Letter: An Alternative Perspective on the Gross-Santos Case

By Jane Zill and Joe Onosko

Last June, 17-year-old Portsmouth High School senior, Remi Gross-Santos, in route to a mandatory morning rehearsal for his graduation ceremony, was the driver in an accident that left two pedestrians severely injured.

The night before he had attended a graduation party. His blood alcohol content (BAC) was well below the limit of .08 for adults and below the legal cut-off of .02 for impaired underage drivers. Yet, his BAC was rounded up to .02 and he was charged with intoxicated underage driving. His age was also rounded up, and he was indicted as an adult on two Class B felony counts of second-degree assault and two Class B felony counts of driving while under the influence. These charges could result in a seven-year prison sentence.

Our intent is not to minimize in any way the profound impact of this accident on the victims; it is a horrible, life-altering experience to be seriously injured. However, Remi’s promising young life was also profoundly altered in that fateful moment and the seacoast community is responsible for what happens to him.

Who, like Remi, are involved with the justice system? According to Portsmouth Deputy Chief of Police, Corey MacDonald, “the vast majority are your neighbors who screwed up and made a bad decision.” Officer Timothy Black thinks, “Most of the people I came into contact with throughout my career were good people just having a bad moment.” (Portsmouth Herald, 2/15/2015).

MacDonald and Black’s heartfelt observations are cause for alarm given that Human Rights Watch (2014) reports that the United States has the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world, including China and other totalitarian states.

Surprisingly, New Hampshire led the nation in the sentencing of new inmates as recently as 2012, even though we’re third lowest among the 50 states in violent crimes and fourth lowest in property crimes.

Since 1990, New Hampshire’s prison population has increased 100% even though our state population has increased only 20%, and each new inmate costs taxpayers $98.50 a day and $36,000 annually (Concord Monitor, 9/22/2013). The Rockingham County jail is so full that “bunk beds have been added to former showers and seating areas, and every available space is double-bunked” (Fosters.com, 12/30/2012).

New Hampshire’s national and America’s global “leadership” in punishing fellow citizens is the result of factors that include the drive for profit by the “prison-industrial complex,” a longstanding puritanical, retributive attitude toward human missteps, and more immediate factors such as mandatory sentencing laws, charging adolescents as adults, politicians looking “tough on crime,” and class, race and ethnic discrimination.

We know that young people, like Remi, will confront the following conditions if convicted and sent to prison:

• 45% of New Hampshire inmates suffer from mental illness, of which 7% are pedophiles.
• Young male inmates serving first convictions are at the highest risk of sexual victimization.
• Limited opportunities for higher education and the development of job-related skills, which negatively impact future earnings and restitution to the victims.
• A 50% New Hampshire recidivism rate and, therefore, Remi will live with and “learn” from chronically dysfunctional adults, and in an environment where only 2% of the prison population is 17 to 21 years old.
• U.S. prison inmates suffer from communicable diseases, like AIDs and tuberculosis, at much higher rates, diseases that accompany inmates when released.

No doubt this is why Gov. Maggie Hassan created the Juvenile Justice Commission to ensure that the state implements the best approaches when working with youth, including a move away from incarceration, high recidivism, and high prison costs for state taxpayers.

Does our community really believe that a prison experience is the best way for Remi to right his wrong?

Incredibly, a trial has been scheduled for Remi rather than a process of restorative justice. He and his parents must mount a defense and depend on the advice and actions of their legal counsel. Unfortunately, many media outlets have characterized these defense efforts as evidence that Remi does not empathize with the accident victims.

He has been mercilessly vilified as a bail-skipping, selfish, rich, teenage boy who cares only about his driver’s license, and nothing about the accident victims. He has also been accused of actions that never happened; for example, that he attended his high school graduation on the day of the accident and that he violated his bail conditions by attending college in California last fall. Online comments have sarcastically referred to his foreign sounding, hyphenated last name, suggesting his name alone reveals a character flaw and the need for punishment.

Remi did not skip bail. He does not have rich parents; in fact he’s paying a third of his legal defense and will pay for a significant portion of his college education, whenever that can happen. Until remanded by the court to return to New Hampshire last fall, he was attending a community college in California. He has held a 25-hour per week job since he was 15-years-old, he bought his own car, a 1992 Volvo for $900, he was a 3.2 GPA honor roll student, and he had the self-discipline to learn to play the violin.

In short, Remi Gross-Santos has demonstrated an impressive work ethic and level of responsibility throughout high school, and was on track to contribute positively to society.

What does life hold for him now? A harsh punishment will not assist the accident victims or benefit the community, but will expose this teenager to physical danger and psychological trauma, negatively impacting his development and life trajectory -- and saddle New Hampshire taxpayers with the cost of yet another inmate (approximately $250,000 if Remi gets seven years).

Adolescents are not miniature adults; their brains continue to develop into their late-20s. Compared to adults they have less foresight and impulse control, however, they also have much greater potential for growth and change.

All of us are in danger of having a “bad moment” by happenstance or mistake. The purpose of justice is to help individuals understand the impact of their actions and to make reparation, not to crush and permanently damage them.

Jane Zill and Joe Onosko live in Portsmouth.

Photo courtesy of the New Hampshire Union Leader.