at my childhood from birth to adolescence has great bearing on my perceptions". Also 10 MONTHS in Solitary confinement is extreme for a minor!!!
I agree with all of you she should not have had the verdict of 1st degree murder. A program would have been better to actually help her and not just send her off to prison.
FedCap-Back2Work helps customers who have barriers in reintegrating into society, whether its being homeless, a criminal record, or others that I am not aware of. There are a lot of resources within the program but there aren't any psychological programs...that I am aware of. I believe programs that address these issues are super important.
There are so many ways in which the system has failed to cyntoia and her family. I want to start by saying that cyntoia's biological mother didn't have any family or governmental support when she was a teenager. She didn't even know she was pregnant until “the belly started getting big”. Based on the documentary, Cyntoia’s mother was an alcoholic. Studies have shown that drinking alcohol can cause brain damage in the fetus and can affect the child’s behavior. It doesn’t look like she got help from any governmental institution. I am wondering whether she was asked if she wanted to have the baby or not bring the question of whether abortion was legal on Tennessee at that time.
Cyntoia’s attorney could have done a better job. Instead of bringing the biological mother to try to build a case based on Cyntoia’s family background, the lawyer had to bring people with whom Cyntoia had a healthy/positive relationship with. We never knew the name of cyntoia caregivers,or her relationship with them. The only thing we, and the jury, know is that she was associated with bad people. I don’t think the attorney looked at Cyntoia whole Micro-system.
The interrogation process the police officers conducted was coercive. First, it doesn't look like she understood Miranda rights at all. But even if she did, she was under the influence on drugs at the moment of the interview. I don’t understand how the court admitted any evidence presented by those police officers. Did a medical examination was conducted to determine whether Cyntoia was under the effect of any drug while testifying? Also, how would an officer offer a “deal” to a high, and probably scare young lady?
I heard this interview with Bryan Stephenson today on the radio. Touches on so many things we talked about in seminar. Stephenson is the author of JUST MERCY as well as Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative. It is worth a listen:
http://www.npr.org/2014/10/20/356964925/one-lawyers-fight-for-young-blacks-and-just-mercy
It's hard to respond to this video because I feel that nearly everything went wrong. I lean towards the thought of prof. Rietz, we can't blame the woman who stepped in when a child was in need and, presumably, did her best with the resources she had. it's tempting to talk about class and institutions of aid, things that could have stopped her from the ultimate killing of johnny allen. we could lament the fact that statutory rape was never discussed in the film, let alone the case. but what I found most stupendous about the video (beyond the TERRIBLE defense argument)was that we live in a nation in which a 16 year old can be locked away for life without a key because we have decided that there is NO hope she could be a gainful citizen.
what?
I know many of my classmates agree with me on this sentiment, because it really is dumbfounding. it really shows that thesis statement of the criminal just system in america is black and white. You are suspected of doing something, society believes that you have done it, and so you must be taken out of mainstream society for life. But really, it's as absurd that kids can be sentenced to life in prison as for adults.
The human nature is such, as is described in the models we learned last class, that it evolves constantly with things in it's environment. How can a society be so progressive in it's science, but so behind in its criminal justice.
Sure it may be harder for adults to change than kids, but in a intensive care environment, anything is possible. why do we give up so easily on fellow human beings?
Looking at the background information for criminals who commit the most violent acts, we can see that they had have in some form or another, a troubled upbringing, rife with neglect and abuse. To what extent can we hold the individual at the center of the ecosystem responsible for his/her actions?
And to what extent can we safely or surely attribute his/her behavior to the impact the other systems had?
What tools do we have to make that crucial determination?
It seems that so many egregrious crimes are committed by people whose circumstances put them on a particular trajectory that it only becomes a matter of time before he or she would commit a grave criminal act.
Hi All. I'm going to be writing a lot and so I ask you to bear with me as this post will appear in more than one entry.....
I write this from a weird place—meaning, since I was not in class, I can only imagine the discussion that was had and so my response on the blog is (like the documentary) partial, incomplete, fragmented. But I think I have seen enough (the film), and read enough (the Bronfenbrenner reading; your blog entries) to offer some thoughts. Here goes:
First I want to say that my heart is heavy for Cyntoia and all the tragic figures in her story.
