Bryan Stevenson

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.

And of course, they didn't change the rules for this 13-year-old child.

They applied the adult rules.

So to get out of solitary, he had to never make a mistake.

He had to never complain, never be loud, never do this, never do that.

And as a young kid in that environment, he was never able to do that.

So he ended up spending 18 years in solitary confinement.

Is that legal?

It is something we are constantly challenging, but there are no restrictions currently in our law that would prohibit something like that.