8 year old sent to prision

[explorerunit]

This was on t.v today and i found it very very...how do i put it,against a lot of policies.
Now for the story;

There was an eight year old boy who was at recess and had thrown a ball at a little boy, he was sent to the office where the principal phoned his mother and said even though the child claimed it was an accident, he was going to be suspened but must first go back to calss and finish the day. The child was upset and did not want to return to class and threw a "tantrum" about how he wanted to go home and for his mom to come get him. The principal said if he would not return to class it would be "illegal" and she would call the police.Well needless to day the police where called and gave the child two choice; either go back to class, or go to jail. The child scremed and cryed for his mother and said he wasnt going back to class. Well the child refused and was cuffed and send to an actual prision(not juvie). He was questioned about drug use and withdrawls from crystal meth, drinking, pot, etc....


That was how it was worded and no other information was given and when they went to the cheif he couldnt comment because charges were being filed on the department. I dont know about other place but i belive here children under 18 are sent to juvie and cannot be handcuffed unless posing a major threat to an officer.

[Drew27k9]

I haven't seen anything on the news or on the web news sites about this, so I am not going to comment until I can get more of the facts.

[vadep]

Do you have a link to an actual news story?

Understandably, I have a hard time buying this....

[Deputy757]

I'm with vadep. Sounds fishy. But anyone I take into custody is handcuffed (with very, very few exceptions) regardless of their age.

[sbrad]

I think you should go find some links and not post back in this thread until you do. ;)

[Menace]

I'll tell you ONE thing. At least here, you can't take a juvi to "man jail" unless they have done specified crimes...and skipping class is NOT one of them. Those specified crimes are like Murder, etc...and even so they have to be 15,16,or 17

[explorerunit]

yeah saw it on t.v let me get back to you on the links thanks for the opinions

[Legoate]

I'm still curious what exactly the criminal act would even be. And at least in Cali, Prison does not equal County Jail. Not even mentioning the fact that you can't take Juvs to the county jail either.
As a Police Explorer I'd at least expect you to thorougly investigate the story and post a link before posting it here. If you want to play cop, start acting like a cop.

[txinvestigator1]

I saw this on AP. The kid was actually taken to a city Jail and left there for a short while . Huge dumbass move on the cops part, but it was hardly prison.

It was some podunck town.

[Ranger__101]

I managed to find the AP article on the event. It will be interesting to see what the final outcome is from the School, Police and parents if we hear anything further on this.

ESPANOLA, N.M. (AP) — An Espanola third-grader was handcuffed and arrested by police after hitting another student with a basketball, the child's mother and her lawyer say.

"The Legislature never envisioned that the law would be used to lock an 8-year-old in any jail, especially an adult jail," attorney Sheri Raphaelson said.

"This is the most egregious example of poor judgment by police that I've ever seen in my 15 years of practicing law," she said.

According to a juvenile citation for disorderly conduct, Jerry Trujillo was arrested Thursday and booked into the Espanola jail after he "got out of control and refused to go back to class."

Police Chief Richard Guillen, who was not at work Thursday, said he had few details but that officers "couldn't deal with" the boy before taking him into custody.

He said he had conflicting accounts of where the boy was held and for how long.

It's illegal to keep a juvenile at an adult facility.

Espanola school Superintendent Vernon Jaramillo said the incident was being investigated. He expected a report from the school's principal, Corinne Salazar.

The boy's mother, Angelica Esquibel, said he was sent to the school office Thursday when he raised his voice to a teacher after hitting another child with the basketball.

Esquibel, who works next door to the school, said she was called to the office, and that Jerry began crying and saying he wanted to go home.

She said a school counselor wanted him to return to class, and that when the boy ran outside and started crying louder, the counselor told him if he wasn't going to be in school, she was going to call police.

The counselor told him officers would handcuff him and put him in a cell "until he changes his attitude," Esquibel said.

Guillen said he'd been told the mother agreed police should be called. She said she told school officials not to call them.

Two officers tried to tell Jerry to go back to class and told him he had a choice — class or jail, Esquibel said. When the boy got upset and loud, they handcuffed him, she said.

The police report says Jerry was arrested, taken to jail, booked and released to his parents.

Esquibel said that when she arrived at the police station, he was standing against a wall, crying.

He told her he was placed "in a dark room with a window, a metal toilet and a metal sink," and that inmates banged on the window "saying they were going to get him and cussing," she said. He said officers told him to stop crying or they'd let the inmates get him, she said.

[tpd_six]

This was posted here once before-

http://forums.realpolice.net/showthread.php?t=17621