The Juvenile Court System

Placing a juvenile in a detention center early in the court process increases the risk that youths will be found to be delinquent and damage their prospects for future success. A majority of the youths that are placed in these facilities pose little or no threat to the public and essentially do not need to be there. This portion of the juvenile court process is detrimental to the future and mental aspects of a youth’s life. We desperately need to change the way that we handle the juvenile court system because we are only reinforcing the delinquent behavior that these youths have been exposed to. We need to focus on the rehabilitation and prevention efforts for these youths not the punishment aspect and until then (insert a better ending).

When a juvenile commits a crime, many suggest that they are placed in a detention center for the crime committed. Placing juvenile offenders on probation has proved to be a more disciplined procedure rather than placing him or her in an institution. People’s view of juvenile offenders’ placement on probation feel that it does not deter crime. Placing juvenile offenders on probation rather than sending them to a juvenile detention center is a more effective way of working with juveniles and preventing future crimes. Juveniles placed in a detention center with adults are at risk to commit other offenses. Juvenile probation officers provide counseling services, may assign the juvenile offender community service hours, make sure that the probationer has no contact with the victim, and maintain close contact with their probationers to make sure that they are staying out of trouble. Placing juveniles on probation reduces the rates of juvenile delinquents committing future crimes. While juveniles are on probation their officer will monitor the probationer closely making sure that he or she abides by the contract made between both. If violated, there will be consequences to follow. Placing juveniles on probation not only allows the juvenile to remain within their community, but also when completing community service hours within their community they are learning to become responsible for their crime and are working to pay off their debt.

This paper is an attempt to understand and point out the flaws in the legal system that has of late in many cases begun to treat juveniles in the same footing as adult offenders. There is a raging controversy over this move that makes young offenders to be tried and incarcerated just as if the crime was done by an adult. The arguments over this have been made in the Supreme Court and the land mark judgement Roper Vs Simmons (1995). However it is submitted that simple observations of the post procedure effects on young persons have not been verified or recorded properly. If this system continues, would it not be against the logic of creating the juvenile justice system

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

Through the court systems in the United States there is a major distribution of probation between the juvenile court system and the adult court system. More than 70,000 juveniles were incarcerated in youth prisons or detention in 2010. Case studies show that more than 500,000 juveniles are taken to confinement centers every year. Not including the juveniles who by pass the detention center and make their way into the adult court system where they are later tried. Juveniles stand out of any prison that they may be asserted to because most acts are created by those younger than the age of 18 those juveniles are allowed to be trialed under the administration of the juvenile court until age 21. Prison is not a place most juveniles while be able to with stand. So the juvenile judges process a variety of different legal options to incorporate both the safety needs of the juvenile while also dealing with the well-being of the community and the rehabilitant needs of the juvenile. In some cases, the state will even pay jails to not allow juveniles to be accepted into their facilities. Juveniles are adequately still labeled as children no matter how grown they may think of themselves as. The mind of a person does not mature appropriately until that person reaches their premature twenties. An Arkansas study documented that juveniles who were formerly imprisoned for a crime were about 15 time more likely to constrain another crime. Probation has been a more efficient route when dealing

Rules of probation are normally lenient and prisons are both strict and expensive, and normally prisons turn humans into worst kind of humans. Despite being expensive prisons are necessary to keep community safe, no matter what their impacts are

American Society is built upon a balance between the demand for personal freedoms and the need for public safety. It is in the attempt to achieve a balance between these two, that crimes begin to emerge. Criminal offenders who have been found guilty are eventually put into jails to serve time for the crime committed. Harsh sentences for low-level offenders have crowded penal facilities, taking big portions of state budgets. As a result of the overcrowded facilities and low budget, the government opted for probation. Probation is now the most common form of criminal sentencing in the United States. Probation is very common but, as long as the probationer doesn’t reoffend or get involve in illegal activities they can end their sentencing with probation. If the probationer does, in fact, get involved with illicit activities then the probationer is to be put back into the custody of the government.