Second, my comments here will begin by contesting Kevin’s use of the term “culture of poverty” in his blog post this week, and move on from there. I very much need to contest use of the term because the phrase is really just a simplistic catchall that obscures (hides) more than it reveals.
It’s easy to dismiss Cyntoia’s world as some OTHER culture (the culture of poverty) rather than it being about OUR social world--the society WE have created and that we LIVE in.
Poverty is NOT a culture. Poverty is a social CONDITION. Racialization of social bodies is NOT a culture. Racialization is a PROCESS that marks some bodies as more VALUABLE than other bodies. Racism is the result of the process of othering and marginalization. Gender is NOT a culture but is a socio-cultural construction shaped by a set of practices, meanings, and performances that come to APPEAR as natural. All of these attributes suggest that the reference point for where any individual is located in society (recall the neoliberal balloon video) is a wider set of conditions that set the stage for the unfolding of human lives.
It is these wider systems and circumstances that set the stage for the tragedy that is Cyntoia’s life, that is her mother’s life, that is her step-mother’s life, that is the dead guy’s life.
To help explain what I mean, I quote from something I’ve written before--the Prologue to my book on women and homelessness in NYC. Prof’s Reitz and Rose: can we add the Prologue to this week’s reading? I know, I know, it’s another reading but it’s SHORT and SO RELEVANT.
The excerpt from the Prologue offers a way of understanding what POWER is. Here goes:
Anthropologist Eric Wolf delineates four modes of power. Structural power “is power that structures the political economy…[It] shapes the social field of action so as to render some kinds of behavior possible, while making others less possible or impossible.” The other modes of power operate in relation to structural power; they are “power as an attribute of the person, as potency or capability,” power “as the ability of an ego to impose its will on an alter, in social action, in interpersonal relations,” and “[tactical or organizational] power that controls the settings in which people may show forth their potentialities and interact with others.” These forms of power transpire in social interactions and are played out in institutional settings where the basic groupings of society are reproduced: the family, the neighborhood, the school, the workplace, the shelter, the streets, the community residence, the prison. Even though “the notion of structural power is useful precisely because it allows us to delineate how the forces of the world impinge upon the people we study,” it remains the mode neglected in the most popular understanding of the poor.
I believe we need to CONFRONT power (understand how it works) and the deep complex of forces and factors that position people such as Cyntoia to become “at risk” in the first place. We must ask ourselves this: isn’t it a matter of PROBABILITIES that under certain kinds of social conditions (not just what the mother did or didn’t do) a certain proportion of people will FALL and FAIL to those forces? Maybe what’s amazing is that under the conditions that do exist, it's remarkable that there aren’t MORE vulnerabilities, failures and fallings.
Power and the violence of power, what we can call structural violence, is rendered invisible. In my view, that invisibility is a political project. What happens when structural violence is hidden is that WHAT IS LEFT FOR ALL TO SEE are only the individual’s failures and the failures of those on the “micro” level. We don’t SEE the multiple violences of structural violence.
Here’s how Bertolt Brecht expresses the idea that structural violence is invisible, rendering only the immediately visible clear to see.
It’s an excerpt from his poem titled “On Violence”:
The headlong stream is termed violent
But the river bed hemming it in is
Termed violent by no one.
It makes me wonder: whose interests get served when the most “macro” level is rendered invisible and only that which is up close and in our face (e.g., Cyntoia, her mother, her step-mother, etc) gets seen?
Thank you Professor Waterston! Perfect. In response to Marina's point about the micro and the mezzo being the most influential on Cyntoia's life, I was going to launch into a discussion arguing that actually the macro, where structural violence lives, is the most insidious, pernicious layer in Cyntoia's eco-system. As a practitioner, one would have to conduct an eco-system with Ellenette to determine the assets and gaps in her life. What would happen if Ellenette's needs were identified and met? How would that affect Cyntoia's stability?
Extensive research into what works to support young women transitioning from the juvenile justice system back to the community shows that there is a significant relationship between meaningful connection to a cross system, community based support system and stability. New York City is in the process of merging their child welfare and juvenile justice systems (see brief description of systems of care http://www.tapartnership.org/SOC/SOCvalues.php and wraparound http://www.nwi.pdx.edu/ for examples of models). What if Cyntoia's case was looked at as a child welfare case and not a criminal justice case? What if her life was looked at in the context of her and her family's assets, strengths, and aspirations?
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