Too rich to be incarcerated

Ethan Couch, a 16 year old resident of Dallas, Texas, was driving a vehicle while intoxicated when he killed 4 people standing near the side of the road and injured 9 others. While many teenagers do reckless and thoughtless things, this “poor” youngster had the additional burden of suffering from “affluenza,” a disease that strikes only the wealthy and/or their children.

Having worked with troubled adolescents for much of my professional career, I am familiar with and agree with the notion that teens do not think like adults. They most often do not understand or recognize the consequences of many of their actions. Being an advocate for these young people does not mean accepting all they do. In fact, it is crucial that they experience consequences for their anti-social behaviors. Notice, I do not use the word punishment. I am not looking for retribution but for the adolescent to incorporate a social awareness and help him/her change. This is why we have Family Court which deals with youngsters committing crimes and uses a different yardstick for measuring their guilt or innocence and how society will impose consequences.

But the response to his criminal act reinforces the notion that justice is determined more by wealth and power than by guilt or innocence. Ethan was charged with manslaughter, not murder. During the trial, the defense introduced Oliver James, a British psychologist and author of “Affluenza: How to be Successful and Stay Sane.” According to James, wealthy families neglect to adequately teach their children values and, therefore, skew their perceptions of right and wrong. I guess that means that Ethan cannot be held responsible for his behavior because his parents neglected him. Maybe so.

But what will Ethan learn when he sees that the legal system imposes a sentence that will ultimately reinforce his supposed irresponsible notions of right and wrong. Unfortunately, the judge bought into this argument by the defense, finding that Ethan was too wealthy to differentiate between right and wrong and was sentenced to 10 years of probation. Notice there is no attempt to incarcerate this young man.

When I was working with delinquent adolescents, I went to court one time to try to get one of the boys, 15 years of age, locked up for a couple of days. Why? Because he was constantly committing dangerous acts in his community, including firing a pistol in the schoolyard, and the courts refused to take action. The boy thought that this was a game. His treatment team came to the conclusion that it might help if he spent a few days in lockup to experience the realities of life.

Ethan will likely be sent to an alcohol treatment center that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. All this despite the fact that his alcohol blood level was 3 times the legal limit and he was driving at 70 mph in a 40 mph zone.

This is all well and good. Treating youthful offenders with understanding and compassion is worthwhile. My question is, would there be a similar response to an African-American 16 year old, from a working class family, who recklessly killed 4 people while driving drunk? This family may have had both parents working, leaving no one at home to make sure the youngster could learn the proper societal values. Yet, there is no doubt in my mind that the courts would have had little sympathy for such a youngster.

Why do I say it’s always about class and race? Because it is.

Dave Alpert has masters degrees in social work, educational administration, and psychology. He spent his career working with troubled inner city adolescents.