Bryan Stevenson

They said, but these aren't children.

And they actually came up with this term.

They said, these are, quote, super predators.

And that label was applied to a lot of children.

And we started doing very unhealthy things.

We created pipelines from schoolhouses to jailhouses.

We started lowering the minimum age for trying children.

As adults, we created this zero tolerance mindset.

And we added to the stress of,

that hundreds of thousands of kids are living with because they're growing up in violent families and violent communities.

They're not being embraced.

They're not being hugged.

They're being associated.

Ian, whose poem you read, was 13 years old when he was arrested and ultimately convicted of a crime.

It was a non-homicide offense.

It took place

in Florida.

He was so small that they had to cut the legs off of the uniform to get him something that would fit him.

They decided not to put him in general population because children in adult facilities become targets for a lot of sexual abuse and violence and mistreatment.

So they put him in solitary confinement where they deprived him of any contact with other human beings.