Is Sentencing Juveniles To Life In Prison Essay

The data for this project was collected by administering an anonymous survey to incarcerated juveniles at (name of facility), the (name) receiving center and at the NAACP office in Sacramento, California. The survey asked for gender and parental status (incarcerated versus not incarcerated). Participants were given a paper survey and a pencil to complete the survey. See Appendix for a copy of the survey.

One of the most controversial questions in the juvenile justice system today is, "Should the death penalty be applied to juveniles?”. A lot of people think that the death penalty for juveniles is cruel and unusual punishment and should only be used for adults. The crimes that juveniles commit are as dangerous and as violent as adult crimes. People argue that the adolescent brain does not mature until the late teens or early twenties, and that death penalty should not be the resolution. Some studies show that childhood abuse or neglect can causes the child to commit crimes when they grow to adulthood. Debate about the use of the death penalty for juveniles has grown more intense because of the crimes they are

Should Juveniles be Charged and Sentenced as Adults If you do the crime you should be able to do the time hypothetically speaking. Unfortunately under certain stipulations I do feel that juveniles should indeed be charged and sentenced as adults depending on the magnitude of the crime committed. The main purpose for the Juvenile system is to protect and rehabilitate instead of punishing youth under the age of eighteen. Youth crime was on a rise in the late 1970s and the people thought that the get tough approach would work.

Today, we live in a society faced with many problems, including crime and the fear that it creates. In the modern era, juveniles have become a part of society to be feared, not rehabilitated. The basis of the early juvenile justice system was to rehabilitate and create safe havens for wayward youth. This is not the current philosophy, although the U.S. is one of the few remaining countries to execute juveniles. Presently, our nation is under a presidential administration that strongly advocates the death penalty, including the execution of juveniles. The media and supporters of capital punishment warn of the "superpredator," the juvenile with no fear, remorse, or conscience. Opponents of this view encourage

Not one person, was created to be perfect beings, but children are pure and innocent and their mental and critical thinking skills are not fully developed and strong enough to handle adult prisons. On the other hand, children are most likely to vividly remember delinquent actions they performed whether it was done intentionally in a “heat of the moment” action such as Charlie’s case in Bryan Stevenson’s “Just Mercy” or unintentionally due to peer-pressure or self-protection in most juveniles’ case. Moreover, the justice system is hypocritical to their own children, “Protect the young” but places the young in harm’s way. Children in adult prisons are prone to rape, suicide and assault than in juvenile detention centers according to studies on juvenile suicide in adult institutions and youth facilities in the1980’s. The studies indicated that “the suicide rate of juveniles in adult jails is 7.7 times more likely than of juvenile detention centers. In 1989, five times as many youth held in adult prisons answered yes to the question "has anyone attempted to sexually attack or rape you" than those held in juvenile institutions while about 10% of the youth interviewed reported a sexual attack, or rape attempt.(Zeidenberg).Another factor of why children should not be tried as adults is that youths are easily victimized and beaten up by inmates and most likely staff, they are also for example

Finally, I believe that by being rehabilitated the juvenile will have a better chance at life because eventually they will be back in society.

The novel, Just Mercy, by Bryan Stevenson covers many aspects of the legal system, including Stevenson’s quest to get prisoners who were convicted as adolescents out of adult prison. Through Stevenson’s experiences, he sees first hand experience of children that are sent to adult prisons. Specifically he saw how the prisoners who were convicted as children revert to a very low mental state and often have a great deal of trouble readjusting if they are even remotely capable of doing so. One of these experiences that Bryan Stevenson encountered was with a young fourteen year old named Charlie and the impacts of an adult world in a child’s head. Children should never be pushed into adult prisons or receive adult punishments because of their lack of clear understanding of difficult situations.

Gail Garinger in the article, Juveniles don’t deserve Life Sentences,claims that juveniles should not get a life sentence. Garinger supports her claims by first lists teens and young adults that have done terrible crimes. She then describes homicide as the worst crime,but explains how the Supreme Court won't give juveniles a life sentence for it. Lastly, the author explains how criminologists promoted a superpredator but how it never came to be. Garinger’s purpose is to inform people how kids don't deserve life sentences in order to inform people that they still have so much to live for. The author writes in a formal tone for the readers. This work is significant because it informed me on all the lives that have gotten life sentences.

Childhood is a time in which memories are created, adventures are explored and social awareness begins to develop. The events that occur during childhood are pivotal in the development of a healthy and substantial life. However, what if those experiences were taken from a child? What would the outcome be if a child could not experience what it is like to be young? Juvenile incarceration strips a person of their childhood and essentially takes away the experiences necessary for them to develop into healthy functioning adults. Even though juvenile incarceration is an effective method of punishment for those who have committed heinous crimes, the justice system should not convict children and adolescents as adults because of the child 's circumstances that lead to the crime as well as the disastrous effects it causes on the mental and emotional state of the child.

Supreme Court ruling Graham v. Florida (2010) banned the use of life without parole for juveniles who committed non-homicide crimes, and Roper v. Simmons (2005) abolished the use of the death penalty for juvenile offenders. They both argued that these sentences violated the 8th Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. While these landmark cases made great strides for the rights of minors passing through the criminal justice system, they are just the first steps in creating a juvenile justice system that takes into consideration the vast differences between adolescents and adults. Using sociological (Butler, 2010) and legal (Harvard Law Review, 2010) documents, this essay will explicate why the next such step to be taken is

After reading the book I have gained a new understanding of what inmates think about in prison. Working in an institution, I have a certain cynical attitude at times with inmates and their requests.

Despite their young age, many states continue to try teenagers as adults, often resulting in harsher adult penalties than youth processed in the juvenile system. As teenagers are still in the process of developing into an adulthood and are still learning about what they want to do with their lives, they deserve to be tried as teenagers and not adults. Although the crimes that teenagers commit can be just as bad as those of adults. Juveniles should not be tried as adults because their brains are not fully developed, most have mental disabilities and mental illnesses, the punishment is dangerous and traumatizing for the juvenile, and there is an age restriction that protects them from being tried as an adult.

I agree with this quote because sometimes these adolescents are charged in trials with really tough sentences without anyone even trying to understand the causes that brought them to commit the

A deep look into juveniles in adult prisons. Touch bases on several smaller issues that contribute to juveniles being in and effects of adult prisons. The United States Bureau of Prisons handles two hundred and thirty-nine juveniles and their average age is seventeen. Execution of juveniles, The United States is one of only six countries to execute juveniles. There are sixty-eight juveniles sitting on death row for crimes committed as juveniles. Forty-three of those inmates are minorities. People, who are too young to vote, drink alcohol, or drive are held to the same standard of responsibility as adults. In prisons, they argue that the juveniles become targets of older, more hardened criminals. Brian

Kids should be subjected to the measures of punishment that our judicial system is giving to them. Kids who show lots of enmity should be tried as adults. It is the only way to protect the innocent children. These kids know right from wrong, but they choose to do the wrong things and violence is wrong. As the laws have gotten stricter on discipline the kids have gotten wilder. When we let society tell us how to discipline our children then violent children is the result.