ID: 7-year-old in detention

Speaking of injustice - where do I start? From the Idaho State Journal:

Woman says judge was too harsh on young son

A former American Falls woman says a Power County judge acted rashly when he ordered her 7-year-old son to be locked up for throwing a tantrum at class. Renee Alvarez, 25, said School Resource Officer Fred Harms... instructed her to (come to) Hillcrest Elementary School because he was transporting... Fabian, 7, to the Bannock County Juvenile Detention Center in Pocatello. “When I got there he was just crying,” Alvarez said. “He said ‘Mom I want to go home...'”

Alvarez said she arrived at Hillcrest 30 minutes before Fabian was taken away and asked to take him home, but was told it was too late - Power County Magistrate Judge Mark Bebee had already issued the detention order. Harms said if Fabian didn't walk to his truck willingly, he would put the 48-pound second- grader in handcuffs...

Fabian Alvarez was transported and booked into the detention center, given an oversized jail uniform and kept isolated away from the older inmates for three nights and four days...

Pocatello attorney Mark Echohawk represented Fabian Alvarez... Echohawk asked Power County Prosecutor Paul Laggis to dismiss the case in the interest of justice and argued that the 7-year-old child didn't have the mental capacity... “That's too young for anyone to stand trial, to help in their own defense and to understand the proceedings against them,” Echohawk said. “And a court appointed expert agreed.” But Laggis refused to drop the charges and a trial date was set.

During the trial, Judge Beebe determined that a psychological evaluation indicated Fabian Alvarez was incompetent to stand trial and did not act with malicious intent, but authorities then launched a child protection case aimed at Renee Alvarez.

Echohawk said Fabian Alvarez, who was transported to jail without a detention hearing, should have been released to his mother. “Fabian was made to feel like a criminal. The fact that we can use nice names like detention to take the edge off, that doesn't change the reality for him.”

Go get 'em, Brother EchoHawk! (and "hi" to your dad)