Offender Substance Abuse Essay

There are times juveniles should not be convicted as adults because sometimes the “crimes” may not harsh enough to be charged as an adult. For example, if a 8 year old saw a gun in their mother's purse and thought it was a toy and grabbed it and began to shoot who would be at fault ? Plus children in adult prisons are 10 times more likely to be taken advantage of in their time. Research shows that children prosecuted in the adult criminal justice system are more likely to reoffend than those held in the juvenile justice

The Residential Substance Abuse Treatment for State Prisoners (RSAT) program was established in 1996 by Congress under the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. The Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) assumed the responsibilities for the RSAT Formula Grant Program in October 2002. The RSAT program was created to help states and units of local governments develop, implement, and improve residential substance abuse treatment programs in state and local correctional facilities. The program also helps create and maintain community based aftercare services for parolees and probationers. With 80 percent of all inmates having reported substance abuse problems I feel substance abuse is one of the main components that’s landed these

The adult court system does not have the resources to work with and rehabilitate youth (Seep, 2015). According to recent studies, teens sent through the adult court system are 5 times more likely to commit another crime after leaving jail compared to a teen sent through the juvenile court system (Brown, 2015). This is because the juvenile court system has resources to help teens learn from their mistakes and not make them again. As a society, we should want our teens to become educated and help make our society better. While the goal of the adult court system is to deter the convicted prisoner from committing another crime, the juvenile court system’s goal is to rehabilitate the youth and help them successfully integrate back into society (Seep,

When it comes to discussing the criminal justice system and juveniles, there have been many landmark cases that have made a significant impact on the juvenile justice system. The cases arise from dealing with certain aspects that comes from handling juveniles entering the system. Since juveniles are very different from adults they have to deal with them a certain way and a case by case basis. The court cases concerning juveniles and the decisions that have come from them is what has made what the juvenile justice system is today. Juveniles are not treated the same as adults since juveniles are not ad developed as adults common sense wise. They don’t always know what is right from wrong and sometimes they do not have guidance or good influences around them helping them in the right direction. In class we have learned that instead of punishing them, the goal of the juvenile justice system is based on rehabilitation. For instance, juveniles cannot be sentenced to death if under the age of 18 and also can not be given the sentences of life without parole because they consider these punishments cruel and unusual for juveniles. If the system is able to rehabilitate them and give them the tools they need, they have a second chance at changing their lives for the better and getting away from all of the crimes. They rather try to send them to programs or to complete community service to better themselves instead of giving them hard time. The court cases that I will discuss is what

more likely to successfully transform their behaviors due to rehabilitation. Second, due to the distinction that juvenile crime is often a result of “unfortunate yet transient immaturity,” a youth offender is deemed to be more likely to reject future involvement in criminal behavior as the youth transitions into adulthood. The realistic possibility that many, if not most youths will grow out of their involvement in illegal activity, points to the reality that long criminal sentences cannot be justified by the need to ensure public safety. In essence, long term incarceration of youth does not often achieve the preventative purposes of criminal justice. In Graham and Miller, SCOTUS emphatically determined that life without the opportunity for parole does not offer youth offenders a semblance of opportunity for reform. In most juveniles, the Court emphasizes, reform will be achieved through rehabilitative efforts coupled with maturity.

A surprisingly large majority of young offenders outgrow crime. According to Gail Garinger, a Massachusetts juvenile court judge, “it is impossible at the time of sentencing for mental health professionals to predict which youngsters will fall within that majority and grow up to be productive, law-abiding citizens and which fall into the small minority that continue to commit crimes” (94). Everyone is bound to make poor decisions in their lives. More than the other there are just good people making bad choices. Children should be given the opportunity to demonstrate that they can mature and rehabilitate. They deserve a chance to prove that they can become different people. The best time to decide if someone is deserving of spending most to all of their life in prison is not when they are a child. If placed in juvenile correction systems, teens can be given the support and needed help to change their ways and prove that they will not always be the immature criminal they once

