Chapter Fourteen: Cruel and Unusual
“They [children] are the products of an environment over which they have no real control – passengers through narrow pathways in a world they never made.” Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy, p. 270
In Chapter 14, we learn of Bryan Stevenson’s efforts to convince the judicial system to ban the practice of sentencing juveniles to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Stevenson implores the courts to recognize that adolescents’ decision making capabilities remain profoundly shaped and constrained by environments over which they have no control.
How often do we fail to give children the benefit of the doubt? Are we too quick to judge a child’s behavior at church, in a store, or on the soccer field? I know I did until my wife Kathy and I found ourselves struggling to understand why our son Matthew often over-reacted to situations that were new or unpredictable. In time, we learned that the basis for Matthew’s behaviors were neurologic; he had difficulty processing sensory information. In the course of helping Matthew navigate these unpredictable environments, my wife Kathy and I learned an important lesson: all kids want to do well . . . they want to succeed . . . they seek affirmation and lack malice. A child or adolescent acting “poorly” needs our support and compassion, not our disapproval; their parents need our understanding and resources, not our judgment.
In reading this chapter, I was struck by the number of environmental factors influencing a child’s behavior over which they have little or no control. Some, like Matthew’s, are primarily neurologic; others are psychiatric, or social, or influenced by race, education, or socioeconomic status; many are combinations of the above. Thankfully, Bryan Stevenson convinced the Supreme Court that the influence of these environmental factors on an adolescent’s decision making capabilities should preclude our harshest of sentencing practices to this age group. The ongoing challenge for our society is to recognize the inherent and fundamental goodness in all children; to create environments that reflect and reveal the very nature of God equally present in each of them. Lastly, Stevenson leads me to believe that our greatest challenge is to apply these principals to all individuals, irrespective of age; perhaps therein lies the true meaning of “Just Mercy.”
John Osterholzer is originally from the Flint area and has been a parishioner at St. Mary’s since arriving on campus as an undergraduate 26 years ago. He’s a faculty member at the Medical School working primarily at the VA hospital. He and his wife Kathy were married at St. Mary’s and the parish remains central to the faith formation of their three children (Matthew, 14; Danny, 12; and Sarah, 10).
