Kyron vs. Kyeron

• The Skanner
• Kyeron Fair

Today, the front page of the Oregonian (and pretty much every news agency in town) was full of details about the Kyron Horman search force disbanding after a media-frenzied year spent searching for the kid who went missing from SW Portland.

But across town, major news broke in the case of a Portlander named Kyeron, whose name will likely never make national headlines because he is 17, black, from North Portland, and accused of a crime. Kyeron Fair was arrested last September for allegedly stealing pot from a medical marijuana user, a Measure 11 crime. As mentioned in an article I wrote last week about juveniles in adult jails, while he was shuffled between adult and juvenile jails awaiting arraignment, Fair suffered mysterious internal injuries that seem to indicate he was hit with a blunt object, suffered a nervous breakdown, Tasered twice, and wound up comatose on anti-psychotic pills while shackled to a bed at OHSU with a spreading infection caused by a catheter staff left in too long.

The Skanner got a copy of the entire 1,150-page Oregon State Internal Excessive Force Investigation into what happened to Fair. His case, tragically, shows many of the problems with housing juveniles in adult jails—their mental health issues can spiral out of control, they don’t get the counseling they would in a juvenile facility, and they are at risk for beatings. According to the report, jail staff believed Fair was “faking” his mental crisis, even when more than one counselor told them otherwise.

While Fair awaits a settlement hearing for the criminal charges against him today, his family is considering suing the Multnomah County Detention Center. In the meantime, give this story the attention it deserves: Go read the whole thing.