There is a direct relationship between juveniles that are convicted and held in adult prisons and the depression it inflicts, creating a poisonous cycle of crime that they will be unable to escape from. After an increase of murders committed by juveniles during the early 1980s and throughout the 1990s, a quick adjustment was made by the supreme court and state courts to increase the abilities of the law to condemn violent juveniles with bleak futures into adult prisons to protect the children who had more optimistic chances. While the protection of the less violent children is important, however, there has been a great many studies that prove it is not the wisest way of seeing the situation at large. Juveniles in prisons designed for their age groups create a sense of value to them as human beings, are generally safer, and are more focused on rehabilitation into society as young adults. Sentencing a juvenile to an adult prison leads to feelings of worthlessness, depression, alienation and a fearful environment where they are unsafe and more likely to be encouraged to further their crime abilities to survive in an adult world.

The necessity for development of a separate court system designed for punishing juvenile offenders came about with the idea that juveniles are “less culpable” than adult offenders, and therefore more adaptable to rehabilitation from their delinquent misbehavior. Building on this idea, juvenile court was established to offer intervention, rehabilitation, and protective supervision for young offenders, unlike the general idea of criminal courts aimed at punishing, incapacitating, and generating retribution. (Bishop & Frazier, 1991)

The criminal justice system has been going through a trial consisting of whether juveniles should be tried as an adult or not. According to a new analysis from the Pew Charitable Trust, the rate of juveniles committed to prison or other, correctional facilities in the United States has decreased 53 percent in the last 12 years. Garinger stated in his article, Juveniles Don’t Deserve Life Sentences, that nearly seventy-nine adolescents  nationwide have been sentenced to die in prison because, they were sentenced to life in prison without parole. Many factors can be a leading cause to this heinous behavior such as, underdeveloped brain, and growing up in a abusive environment. A young kid that commits a heinous crime can change if he or she were given the opportunity go through counseling or a rehabilitation program.

The juvenile justice system is totally different from the adult system in United States of America. We often times find ourselves-forgiving our younger teens for the crimes that they commit but locking our adults up for the same crimes. In many cases some teens need the act of rehabilitation while others with more severe crimes need to be tried as adults. The juvenile system needs to find a way to better evaluate the younger generation serious or violent crimes. We need to figure out way these children commit that criminal acts they do.

When sentenced to prison it is due to a law that was severely broken. The judge does have remorse for convicted felon, they won’t to rehabilitate the inmate, not break down by any means. While incarcerated or in the community offenders and juveniles participate in the programs that I provided earlier. Encouraging education has its benefits inside and out. Research has shown that programs like getting their GED, basic education and working within the prison are very effective in reducing the prevalence of committing a crime again and increasing future employment. There are many components of correctional treatment and education programs is a very important source of treatment. On a different page, research has shown that work and life

This shift has caused more focus on an individual as a criminal rather than the innocence of a child. It also caused movement away from rehabilitation, which was meant as a way to prevent future criminality. More emphasis has been placed on strict social control and incarceration (Hickey, 2010). In a sense reforming back to the original objectives of juvenile courts is seen as one of the better methods to try and achieve. As of now the juvenile court system is suffering from a boomerang effect in which the same juveniles are continuously reoffending. The point of rehabilitating juveniles when they are in adolescence is to try to prevent adult criminal behavior. Juvenile courts have failed to substantially make an impact on juvenile delinquency as they are now and reforms may not be enough to make a significant impact. Ultimately, a bigger change may be required.

Minors deserve a second chance. Thus, youth who commit crimes should be held to account, but in a way that reflects their capacity for rehabilitation. Juveniles are not adults, for they can be rehabilitated. It would be mistaken to associate the failings of a minor with those of an adult, for a greater possibility exists that a minor’s character deficiencies will be reformed.

The rights and responsibilities of juveniles and there parents continue to evolve as time moves into the 21st century, however, it is still unknown why and how the criminal mind truly works across the board. With progress and legal assistance the ‘system’ may have fewer juvenile clients, and less repeat offenders.

Addiction is a debilitating disease. That is why many people who go through rehab will start using the addictive substance again within a few weeks of their treatment. Fortunately, there are many ways people can live a drug-free life after going through drug rehab. Below is a list of tips that will help: