Juvenile

Joe Sullivan was 13 years old when he and two older boys broke into a home, where they robbed and raped an elderly woman. After a one-day trial in 1989, Sullivan was sentenced to life in prison with no chance for parole. Terrance Graham was 16 when he and two others robbed a restaurant. When he was arrested again a year later for a home break-in, a Florida judge said he was incorrigible. In 2005, Graham received a life term with no parole. The two young convicts represent an American phenomenon, one the Supreme Court is set to reconsider in the fall term that opens Oct. 5. At issue is whether it is cruel and unusual punishment to imprison a minor until he or she dies when the crime does not involve murder.

At probation camps and juvenile halls, where delinquent minors are often held, officials sometimes have no choice but to temporarily isolate disruptive juveniles for the safety of other youths and camp personnel. But as an hour turns into a day or more - and reports from some camps and halls suggest it can turn into a week or a month - temporary isolation turns into solitary confinement, a brutal practice when employed against anyone, and an especially cruel way to treat a juvenile who is still developing and does not yet have the emotional skills to bounce back from such treatment.

Ruling on two cases involving 14-year-old murderers, the Supreme Court on Monday rightly struck down laws in 28 states that require some minors convicted of murder to be sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. Unfortunately, the justices stopped short of prohibiting all such sentences, thereby muddying the legal waters and making it likely that they will have to consider future cases from states, such as California, where that penalty is permissible but not required. Monday's 5-4 decision involved two crimes.

Marcus Bell knows how important Los Angeles County courts are for at-risk youths. Bell, a gang intervention and prevention worker in South Los Angeles, has worked hard with young people, trying to get them not to run from police. He has worked to get them to deal with their legal issues responsibly instead of avoiding court appearances so they don't end up with warrants issued against them at a young age. On Saturday, Bell said he worries about the Los Angeles County Superior Court's cost-cutting plan that includes closing Kenyon Juvenile Justice Center in South L.A. In the coming months, the juvenile court will be one of eight regional courthouses closing as the court system struggles to close an $85-million budget shortfall by July 1, the beginning of the next fiscal year.

Juvenile hoodlums rape, rob, kidnap and murder innocent victims on a daily basis. Names cannot be released "because of their age." Isn't it time to change this outdated rule? These "alleged" young criminals may be released on bail pending trial. How will unsuspecting law-abiding families know a possible dangerous outlaw resides in their midst? RUTH V. ENAKEFF, Downey

I suppose your new Sunday Opinion columnist, Joel Stein, was hired for his youthful edginess, but all I'm seeing is someone juvenile and coarse. Why not bury him on the Sports pages or somewhere where his stories of porn star encounters won't take space away from the issues facing our troubled city and world? Better yet, fire him and the dope who thought he was a good idea. I have subscribed to The Times since the 1980s, but it's come to this: him or me. Dawna Kaufmann Los Angeles

The state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation will close two of the state's eight juvenile prisons by July. The department said Friday that the Dewitt Nelson Youth Correctional Facility in Stockton and El Paso de Robles Youth Correctional Facility in Paso Robles would close. Together they house about 400 inmates and employ about 800 workers. A declining juvenile prison population and a new state law that aims to keep less serious offenders in their communities prompted the closures.

A new Iranian judicial directive bans the execution of juvenile offenders for drug crimes but keeps capital punishment for those convicted of murder, a top judiciary official said. Hossein Zabhi, deputy state public prosecutor, said judges are still required under Iran's Islamic-based laws to hand down death sentences for minors convicted of murder if the victim's family refuses financial compensation. Mohammad Mostafaei, a lawyer who has launched a campaign against execution of juveniles, welcomed the new directive but said it was not sufficient.

Ventura County sheriff's narcotics officers, assisted by the FBI, seized 28 pounds of marijuana and arrested two men and a juvenile in south Oxnard on Thursday after negotiating to buy the illicit drug, authorities said. The arrest occurred at 5:20 p.m. in the 6000 block of Arcturus Avenue, where undercover officers had agreed to meet to purchase 28 pounds of marijuana from Rigoberto Elenes Higuera, 27, of Oxnard, Sheriff's Sgt. Arnie Aviles said.

This term, the U.S. Supreme Court will hold oral arguments in two cases, Sullivan vs. Florida and Graham vs. Florida, that will decide whether it's cruel and unusual punishment to sentence a 13-year-old or a 17-year-old to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The court should follow its prior reasoning in Roper vs. Simmons, a 2005 ruling that held the juvenile death penalty unconstitutional, and similarly draw a bright line at 18 years of age for imposing life sentences without parole.

