The Importance Of Juvenile Offenders In Prisons

In my personal opinion, I believe that any child under the age of eighteen should not be able to be sentenced to life without parole. Nearly eighty percent of juvenile lifers reported witnessing violence in their homes; more than half fifty-four percent witnessed weekly violence in their neighborhoods, and twenty percent of all youth lifers said they have been sexually abused. Children under eighteen should not be able to get charged because they are too young, the frontal lobe is undeveloped at that age, and a mistake made at that age should not affect the rest of your life when they have only lived a little portion of it so far.

Juveniles need to be held accountable for their crimes, however, they should not be sent to life in prison. With an increasingly growing amount minors being trialed as adults for heinous crimes, people would ask “why would they commit it?” The answer lies within each juvenile's background, mental health, age, immaturity, and morality. Therefore, it is my belief that juveniles should not be trialed as an adult. Juveniles such as Manny, Shawn, Marquese, and José interviewed in PBS’ “Frontline” were involved in gangs, familial neglect and abuse, or drugging.

When dealing with a topic as controversial as is, we must take into consideration all aspects since there is a human life a risk. A life many may consider to not have even started yet. For a child to get sentenced to life in jail makes absolutely no sense. I agree with the Supreme Court justices who are for the eradication of mandatory life sentences to prison for juveniles because teens are still developing and changing everyday. We should take into account this proven biological fact as well as the environment of which they are exposed to every day.

Gail Garinger, a juvenile court judge, in her article “Juveniles Don’t Deserve Life Sentences” defends young offenders by saying that because they’re not fully developed or matured, they shouldn’t be treated the same way as adults and should be given a second chance. “Nationwide, 79 young adolescents have been sentenced to die in prison … These children were told that they could never change and that no one cared for what became of them. They were denied access to education and rehabilitation programs and left without help or hope” (Garinger 3).

Since they are minors they should be in juvenile prisons not in adult prisons, because they do not get the help they need. For example, Mrs. Jones decided not to take Roger to the authorities for trying to steal her purse instead she teaches him right from wrong. Mrs. Jones taught Roger to do the right thing because she recognizes that Roger is just a young boy, and that he is still learning his right from wrongs. If Mrs. Jones took Roger to jail, there would be no one to teach him right from wrong, if Mrs. Jones took Roger to jail he would have never gotten a second chance to do something right. In addition, the article “Teens and decision making: what brain science reveals” states that the brain of a minor do not fully

The United States stands alone as the only nation that sentences juveniles to life without parole for the crimes they’ve committed. Some of these crimes include shootings, murder, and bomb threats but what causes these children to commit such heinous crimes. Although we have juvenile facilities, charged juveniles who commit these crimes are placed in adult prisons. In agreement with the majority of Supreme Court justices, we should abolish mandatory life in prison for juveniles who commit crimes due to the fact that these juveniles have brain development that is vastly different from an average adult, that their backgrounds should be accounted for when charging them, and that it’s morally wrong to put them in adult prisons.

Many times in the news we hear about adolescents facing charges that can forever dictate their lives. There have been cases where children have been faced with the chance of life of prison without the chance of parole. This topic has been a discussion that has been more popular and popular with the more cases that appear. This is now a major issue in our modern society with younger adolescents becoming more exposed to violence. We now have to take teenage crimes and their punishments into consideration as we all know there will be many more cases in the future so it is only reasonable to come up with a solution on how to deal with these juveniles. I for one believe that juveniles should not be sentenced to life without parole.

Sending children to juvenile for life may seem harsh but i think it’s a good idea. I say this because depending on they what they did they deserve it. Like if a child over the age 13 kills someone they should go to jail for life, because they took someone’s life. I feel if kids think they can do adult things when they get in trouble they should be treated as adults. If they were doing normal kid stuff they wouldn’t be in situations that could send them to life anyway.

It is my opinion that youthful offenders should not be sentenced to life without parole (LWOP) because according the APA the adolescent brain is not fully developed making them less culpable for their crimes; as their brains are still developing into late adolescence this poses two potential ways to differentiate them from their adult counterparts (a) it is difficult to predict recidivism as their brains are growing and changing, this makes “recidivism the exception not the rule” and (b) as their brains do develop they may be more amenable to treatment. Finally, while research is limited, there are some notable findings within case law in regards to how the traditional considerations for sentencing (deterrence, retribution, incarceration,

In the justice system today there are many problems such as juveniles facing jail time as adults. Crime and the fear that it creates is a rising epidemic that is not slowly decreasing in any way. Young Kids, Hard time is a documentary about a correctional facility in Southwestern Indiana that holds 2100 prisoners behind bars for everything from rape to murder. This correctional facility is called home for 53 juveniles sentenced as adults. The documentary Young Kids, Hard Time demonstrates that these children are living in a cell block for the rest of their lives and have absolutely nothing to show for. Although I believe that children shall be punished for the crimes they commit they shall be punished but in the state of Indiana I believe that their sanctioning has gone too far. Outside of razor wires and dirt on the ground we humans treat children with respect, integrity, and value. Except if they make one mistake, it is time to show the children what they deserve. From watching this documentary it became very eye opening that a child as young as seven years old could live the rest of their live behind bars. The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the entire world. This country is also the only country that sentences juveniles life without parole.

A juvenile should not be sentenced to prison with adults that are in there for murder and life. Paralleled with the previous articles New York and North Carolina soon might not prosecute teens as adults by Anna Gronewold it declares, “Criminal responsibility to 18, with supporters saying the measures could save millions of dollars by providing rehabilitative services that young people need to keep from reoffending.” Also states, “The brains of 16- or 17-year-olds are not fully developed, and the adult criminal system does not include parental or community involvement for mental health, public education and social services that younger offenders need to create a life outside of the criminal system.” (Gronewold p.6). Instead of sending juveniles to prison judges can send them to programs that help keep them from reoffending and ending up in the same

Many young adolescents who have committed horrendous crimes have been a huge topic amongst the Supreme Court. Whether young adolescents are viewed as innocent, naive children to the public, this not changed the fact they can commit brutal crimes. In spite of the fact that adolescents have committed brutal crimes such as murder, one needs to understand that their brains are not as fully developed as an adult brain would be. Adolescents should not be trialed to a life sentence or attend adult prisons; however, they should be punished for their actions and undergo rehabilitation programs to help them be prepared to fit in with the rest of society.

Which brings me to my next point. Another reason why juveniles should not be sentenced to life in prison is because of the area they are brought up in. Meaning that if they grew up in an area where it was socially acceptable to do certain things that would not be deemed as acceptable in a courtroom, they are not to blame for they are simply doing what they know. In addition to that, Society can take

I believe that juvenile offenders should be convicted on a case by case situation, not being judged on a rigid scale that can’t be altered. On one hand juveniles shouldn’t always be convicted as adults. On the other hand, they shouldn’t always be sheltered from that possibility.

I do not think it is a good idea to lock juveniles up in prisons with adults. For a child to set down and plan a murder for instance, there would have to be some kind of deep emotional problem. On the other side of this, if the child knows right from wrong and he can sit down and plan a murder, then you could say if he is old enough to kill someone then he is old enough to die. The juvenile criminal is rooted much deeper than right from wrong. It starts back from when they are small children. Most of them are usually outsiders or outcasts. Who can you hold fault for that other than society? If juveniles don't fit in with the popular kids in school they are considered an