Oakland County Circuit Judge Lisa Gorcyca sent three children to a juvenile detention facility after they refused to make an effort to have a lunch with their father. “You’re very defiant. You have no manners. You need to do a research program on Charlie Manson and the cult that he has . . . . You are so mentally messed up right now and it’s not because of your father. And one day you are going to realize what’s going on in this case and you’re going to apologize to your dad.” The children – ages 9, 10, 15 – were then taken into custody and hauled off to Children’s Village, a detention and treatment facility in Pontiac for youth. According to court records, the three were greatly influenced by their mother. All three children have previously been involved in therapy and counseling sessions to address family concerns, which included refusing to speak to or even look at their father, or touch food he had touched with his hands. “I felt like I was watching them be executed,” Maya Eibschitz-Tsimhoni, the mother of the children, ages 15, 10, and 9, told Fox 2 “No matter how bad the divorce gets, I think the court should not punish the kids for that.” An emergency hearing concerning the children’s near future has been set for July 15. In light of this recent news story, we thought it timely to highlight one of our TEDxJacksonville talks that speaks directly to the arbitrary incarceration of minors: Hank Coxe’s When Will Your Children Be Eligible for Parole? “I want you to think back to one or two of those horrible experiences you can not get out of your mind today, where you did something so stupid, so idiotic, or so embarrassing, where somebody may have been hurt. Or could have been hurt, in your teenage years.” Hank Coxe asks, where is the morality behind incarcerating children? Hank Coxe received his undergraduate degree from The University of the South (Sewanee) and law degree from Washington & Lee University. At the State Attorney’s Office, he served as director of all felony divisions, the special prosecution division (complex crimes), and then managed his own law firm. He joined the Bedell Firm in 1996. Considered one of the most esteemed lawyers in the State of Florida and a former special prosecutor for the Florida State Attorney’s office, Hank served on the Florida Judicial Qualifications Commission and the Florida Supreme Court Innocence Commission. He is widely recognized for his pro bono work, fundraising for legal aid and improving the administration of justice. Coxe is committed to changing the way our youth are being imprisoned today, a way he considers fundamentally contrary to a truly civilized society. Tweetable: “Why do most 16-year-olds drive like they are missing a part of their brain? Because they are.” @TEDxJAX