When Steve's parents visit him at the detention center, his brother, Jerry, is not permitted to join them, as children are not allowed in the visiting area. This is ironic because Steve is a child himself. At the age of sixteen, he would not be allowed in the visiting area either if he were not an inmate.

The assumption that children are innocent is one which varies according to convenience in the system Myers describes. Osvaldo Cruz, a child of fourteen, initially argues that he was coerced into participating in the robbery and was frightened of the older men. This seems credible until it is revealed that Osvaldo already has a history of violent behavior and has joined a criminal gang, the initiation rituals for which include slashing a stranger in the face with a knife. It soon becomes clear that Osvaldo is anything but innocent, despite his age.

Steve is only two years older than Osvaldo and is far more morally and psychologically innocent, whatever the level of his legal involvement in the robbery. Nonetheless, once he has been accused, Steve is subjected to the same harsh and brutalizing regime as the adult prisoners. This suggests an assumption on the part of those in charge of the system that all the inmates of the detention center are guilty and that they can have no innocence worth protecting, whatever their age.