Marcus Bell knows how important Los Angeles County courts are for at-risk youth. Bell, a gang intervention and prevention worker in South Los Angeles, has worked hard with young people, trying to get them to not run from police. He's worked with them to get into the courts when they have legal issues, to deal with them responsibly instead of not showing up and having warrants issued at a young age. On Saturday, Bell said he worries about the Los Angeles County Superior Court's cost-cutting plan that includes the closure of the Kenyon Juvenile Justice Center.

Despite earlier concerns over the quality of its food, an Atlanta company was given $6 million worth of contracts Tuesday to keep providing meals to four Los Angeles County juvenile probation camps. Some county supervisors had raised concerns over the quality of camp fare after reports of youths complaining about unhealthy meals. But supervisors unanimously approved several contracts with Morrison Management Specialists. Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas also asked that probation department officials report back on how they plan to provide nutritious meals to juveniles and that any health code violations at the camps be investigated.

The Orange County Probation Department is investigating how a south Orange County teen escaped one of its juvenile facilities a month before police said he killed five people in a drunk-driving crash in Nevada. The department requested an arrest warrant for Jean Ervin Soriano, 18, after it discovered he had left the Youth Guidance Center in Santa Ana on March 1. But authorities didn't find him until Saturday morning on a Nevada highway after he allegedly rear-ended a van filled with family members returning from a trip to Colorado to see a dying relative.

An 18-year-old accused of driving into the back of a minivan while drunk, killing five members of a family, had escaped from a juvenile correctional center 30 days before the crash, according to a public official and Orange County records. Jean Ervin Soriano escaped on March 1 from the Youth Guidance Center in Santa Ana, which is operated by the county's probation department. Details of how Soriano escaped and what efforts the department took to locate him were unknown. At least one county supervisor said he was furious the probation department had not notified the board about the connection until Monday, two days after the fatal crash on Interstate 15 in Nevada.

The juvenile facility that an 18-year-old accused of killing five people while driving drunk escaped from was a detention center for people with substance abuse issues, according to Orange County's website. Jean Ervin Soriano, 18, escaped on March 1 from the Youth Guidance Center in Santa Ana, which is operated by the county's probation department. The 80-bed facility keeps 60 beds for males and 20 for females and treats offenders from 13 to 20 years old. It offers two main programs, for drug and alcohol abusers.

OCEANSIDE - Four suspected gang members have been arrested on suspicion of killing a 13-year-old girl and 15-year-old boy and wounding two teenage boys in a public park, police announced Saturday. The four suspects are charged with two counts of murder, two of attempted murder and two of participation in a criminal street gang. Three are adults and were booked into county jail in Vista. The fourth is a juvenile and was taken to juvenile hall. All are suspected in the gunning down of Melanie Virgen, 13, and Edgar Sanchez, 15, and the wounding of two other teens in Libby Lake Park at 9 p.m. on March 13. No motive for the shootings was given, but the park and the surrounding neighborhood have been the site of  gang-related crime.

Jane Martin watched a handful of the 600 kids under her control trooping past the brick walls and high fences at the San Fernando Valley Juvenile Hall in Sylmar. As supervisor of that small link in the labyrinthine system of cops, courts, camps, schools, foster homes and treatment programs that contend each day with the thousands of kids who have run into trouble, she has paid particular attention to the news of late. What went wrong that so many of the kids society produced now have come back to haunt us?

OCEANSIDE - Four suspected gang members have been arrested on suspicion of killing a 13-year-old girl and 15-year-old boy and wounding two teenage boys in a public park, police announced Saturday. The four suspects are charged with two counts of murder, two of attempted murder and two of participation in a criminal street gang. Three are adults and were booked into county jail in Vista. The fourth is a juvenile and was taken to juvenile hall. All are suspected in the gunning down of Melanie Virgen, 13, and Edgar Sanchez, 15, and the wounding of two other teens in Libby Lake Park at 9 p.m. on March 13. No motive for the shootings was given, but the park and the surrounding neighborhood have been the site of  gang-related crime.

The young inmates in a Los Angeles County juvenile detention facility are an ocean apart from the most powerful man in the world's largest church. But this week, they were linked in an Easter Week rite of healing and humility 2 millennia old. Pope Francis chose to celebrate Holy Thursday by sinking to his knees to wash and kiss the feet of a dozen youth inmates in an Italian juvenile jail - breaking from the tradition of performing that ritual with priests in the ornate cathedrals of Rome.

Latrice lifts the sleeve of her gray sweatshirt to reveal small, dark lines - scars from slicing her forearm over and over to drown out pain from years of sexual abuse. She says she was an alcoholic, dropped out of school in the eighth grade and got pregnant at 16. Now 18, she is in Los Angeles County's juvenile justice system because she violated probation. Latrice says she has been locked up more than 20 times in four years. Petite and talkative, she has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and takes antidepressants.