Article Summary: 'Keeping Kids Safe in Custody' by Judy Finlay

With the escalation of murders and rapes committed by minors as seen in recent years the people are looking for the right answer. Public concern over the effectiveness of the juvenile courts when dealing with these offenders has brought about change in the justice system. (Stolba, 2001). The courts now, are quicker to transfer a juveniles’ case to adult court than when the juvenile system was first formed. There stands a conflict of interests within the two court systems. Juvenile courts are to protect the rights of youths determined incapable of adult decisions. The primary concern is that the youth be rehabilitated and not become a repeat offender. Thus, protecting the child from incarceration with adult criminals and any possible future victims. The concerns of the adult court is to make sure the convicted offender pays for their crime and that the victim gets justice. Rehabilitation is not a primary concer of the adult justice system.

The criminal justice system approaches young offenders through unique policies to address the challenges of dealing with juvenile offending. They take special care when dealing with juveniles in order to stop them from repeat offending and stop any potential bad behaviour which could result in future. Juveniles have the highest tendency to rehabilitate and most adopt law-abiding lifestyles as they mature. There are several factors influencing juvenile crime including psychological and social pressures unique to juveniles, which may lead to an increase in juvenile’s risks of contact with the criminal justice system.

The Youth Criminal Justice Act is the law that helps govern youth offenders in Canada, which has been created to introduce a overall fair and equitable method to deal with youth criminal offenders but could use further improvements. This act applies to youth between the ages of 12 and 17 and who have taken an offensive action against the law. Over the century there have been 3 youth justice statutes; the Juvenile Delinquents Act (1908-1984), the Young Offenders Act (YOA) (1984-2003), and the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) (2003-present). Significant changes were made to the act to make it much more fair and straight to the point. Changes such as the useage of courts in non-serious cases, fairness in sentencing, and lack of effective interrogation.

This book’s main proposal is that there is a blatant contradiction in the way that the juvenile justice system is carried out. Throughout the book, Feld proposes that as a result of this contradiction, the modern juvenile justice system fails in every way possible to establish justice for youthful offenders, provide them with any rehabilitation, or provides any preventative measures that were originally the purpose of the system. What originally constituted the juvenile justice system no longer is supported through its processes, but the ideas that helped form the original system are still somewhat maintained. The idea of childhood during the progressive era, in short, say that there is a definite distinction between kids and adults, and that kids deserved special treatment when it came to dealing with offenses. Kids did not deserve as much blame as adults do because they are not yet totally in control of their actions, and thus to preserve and protect troubled children’s futures, kids

The YCJA was created with two main goals in mind the first being “For the relatively small number of youth found guilty of the most serious violent offences, the Act facilitates the process for imposing a more severe, adult sentence. [The second is] for the vast majority of young offenders who commit less serious offences, the YCJA is intended to reduce Canada's reliance on the use of courts

Referring to aspects from Goldson and Muncie’s (2006) article on “a youth justice with integrity” (pp. 99-102), the essay will argue that section 38 of the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) should incorporate a risk-needs responsivity model (RNR) to the sentencing structure. Moreover, this addition should replace the 2012 amendments of section 38, which incorporated deterrence and denunciation into sentencing practices (s. 38(2)(f)). This amendment has the potential to increase recidivism rates, as it does not properly address the special needs that some youth’s may have. In relation, section 38 exemplifies the proportionality of the punishment (s. 38(2)(c)), which could be potentially affected

What is the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA)? The YCJA was created in 2003 in Canada’s Parliament by the Liberal Party of Canada and has been effective since April 1, 2003. This system is separate from the Criminal Code of Canada, and was created to treat young offenders differently compared to adult offenders since younger people think and act differently compared to adults. This act deals with youth aged 12 to 17 who have gotten into trouble with the law. It allows for youth aged 14 to 17 to receive adult sentences, if necessary. Youth receive no permanent criminal record, unless it is an adult sentence or if they are on the run. Under the YCJA, the media cannot release any details about the young offender. The YCJA is an effective law because it helps to protect the

