Juvenile justice in America: a Florida case

by Larry Miller

I remember once starting to read Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood and asking myself, “Why am I reading this?  It’s as depressing as sitting through a screening of Rosemary’s Baby."  Not a fun thing to do.

But fun sometimes has to take a back seat to the necessity of examining the human condition and what it is that causes humans to sometimes become so misguided.

“Misguided” may be a bit euphemistic when describing juveniles who commit heinous crimes.  What are those things that make some youngsters stray from “normal” teen years and end up spending life in prison?  The answers are not simple.  And the U.S. legal system struggles for a path to true juvenile justice.   

Good friend Bill Kunerth recently shared excerpts of a book written by his son, Jeff, who is a writer for the Orlando (FL) Sentinel.  I was intrigued by what I started to read -- but had those flashbacks to In Cold Blood.

Then, a few weeks ago, I received a copy of the book from Jeff.  It’s entitled Trout, and it’s a true story of “murder, teens, and the death penalty.”  

I started the book late one evening, read the first chapter, and was lured into the story by Jeff’s riveting style.  It reads like a novel.  It’s anything but.

I’ll not provide details about Trout, other than to share that it’s a revealing story about high school-age boys in Pensacola who become wrapped up in an horrific event that ends tragically for almost all the families involved. 

“…I thought I was writing about a case of mistaken identity murder-for-hire by three Pensacola teens in 1991,” said Kunerth, who acknowledges that the book evolves into scrutinizing juvenile justice within the U.S. adult court system.

Jeff Kunerth - Orlando Sentinel

The writing style is called “creative nonfiction,” and it’s well suited for journalist Kunerth, who has sourced the story extensively.  He assembles just the right tools to tell the story of a gruesome murder of a clerk at Trout Auto Parts in Pensacola, Florida.

I don’t fancy myself a literary critic, but Jeff Kunerth’s style reminded me of Barbara Tuchman's work.

Like Tuchman, Kunerth may not consider himself an historian, but his detailed recounting of this event, accompanied by nagging questions about the implications for juvenile justice, are every bit as compelling as Tuchman’s “Guns of August” dissection of the events leading up to World War One.  And like it or not, juvenile violence is as much a part of our history as war -- and its impact is just as devastating.

The topics for both books were meticulously researched, thoughtfully written, and both authors spared no ink in assembling and listing their sources.  At just 195 pages, Trout is a fast read.  Twenty-two of those pages are source notes.

Like any good book, it leaves you wanting to know more.  And more is to be found online at www.jeffkunerth.com where visitors can ask questions, make comments, and get additional information, including links to the PBS Frontline documentary, When Kids Get Life.

We should listen to Kenny Rogers

by Lorraine Collins

I've never been a great fan of what we call country and western music because I thought it all seemed to be about broken hearts and broken promises, loneliness, trains missed and dogs that died. But sometimes it does reflect common human experiences and things that are true and important. One good example is a song made famous by Kenny Rogers---"The Gambler."

It's been running through my mind quite a bit lately because of the advice the gambler offers to the narrator: "Know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em." Apparently the gambler didn't learn that too well himself because, after he's bummed a cigarette and a drink of whisky from a fellow he met on a "train to nowhere", he dies.

Yet,  his advice is still good: know when to hold and when to fold, not just in poker, but in life. I've been trying to figure that out myself lately, and I know if we could all learn that, everything might be easier for us. For instance, in the last year we've witnessed events in Egypt and Libya when dictators just refused to give up their power and ended up dooming themselves and their countries to a long ordeal. Still, the boss of Syria hasn't seemed to get the message that there's a time to fold.

In the recent Republican presidential nomination contest, one fellow might have bailed out a bit early, but others hung on way past the bitter end. So sometimes we do give up too soon, maybe because of a lack of grit, or because of a sudden realization that the goal is most likely unattainable, so we cut our losses. But in most cases we don't fold too soon but just hang on too long because we hate to give up whatever we have enjoyed doing.

There are a lot of examples. Many of us can name a famous professional quarterback who didn't know when to retire, and in music and the arts we've seen performers who would have been better off leaving their reputations intact with a graceful exit. Great literary works have been written about faded geniuses or warriors trying to regain former glory. It's not that we lack examples. It's just hard to recognize those same tendencies in ourselves.

I remember when I was a kid not wanting to come home from playing kick the can even though it was getting pretty dark. When my mother called me to come in, I protested that I was still having fun. She said, "Always quit when you're having fun." That's pretty good advice, too, though many of us wait until everything isn't quite as much fun as it used to be.

Of course I'm leading up to something here. It's been hard to decide to leave the Black Hills after enjoying 26 years living in Spearfish Canyon and Spearfish, but the time has come for my husband Keith and me to do so, as we've recognized it's time to fold. We've had a lot of fun here, flying airplanes, driving Model Ts, riding bikes, hunting deer, playing golf, attending plays, concerts, and even opera here in the Black Hills. But to tell the truth, as time has gone on the years have accumulated in our bones. It's just about too late to quit while we're still having fun.

One thing that has been fun for me is writing this column for the last six years. For the first several months I wrote a column once a week, then faded to twice a month and I eventually  realized that writing a column once a month is the best I can do if I'm going to do anything else, like laundry. There certainly has been a lot to write about. When I put together a collection of my columns last year there were 90 commentaries in seven different categories and it's really hard to think of something I haven't written about. I've enjoyed it and I really appreciated the response from readers over the years. Thanks.

