Posted on 08/28/2006 11:41:03 AM PDT by kenn5
The parents of 17-year-old Liam Ashley, who was beaten to death en route to prison, say they were the ones who charged him with theft.
Ashley was found badly beaten in the back of a Chubb Security van on Thursday night. Although he was revived by paramedics at the scene, he died on Friday.
Ashley's family say his parents wanted to teach him a lesson about the consequences of breaking the law. He had taken his mother's car without permission so they had him charged him with theft.
On Thursday Ashley appeared at the North Shore District Court. The judge offered him bail but his parents chose to send him to prison as a deterrent.
But on the trip to Auckland Central Remand prison, he was believed to have been strangled and assaulted by two others in the van.
Ashley's family have issued a statement listing 10 questions they want answered, such as why was a 17-year-old with no history of serious crime or violence was transported unattended with more serious offenders?
Head of Public Prisons Harry Hawthorne says that "best practice would be that young prisoners should be separated from older prisoners. That may not always be possible."
Chubb Security says it is investigating the incident but will not comment further.
Police, the Department of Corrections and Chubb Security are all running separate investigations but no arrests have yet been made.
I think the questionaire for donating blood still has the question about whether you have ever spent one night in jail. Apparently, this correlates highly with having had sex with a man (another of the questions). This is not something you want to do with your teenager. Jails are dangerous places filled with dangerous people. (They tend not to suffer 17 year-olds with attitudes.)
Carolyn
"Ashley's family have issued a statement listing 10 questions they want answered, such as why was a 17-year-old with no history of serious crime or violence was transported unattended with more serious offenders?"
And who exactly sent him to jail? Mom? Pop? Anybody have an answer???
Man, that's rough. I know they meant well for him, but the lesson was permanent and deadly. They'll never get over this mistake.
btw, i made note of your sig line. I'll remember, thank you.
"Ashley's family say his parents wanted to teach him a lesson about the consequences of breaking the law."
I suppose that some would consider it a successful lesson.
And who exactly sent him to jail?
He STOLE - He sent himself to jail. Why play this progressive socialist blame-the-parent-it's not-his-fault game?
Got what they asked for, i guess.
Be very careful what you wish for.
"He STOLE - He sent himself to jail. Why play this progressive socialist blame-the-parent-it's not-his-fault game?"
Jail is not a joke and it is not a game and it is not a place to send kids to "teach them a lesson". You send a young kid to jail and you can almost assured that he will be raped and beaten. You've got a teenager who takes a car without permission - you teach him a lesson at home - not with hardened criminals.
It is his parents fault that he is dead.
He stole from his parents... took his mother's car without permission. It doesn't say whether she got it back, but I'm guessing she probably did based on the way it was written. Therefore, he borrowed it without permission.
The punishment was up to the parents of the child--and at 17 he's still considered their child. They chose to involve the government and prison in their discipline for their child.
I think this is one instance where the parents share in the blame for what happened. I know I would scare the devil out of my son, when warranted, but would never turn him over to the government when he is still under my roof and jurisdiction.
"He STOLE - He sent himself to jail. Why play this progressive socialist blame-the-parent-it's not-his-fault game?"
Yep, he stole.
And no place in the civilized world, not even Texas where they're pretty hard-core on criminals, is there the death penalty for stealing.
Whose fault is this?
Easy.
It's the cops and the transport company (it sounds as though they've farmed out jail services to private companies).
The criminals are in their custody, under their control. It is THEIR responsibility to control the criminals.
They didn't, and now a kid is dead in police custody for having committed a petty crime. The petty crime is the kid's fault. That he was arrested, transported, unsupervised and is dead: THAT is Chubb's fault.
When you give your parenting chores over to someone else you should expect the unexpected.
Those other prisoners probably did not beat him to death just for fun. The kid was probably acting like a wise ass in the wrong place and time.
Why is jail a no-man's land?
Jail is watched by cops, guarded by cops.
They have cameras.
If we cannot control our prisons to the point that people are being routinely raped, murdered and crippled in there, then we had better stop sending people we're mad at for non-violent crimes (like drug sales) to prisons, and put more cops there until we've controlled the place.
As it is, if all of these reports are really true, we are effectively allowing the state to impose a sentence of exposure to rape, murder and crippling...illegal acts in the society...which the state won't take the steps to stop, in order to threaten the whole of society with the "consequences" of jail.
That's no good. If we cannot control the prisons, we need to stop sending non-violent offenders to prison and do something else with them.
Good points. I think the little puke should have been sentenced on the spot to pick up litter or something like that, not tossed in with the worst of the worst thugs, unguarded. If they're not going to guard the little pukes in the cells with brutal thugs, they need to come up with some other kind of solution.
How nanny state of you. His theft of a car not a contributing factor, and the thugs in the van who beat him aren't the primary factor? Please sober up before Freeping. We try not to sound like DU here.
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