Free Republic

NASHVILLE - An organization of Tennessee juvenile court judges, saying the Department of Children's Services is doing an inadequate job, this week called for a new state agency to house and treat young offenders. This week, the Tennessee Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges met in Nashville, where about 90 members unanimously passed a resolution supporting efforts in the General Assembly to form a new agency to house and treat juvenile offenders, according to the group's spokeswoman, Joan Archer. The judges complain serious offenders are not being held in secure environments and too often run away and commit new...

In a 5-4 decision the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that executing juvenile offenders violates the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment - thus outlawing the executions of death row inmates who committed their crimes when they were juveniles. This ruling removes 72 inmates from death rows nationwide. After reading numerous articles regarding this decision I've put together this sampling of some of the "children" now safe from "cruel and unusual punishment" for their childhood crimes:

Youth A severed the head off 11-year-old Jun Hase and placed it on the front gate of an elementary school. Slowly does it when you're lining up to buy your next Big Mac ... that young guy in front of you could well be one of Japan's most vicious, brutal and shocking killers, according to Weekly Playboy (3/30). His real name can't be released, because when the now 21-year-old who referred to himself as Seito Sakakibara went on his bloodthirsty rampage, he was only a 14-year-old schoolboy. Instead of being locked away behind bars for the rest of his life,...