Criminal Defense for Preschoolers

Before I was a mother, I speculated at what age I would tell my child about what I do for a living. I figured the topic would come up around 10 or 11 years old. Turns out, I was way off.

At a mere two years old, my son already knew what a jail was -- thanks to Ricky Ricotta and his Mighty Robot. Ricky and his Robot are a mouse and robot team that fight planetary bad boys like: the Jurassic Jackrabbits from Jupiter, the Mecha Monkeys from Mercury and the Uranium Unicorns from Uranus. By the end of each book, they "save the day" by putting the evil leader into the Squeakyville City Jail.

Ricky and his Mighty Robot don't let the evil leader consult an attorney, nor do they give him a trial before throwing him in jail. But from a defense point of view, what I like about these books is this: Ricky and his Mighty Robot don't just automatically throw the evil leader's subordinates in jail. Each book points out that these followers were simply under the (remote) control of the evil leader and therefore are not "evil" themselves (perhaps this goes to intent) and thus don't deserve jailtime. Instead, Ricky and his Mighty Robot keep them as house pets (kind of like alternative sentencing), or send them back to their planet to live happily ever after (introducing the concept of deportation I suppose). In short, Ricky and his Mighty Robot teach toddlers a sense of justice, and mercy. These books might just make more little people open to the idea that people accused of crimes sometimes have a valid defense.

My son is a book-obsessed preschooler. Which means that each week we go to the library and get a dozen new books. I have looked for books designed to teach pre-K's about the concept of criminal defense. But it's just not as popular a subject as dinosaurs or princesses. I did find one book on a young public defender, geared towards 5th to 9th graders. Since there's lots of pictures, my son might like it. It's called Public Defender: Lawyer for the People. It's a black and white picture book from 1991. Amazon describes the book as an "upbeat and appealing" portrayal of a public defender. At $1.50 a copy, it's a total bargain. And speaking of bargains, Indefensible is only 15 bucks on amazon right now. Sadly, our local library has neither book.

For those of you who don't know:

Janice Fukai (the subject of the children's book) is currently THE Alternate Public Defender of Los Angeles County.

Indefensible is authored by another laywer for the people (from the opposite coast), David Feige.