James and Jennifer Crumbley and son Ethan
Should 15-year-old Ethan Crumbley be treated like other criminal kids in Michigan and transferred to juvenile detention, or is his crime so heinous that he should remain in a jail for adults, where he's been in a one-man cell for months?
That's the question Oakland County Circuit Judge Kwame Rowe will weigh Tuesday following a request to move Crumbley to Oakland County's Children's Village, filed by the teen's court-appointed attorney and court-appointed guardian.
The Detroit News reports that keeping him in jail "would run counter to national trends and a new federal law that took effect in December." But the Oakland County Prosecutor's Office wants him to stay put, saying he would pose a danger to other kids at Children's and could escape, citing eight escapes or walk-aways at the facility in the last nine months. Karen McDonald's office also indicated the possible harm of Crumbley's isolation is somewhat mitigated by daily meetings with a mental health professional.
Criminal justice advocates and some mental health experts meanwhile say kids should be treated as kids without exception, and that isolating a child in adult jail is more dangerous for the offender because it increases the likelihood they'll kill themselves or be attacked.
Unlike adult facilities, juvenile detention centers focus on rehabilitation, with the idea that the right interventions can help anyone whose brain is still developing chart a new course. Children's Village, for its part, claims to offer a "therapuetic environment."
Crumbley, however, is charged as an adult in the Nov. 30 fatal shootings at Oxford High School and could wind up in prison anyway. But Crumbley's case is a bit less clean-cut because his attorneys have signaled they'll plead insanity. That could further hamper his chance of getting moved, The News says, because he could be seen as an even greater threat.
A different judge denied the same request for the teen in December.
