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Tag Archives: youth
Springtime for Hitler
size: 11 3/4 x 16 1/2 ”
I just read about Des Knaben Wunderhorn (the magic horn of youth), a German collection of folk poetry from the 19th century that played a role in the development of pan-Germanism, a movement that has shaped in the formation of National Socialism. So the connection between fairy folklore and a portrait of Adolf Hitler (caricatured here as Queen of the fairies) on this comical floreligium is not so strange after all. It could be a parody (a travesty?) of those beautiful books on botany. I like the sad figure on the left bottom. Is he perhaps expelled from this garden of eartly delights?
Child’s game
Supply and demand
“At a friend’s sleepover more than a year ago, 14-year-old Phillip Swartley pocketed change from unlocked vehicles in the neighborhood to buy chips and soft drinks. The cops caught him.
There was no need for an attorney, said Phillip’s mother, Amy Swartley, who thought at most, the judge would slap her son with a fine or community service.
But she was shocked to find her eighth-grader handcuffed and shackled in the courtroom and sentenced to a youth detention center. Then, he was shipped to a boarding school for troubled teens for nine months.”
“The county has been rocked by a kickback scandal involving two elected judges who essentially jailed kids for cash. Many of the children had appeared before judges without a lawyer.
The nonprofit Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia said Phillip is one of at least 5,000 children over the past five years who appeared before former Luzerne County President Judge Mark Ciavarella.
Ciavarella pleaded guilty earlier this month to federal criminal charges of fraud and other tax charges, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. Former Luzerne County Senior Judge Michael Conahan also pleaded guilty to the same charges. The two secretly received more than $2.6 million, prosecutors said.”
“Ciavarella, 58, along with Conahan, 56, corruptly and fraudulently “created the potential for an increased number of juvenile offenders to be sent to juvenile detention facilities,” federal court documents alleged. Children would be placed in private detention centers, under contract with the court, to increase the head count. In exchange, the two judges would receive kickbacks.
“Minors charged with nonviolent crimes were often given harsher sentences than what probation officers recommended, court documents say. Other investigators say the trials lasted a few minutes at most.
“The corruption began in 2002, when Conahan shut down the state juvenile detention center and used money from the Luzerne County budget to fund a multimillion-dollar lease for the private facilities. Despite some raised eyebrows from the community, county commissioners approved the deal.
“Critics say private prisons lack transparency because they don’t go through the same inspections and audits as a state facility, and this may have allowed payoffs to go so long without being noticed.
“Once somebody is going to make more money by holding more kids, there is a pretty good predictable profit motive,” said criminal justice consultant Judith Greene, who heads a nonprofit group called Justice Strategies. “It’s predictable that companies are going to tolerate certain behaviors they shouldn’t.”
“After being sent to boarding school, Phillip, now 15, became withdrawn and depressed, his mother says.”
Bleak House
First image is by Geert van Kesteren from his 2006 series documenting hidden poverty in The Netherlands. Geert van Kesteren later made another highly regarded series of pictures in Iraq.
This second image is from a recent newspaper advertisement (part of a large campaign) trying to get people motivated for a consultant job in institutions for juvenile delinquents. The text reads “Kevin’s dad has had 15 years time to raise him. Now it’s your turn.”