Between the Lines: One Boy's Version of Juvenile Justice

1 year ago

0 Comments Say Something »

Text Size

Woman Up Editor

Below is a three-page statement by Troy Isaac, part of his testimony to a House judiciary subcommittee hearing on safety conditions at juvenile detention centers. Isaac was incarcerated as a preteen "after an altercation I had with other kids in my neighborhood."

He was only 12 years old but, he told subcommittee chair Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), and members of the committee, "after a couple of days, one boy forced me to have oral sex with him in the shower area," and within less than a week at the youth jail, "I was raped by another older boy." Describing his despair and confusion at the time, Isaac, who is now an adult, told the panel, "guards knew what was happening and looked the other way; I was too afraid to fight back...People would take advantage of me and I just didn't know how to get help."

"I was a terrified 12 year old boy" the ex-offender continued. "I had never been violent, and I was different -- I was skinny and effeminate." Traumatized, he began a "cycle of imprisonment ... where I continued to be assaulted and abused." Now 36, he has spent most of the years since in California corrections facilities. After his last release two years ago, Isaac formed an advocacy organization to counsel victims in similar circumstances.

He urged the U.S. Justice Department to adopt the recommendations of the Prison Rape Elimination board to protect children in custody at state and federal institutions. Despite evidence that the risk to boys and girls in detention is grave, chances of quick reform are poor. In January, the U.S. Bureau on Justice Statistics released a shocking report that revealed one out of 10 child prisoners in custody are molested or raped.

Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io

Filed Under: PD Investigations

Tagged: juvenile detention, juvenile detention centers, JuvenileDetention, JuvenileDetentionCenters

Our New Approach to Comments

In an effort to encourage the same level of civil dialogue among Politics Daily’s readers that we expect of our writers – a “civilogue,” to use the term coined by PD’s Jeffrey Weiss – we are requiring commenters to use their AOL or AIM screen names to submit a comment, and we are reading all comments before publishing them. Personal attacks (on writers, other readers, Nancy Pelosi, George W. Bush, or anyone at all) and comments that are not productive additions to the conversation will not be published, period, to make room for a discussion among those with ideas to kick around. Please read our Help and Feedback section for more info.