teenager sentenced for thoughts

This is America?

This is justice?

This is news reporting?

A young Colorado woman has been sentenced to four years in jail after she pleaded guilty to trying to help the militant group Islamic State (IS).
Shannon Conley, a 19-year-old Muslim convert, was arrested in April while trying to board a flight to Turkey en route to Syria to marry an IS fighter.

The only evidence adduced in the BBC news story is that the young woman took notes on the layout of her local church and had a one-way ticket to Turkey.

The judge, when buttressing the severity of the sentence, did have the self-serving decency to suggest that the young woman needed mental help. Did he feel uncertain? I certainly hope so. Anyway, it seems she didn't get the help.

Over the course of eight months, FBI agents repeatedly tried to discourage her from travelling abroad, suggesting she explore humanitarian work instead.

What ever happened to the adult recognition that teenagers are wont to stick beans up their noses when told that they shouldn't ... and hence that the FBI might rightly be investigated for encouraging rather than discouraging the mindset they claimed to want to ameliorate?

What ever happened to the stupidity of hormones ... the same stuff any reliable adult may be lucky enough to have left in the rear-view mirror?

What ever happened to certifiable acts of violence as distinct from perhaps-sincere-but-possibly-unpalatable intentions?

And what ever happened to a dig-and-delve reporting that brought some sanity to the punishment as proportionate to the crime?

At the risk of sounding unduly righteous ... it is shameful!