Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey, who's grappling with an increase in youth crime, and Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, who's pushing an expansive juvenile detention center, should talk to Antonio Howard. In truth, most adults could benefit from his insights on young people in trouble, and the myriad of mistakes grown folks make with them.
Howard, an artist, writer, teacher and activist from Erie, is not a kid. He's 47. But in 1992, he received a mandatory life sentence for a crime he committed when he was 15.
He and two other teenagers robbed a cabdriver. One of the three — not Howard — fatally shot the driver. As a participant in the crime, Howard was convicted of murder under Pennsylvania's conspiracy statute.
