Good Morning all. I recently received this letter that I thought I would share with everyone. This is from a freind of our cause who lives in Belgium and he was shocked to hear not only about direct file but about the fact that we sentence children to life without parole. So without further ado;

As citizen of a small European country (Belgium) I noticed something very strange in the justice of some American states. It is the role of the court and the prosecutors…

In Belgium when someone under the 18 is committing a crime he first goes the court for non-adults (let’s call it teen court)… And it is the judge and only the judge who decides (with closed doors, without public) if the teenager must be treated as an adult. Mostly teenagers of 17, 18 years have some risk to be treated as adults… (By the way ‘sentence for life’ doesn’t exist at all in Belgium)…

But I was completely surprised that a prosecutor seems to have the power to decide if a teenager must be treated as adult. In our view of justice this is completely absurd. The prosecutor defends the society and has his role to play. He must indeed defend the public. If a prosecutor has the right to decide the type of court, than he is able to define the type of punishment and this is totally against the principles of justice. Not the public, neither their defender (the prosecutor ) can be victim and judge at same time. For me this is fundamental right for kids that their punishment is only and only defined by the judge. Like the Belgian system, the judge can decide for serious crimes that the teenager has to go to the adult court. But at the end of the day, all kids in Belgium always have a second chance… And to the politics… There is much more crimes per head in USA than in Belgium…    But this is maybe something to explain later.

Good luck with your organization.

Kind regards,

Eric From Belgium