           

Now it's time to start cleaning out the house and the garage and to pay attention to another line in "The Gambler." It's about "knowing what to throw away and what to keep." Good luck with that one. 

Lorraine Collins is a writer who lives in Spearfish. She can be contacted at collins1@midco.net

A small sign of the times...

By Larry Miller

Another setback for journalism has occurred with news that the New Orleans Times-Picayune is cutting back to publishing a print version of the newspaper just three days a week.  That sad news was delivered by visiting southern friend Jimmie Ray Gordon, whose late husband Bob was a respected veteran wire service reporter and newspaper editor in the south.

I confess that one of my long-time pet peeves has been the abandonment of local community service obligations by radio stations in favor of becoming part of a larger corporate operation.  Typically, such stations rely on satellite programming and minimal overhead to meet the bottom line profit expectations of shareholders.  Serious local news coverage is often the first “belt-tightening” step.

Clearly, technology evolution and a bad economy have significantly and negatively impacted many newspapers and broadcasting stations – particularly those that were not well run in the first place.

It was no big surprise, for example, to learn that KZMX Radio in Hot Springs, South Dakota, was slapped with a big fine last month (May 2012) by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for its “failure to make the stations available for inspection” and for “failure to operate in accordance with station authorization.”   The forfeiture was set at $21,500.

For those of us who remember the early years of the station, then KOBH-AM in Hot Springs, it stirred memories of a station that was once well-operated and reached a pretty good audience across the Black Hills and beyond, including many listeners in Wyoming and Nebraska.

We don’t know about the other properties owned and operated by Mt. Rushmore Broadcasting – licensee of KZMX-AM-FM – but the notice from the FCC seemed to make a compelling case that KZMX fits the profile of a station that “willfully or repeatedly fails to comply with…the provisions of the (Communications) Act.  They wrote the following in their Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture:

On Tuesday, May 31, 2011, in response to a complaint, an agent from the Enforcement Bureau's Denver Office (Denver Office) attempted an inspection of the Station KZMX(AM) and Station KZMX-FM main studio, during regular business hours. The Stations’ main studio is located approximately one mile north of Hot Springs, South Dakota, and is clearly marked in large letters “KZMX” and a sign on the front door reads “Mount Rushmore Broadcasting.” The door to the main studio was locked and there was no staff or management present at the building. There was no contact information posted at the main studio location, consequently, the agent was unable to gain entrance to the main studio. The agent stayed at the main studio site for several hours, monitoring Station KZMX(AM), which was operating on the frequency 580 kHz, and Station KZMX-FM, which was operating on frequency 96.7 MHz.2 The agent telephoned multiple phone numbers, including two published phone numbers associated with Mount Rushmore and the Stations several times, but none of his calls were answered.3 During the time the agent was at the main studio location, an individual identifying himself as a former employee stopped by the main studio location and informed the agent that no one had been present at the main studio for more than a year.

On June 1, 2011, during regular business hours, the Denver agent returned to the Station KZMX(AM) and Station KZMX-FM main studio and again attempted an inspection of the Stations’ main studio. The agent stopped by the main studio several times throughout the day, during regular business hours. Each time, no employees were present and the agent was unable to gain access to the main studio.  Both Stations were in operation and during each visit, the agent telephoned several phone numbers associated with the Stations but his calls were not answered. The agent then visited a non-affiliated business in the area owned by the president of Mount Rushmore. After being informed that the Mount Rushmore president was in the area, the agent left his business card with an employee who agreed to have the president contact the agent, however, the agent never heard from the president.

You can go to the FCC web site to read their Notice of May 17, 2012 in its entirety, but it’s not a happy story.  Not for Mt. Rushmore Broadcasting, nor especially for the public, which apparently has been shortchanged by KZMX for a long time.

I received a copy of the FCC Notice from a long-time friend on May 19 – just a few days after it was adopted – so I thought I’d share it with a news outlet that purportedly covers news in the Black Hills region.   I sent a copy of the notice to the Rapid City Journal, which also owns the Hot Spring Star newspaper.  I was operating on the assumption that Hot Springs area residents were not likely to hear about the event from KZMX-AM-FM, and it seemed logical to me that the Journal might have an interest in the FCC action.  I e-mailed the notice to Kevin Woster at the Journal.

His response came two days later with a terse question:  “So what’s the issue?”

I replied that I thought the Notice of Forfeiture from the FCC was self-explanatory.  He responded that he gets a lot of mail, indicating that he hadn’t bothered to open or read the attachment.

Kevin is a good reporter.  I think he’s an even better writer.  But I was disappointed that nothing ever appeared in the Journal. Perhaps it was a pure editorial judgment call that this $21,500 forfeiture by a federally-licensed station in Hot Springs was too parochial – that the significance of the story was minimal.  And  maybe he’s right.

I never saw a story appear in the Rapid City Journal about the forfeiture.  Admittedly, I don’t read the Journal from front to back, so maybe I missed it.  Nor do I subscribe to the Hot Springs Star, where it may well have appeared. 

When I cranked up various online search engines to see just who might have reported the forfeiture, I found only the FCC website and…….Wikipedia?

The fact that Wikipedia somehow captured and shared information about the KZMX forfeiture order – and not the Rapid City Journal or Hot Springs Star – may well be a subtle clue as to why traditional media are struggling…….and online sources are thriving.  Even the likes of Wikipedia.