Today there are several options a judge can grant an offender in regards to the punishment they shall fulfill before or after trial. This refers to any way ranging to non imprisonment yet supervised ways used to deal with criminal offenders who are facing conviction or who has been convicted.. There are punishment an offender may receive such as fines, community service, electronic surveillance also know as house arrest, shock probation, intensive supervision, residential community supervision etc. The most common punishment used by the justice system is probation as well as parole. Probation is the release of an offender from detention , subject to a period of good behavior under supervision. An individual may be granted probation as an

“The juvenile justice system was first created in the late 1800s to reform United States policies on how to handle youth offenders. Since that time, a number of reforms - aimed at both protecting the "due process of law" rights of youth, and creating an aversion toward jail among the young - have made the juvenile justice system more comparable to the adult system, which is a shift from the United States’ original intent (2008,Lawyer Shop.com).” The

The first juvenile court in the United States was established in Chicago in 1899. The first juvenile court in the state of Georgia was in Fulton County in 1911, now there is one in every county. Juvenile courts in Georgia are controlled by a 1971 law known as the juvenile code. The philosophy of the juvenile courts is to protective of the child rather than punitive. The court must do what is best for the interest of the child while considering the best interest of society.

Kathleen Blanco governor of Louisiana from 2004 to 2008 said, “Think about it: Every educated person is not rich, but almost every education person has a job and a way out of poverty. So education is a fundamental solution to poverty.” Every year thousands of students exit our educational programs not knowing how to read or write. How can we help these people? Do we just to throw up our hands in the air hands and proclaim that is not my problem? According to the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL), two thirds of students who cannot read proficiently by the end of fourth grade will end up in jail or welfare. 85% of all juveniles who interface with the juvenile court system are functioning illiterate. More than 60% of all prison inmates

In reviewing the reading assignment, I do think the U.S. Juvenile Justice System serves the purpose for serious felonies. According to an article, the juvenile justice system also provides ways to help with skill development, habilitation, rehabilitation, addressing treatment needs as well as a way to successful reintegration of youth into the community (Youth.gov., n.d.) When a crime is committed, there should be consequences of his or her actions, however I do not think jail is always the answer, especially for the ones that are not adults. I think he or she should be mental evaluate to determine his or her mental state and then put into a rehabilitation program. Bentham was a theorist that believed and followed utilitarian principles, which

The juvenile justice system is similar to the criminal justice system. This system is where juveniles are processed, and may be arrested after referrals for juvenile delinquency. Juvenile justice is very different in every state and can be very similar as well because every system has limited jurisdiction and that most focus on the offenders and not their offenses. Therefore, there are 51 juvenile justice systems in the United States. The United States has the juvenile justice system because children are very different than adults – in that they can be better receptive for change and also being easier to rehabilitate. Moreover, the main goal of the juvenile justice system is rehabilitation (Juvenile Law Center). The juvenile justice system is made up of police, courts, corrections, probation and parole services, as well as community-based programs to name a few (book).

I believe that institutionalizing and incarcerating the youth should only be used if necessary. After my research in this class over the past five weeks, I feel like both do more harm than good and should only be used for serious, violent, and repeat offenders. Incarcerating and institutionalizing youth disrupts their positive social development and put them on a course that can lead to even more negative behavior (NJJN, 2017.) Some even suggest jurisdictions distinguish between youth who pose risk to the public safety and those who can be placed in a less-restrictive setting and sentence based on that (NJJN, 2017.) This leads to my suggestion of using probation as more of a form of punishment.

Home confinement is often a resource used by the United States Department of Justice to facilitate supervision of the offender during pretrial and probation (Hofer & Meierhofer, 1987, p 7). It facilitates the pretrial process because it ensures the offender will fulfill his or her responsibility to court because the juvenile’s very movements are being electronically monitored. In addition, it facilitates probation compliance because it requires the offender to remain in his or her abode. However, home confinement is not limited to keeping the offender at home at all times. It is an intensive supervision program that varies in the strictness of supervision depending on the type of offender. This alternative to incarceration can be easily modified to allow juveniles to attend school, go to work, attend recreational or extracurricular activities, etc. Home confinement has three different levels of restrictions: Curfew, home detention and home incarceration. Curfew, obliges offenders to be at their home during specific hours. Home Detention is more severe than curfew. It offers greater control over the offender and it requires