The results showed prevalence of substance abuse disorder at young adulthood in approximately 1/3 of males. Participants with severe incarceration history were shown likely to have Mood Disorders. Approximately ¼ of females had psychiatric disorders and 11% of females had Anxiety Disorder when studied at the baseline interview. Hence, Harrison’s study proved that psychiatric disorders exist within juveniles and the experience of incarceration influences mental disorders in youth. The youth may start experiencing suicidal ideation or may not receive substantial health or psychological care during the incarceration period. In short, experience during incarceration creates isolation from community and peers, lack of familial support, constant negative environment, and juveniles associate with other criminals on a daily basis. Mental disorders are perpetual in nature and result in difficulty for juveniles to adjust after a period of incarceration, have difficulty finding employment or access to educational

However, the juvenile justice system must maintain vigilance in order to combat the growing trend of violent young offenders. It is the job of the criminal justice system to bestow justice upon those who have committed a crime. It is agreed that juveniles who commit violent crimes are often too young to understand completely the ramifications of their actions. Yet, it would not be fair to the victim or the victim’s family to allow the juvenile offender the opportunity to receive a lesser sentence than the crime usually carries. Young people who commit violent crimes should be sentenced as adults because a crime is a crime, they should be more responsible for their own actions, and it would prevent them from committing future

Factors that increased the risk of incarceration, if not addressed while in prison, may well impact the rate of future incarceration? Focusing prison resources on known factors for incarceration as well as providing programs that improve or help bring an offender into the parameters of societal norms, should at the very minimum indicate that a primary responsibility of incarceration is to release offenders who are more able to function within society. This paper would address the conditions that correlate with risk of incarceration and recidivism. Counter strategies may minimize recidivism thereby significantly reducing prison

The study of juveniles is very important because children and adolescents are supposed to be the future of our world. Not only that, but we, the citizens of the United States, should pay more attention to the juveniles and create a new set of laws that would prevent juveniles from committing any source of crimes. If we do something about it before any further problems get involved, we can reduce the crimes of our communities by starting working with our juveniles. This involves some rehabilitation and some specific programs that can help our juveniles not to get in problems.

risk profiles, the capacity of prison staffs, and rehabilitation programs, including those focused on juvenile offenders and their prison conditions;

In South Africa, there are two avenues for residential youth confinement: child and youth care centers or prisons. The former provides support services for youth with varying needs such as children with substance abuse problems, children living in overcrowded homes and so on. This is as a temporary measure and is only advocated as a measure of last resort. In prisons, a child under the age of 14 is ineligible to serve a prison sentence and can only serve the minimum amount of time as deemed necessary by the judge; this is in stark contrast to the United States juvenile system where there is variation in the age limits, which depends on the state lines. North Carolina’s minimum age is at 6-years; others use the age of seven with a majority using the age of seventeen. Juvenile supervision can be further extended its jurisdiction for individuals who were tried under a juvenile system well into their twenties.

Evidence has continued to show that the potential for recidivism remains high (Jones, 2006), as around 50% of those juveniles who are incarcerated reoffend within one year of being released (House, 2010). Worse yet are those who are housed with adult offenders, as socialization in jails and prisons is believed to increase criminal knowledge and behavior, not prevent it (JRank Articles, 2015). Loeber and Farrington report that those arrested prior to the age of 14 are more than twice as likely to become repeat offenders as adults compared to juveniles who are arrested after the age of 14 (Zhang et al, 2011). And finally, with respect to both social and educational characteristics, youthful offenders were more likely to recidivate if they came from a single parent home without a father or were of special education status (Zhang et al, 2011).

In the text, “Prison is Too Violent for Young Offenders”, written by Gary Scott, provides a discussion that the youth offenders doesn’t need to be incarnated to be rehabilitated. Prison yields negative environment that influences the youth offenders. The juveniles are more susceptible to influences, by the cause of, they’re undergoing developmental stage. Scott explains that the penitentiary develop the survival instinct of the youth to use weapon. If changing the behavior of the young offender is the goal, then incarceration is not the answer. Thus, in order to rehabilitate the juvenile, we should provide the youth an environment, letting them have educational insight about their behavior. With the stand, I agreed that providing youth home