I just read the article you wrote for The Dagger about my son. You want to know what is really a pisser? Everything that they are doing to him in the Y.A. was considered child abuse if we tried doing it at home. (Locking him in his room for 20 hours a day; screaming orders; allowing him access to known gang members.)

It is very frustrating being a parent of a child going through this system. All of your rights as a parent have been terminated and you now go through "the system" with the label as a bad parent. The courts provided council for YA 7827905 that in the end we (those bad parents) ended up paying for. Yeah we pay for his council, but according to the law, we are entitled to no information.

Juvenile Hall is a real money maker for the County. I believe they charged us $25 a day for his four-month stay. We have other children in our home and I guarantee you that there is no way we spend that kind of money daily on them!

Hey, by the way, if I'm such an "ogre," why didn't they take my other kids out of our home?

Sorry, Pete ... I just needed to vent! YA 7827905 wrote me a letter the other day and he went before the parole board and was given another 30 days in Whittier (the Boot Camp). His problem now is where to go when he gets paroled again. A lesson that he is learning for sure this time is not to burn all of your bridges. So far no one wants responsibility.

Anyway, I'm going to send him and his parole agent a copy of your story. Thanks for listening.

--YA 7827905's mother