There Are No Children Here: Chapter 31 Summary & Analysis

When LaJoe and Lafeyette return to the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center on Lafeyette’s court date, the young boy’s face reveals his fear. He asks his mother what is going to happen, and LaJoe reassures him, telling him they will let him go. Although Pharoah is worried about his brother, he decides not to come.

When the public defender, Anne Rhodes, calls the five boys and their parents into a room, she comes across as brusque and impersonal. However, her attitude is partially the result of lack of time and resources. Even though she is committed to her job and believes that she is doing something useful, she is often horrified by the lack of effective communication between lawyers, judges, and the accused, which often leads to hasty trials that fail to protect the children’s lives.

In this case, Anne Rhodes believes most of the five boys are innocent. She tries to avoid trial by telling the boys’ parents that each family could pay one hundred dollars to Michael Berger, the man whose car was broken into, and that the children would be placed on supervision, without a finding of guilt. Unable to pay such a sum, the families refuse, and the children are forced to go to trial.

Anne only has five minutes to prepare for the trial and asks to meet with the five boys alone. She quickly hears their stories, determines who is most articulate, and easily notes that they are not all friends and, therefore, cannot have organized to break into a truck together. Anne becomes convinced of the innocence of most of these boys and believes they have a good chance of being acquitted because the judge is known for her compassion and fairness.

Anne Rhodes, the children, and their parents then walk into the courtroom. LaJoe tells her son who, like the other children, is nervous, to stand up straight. The trial lasts barely twenty minutes. Michael Berger describes what was taken from his truck and identifies one of the boys as the one who had offered to guard his car. Andrea Muchin, the state’s attorney, questions him but feels nervous, since this is her first trial.

Two police officers then testify and, while they do not provide details that seem sufficient to incriminate this entire group of boys, the boys’ alibis also seems unconvincing, because they seem unable to recall precise details of what they were doing that particular night, four months ago. Even though Anne tries to identify contradictions in the police’s testimony, showing that there does not seem to be sufficient evidence to incriminate all the boys, the judge ultimately decides to declare the five boys guilty, giving a moralizing lecture about the danger of such boys who break into parked cars.

Both Anne Rhodes and Andrea Muchin are surprised by this decision and grow convinced that the legal system is not adequately protecting these vulnerable children’s lives, even though they so desperately need to feel listened to and to benefit from a fair trial. Lafeyette, though, is relieved to realize that he will be able to go home. At the same time, he is angry that the boy whom he knows is guilty did not confess his crime and that Lafeyette is condemned for a crime he never committed.

Back at the apartment, when Pharoah comes home from school, he is excited to see that Lafeyette has not been detained. LaJoe later hears the two of them argue over a T-shirt, and feels happy to know that at least she still has her two boys.