Interview

I interviewed Jason Szanyi an attorney at Center for Children's Law and Policy in Washington, DC.  I asked him 12 questions concerning the Juvenile Justice System. Jason see's misdemeanor drug possession, unauthorized use of a vehicle, and robberies for boys on a daily bases during his job. For girls he stated that most of the crimes he usually deals with regularly are truancy, simple assault, and prostitution. Szanyi is completely against sentencing juveniles to lifetime imprisonment and is also against the death penalty in general. He stated that putting a child away in prison for life cuts against the juvenile courts purpose of rehabilitation. When asked about the flaws of the juvenile justice system he had a lot to say,"In every state, services aren’t funded at the level they would need to be in order to for the juvenile justice system to achieve its twin mandate of rehabilitation and accountability. The system relies too heavily on incarceration at facilities far away from a youth’s home, when evidence shows that community-based services are far more effective at reducing the likelihood of recidivism. Also, we arrest, prosecute, and lock up a disproportionate number of African-American and Latino youth." The last sentence of that quote hit on another important point concerning the juvenile justice system, racism. Szanyi said that he see's a lot of racism take place in juvenile court, stating that kids of color are put into the system substantially more  often and that the more often these kids are put into the system the harsher the punishment resulting in children of color receiving harsher punishment. When he started to talk about bias of gender I immediately assumed that males receive harsher punishments than females which in some cases would be unfair but Szanyi stated that females are locked up for things that normally boys wouldn't be. This is because the judge either feels the need to protect the girl or  because there are not as many good services for girls compared to the service boys receive. One of the most powerful things Szanyi said was when asked if lifetime imprisonment violates the 8th amendment. He stated that if you tell kids that they are impossible to rehabilitate, then that runs counter to the entire philosophy behind having a separate juvenile justice system. One the questions I asked was what do you consider cruel and unusual punishment? Szanyi said that on top of the death penalty and lifetime imprisonment he also feels that using pepper spray on a juvenile in a locked facility, using mechanical restraints, and placing juveniles in isolation rooms all violates the 8th amendment. Overall this interview persuaded me towards believing that juveniles should NOT be sentenced to life in prison, it gave me good solid information from a great source, and gave me a truthful look on how the juvenile justice system works from someone who is surrounded by it everyday! 

Conducting this interview was hard. Last week I emailed about 5 different candidates for interviews and all shut me down saying they didn't have time to answer my questions or simply did not respond, this was frustrating. I emailed three people for National Juvenile Defender Center including the deputy director, executive directer, and the senior policy and communication advisor and two people from the Youth Law Center who are both staff attorneys. Luckily, one of these people is Jason Szanyi colleague and forwarded my email to him. In the middle of this I also contacted a family friend Tom L’Esperance who is the Chef of Vermont State Police who I was planning on interviewing when no one had emailed me back from the other organizations. Unfortunately, Tom L’Esperance was on a business trip this week and I could not meet up with him for the interview. After I found out I would not be able to interview L’Esperance, Jason Szanyi emailed me back with answers to my interview questions. Although I could not call Mr. Szanyi on the phone for my interview due to the deadline, I feel I received more information through email because I wouldn’t have taken as good of notes compared to what Mr. Szanyi wrote. I enjoyed Szanyi’s answers because I could tell he spent time answering them and they included a lot of information that was helpful. Coming up with questions was very easy for me. Overall, I think I got was needed from this interview and although it was tough getting there it was a success in the end.