I hope your boy gets raped in jail and killed.” The words, angry and exasperated, from an anonymous caller, burn into the ears of Jackie Golden, grandmother of Andrew Golden. For a moment she is too shaken to speak. “I know people have been killed,” she says, trembling from the venom. She knows it is widespread. But, she says, Andrew is still my grandson. The tough talk that Jackie Golden fears travels fast in an area like Jonesboro, Ark. The voice at the Waffle House just off Highway 63 in nearby Bono is typical. An elderly man sips coffee at the counter and snaps, “I don’t care how old they are; if they kill somebody, they ought to die. I don’t care if they’re five years old. The Bible says an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. They need to change the law.” Under state law, Mitchell Johnson, 13, and Golden, 11, will not face the death penalty. They will not spend the rest of their lives in prison. In fact, if convicted of killing five and injuring 10, they are likely be out of prison at age 18. In Arkansas children under 14 cannot be tried as adults, and juveniles face a maximum sentence described by state law as “indeterminate,” which means not to exceed their 21st birthday. And, says Gerry Glynn, law professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, “most children are released at age 18 because the state does not have the facilities to hold them longer.” In many states, though, age is no barrier to punishment. Twenty-seven do not have age restrictions in prosecuting juveniles as adults . On Friday the Indiana Supreme Court upheld a department of corrections decision to house Donna Ratliff in an adult prison. At 14 she burned down her parents’ house as retribution for alleged sexual abuse by “family members since the age of four.” In 1996 a judge had recommended that Donna be sent to a juvenile facility. Many are asking: If the law cannot effectively go after the kids, can it not punish the parents? According to the National Conference of State Legislatures in Denver, 42 states have enacted laws making parents responsible in one form or another for their children’s crimes. Of those states, 17 make parents criminally liable, sometimes with the threat of hefty fines and jail time. California’s 1988 antigang law is one of the toughest. The state’s Parental Responsibility Act makes parents liable for inadequate supervision, with penalties of up to a year in jail and $2,500 fines. Arkansas adopted a parental-responsibility law in 1995, under which courts can order parents or guardians to attend a “parent responsibility training program.” Parents must complete the program and pay for its cost or be sanctioned for contempt. According to Glynn, Arkansas can also bring a criminal prosecution against a parent “whose gross neglect of parental duty” leads to the criminal acts of a child. Under that statute, however, parents face only a maximum $250 fine with no jail time.
