Young Kids, Hard Time

Whether a child who has committed a serious crime deserves rehabilitation or harsh punishment has been argued and the Juvenile Justice System is being blamed. Children who deserve real punishment are receiving rehab and children who deserve rehab are receiving harsh punishment. Many children’s lives are getting ruined because of unnecessary harsh punishment. Some juvenile offenders are not learning their lesson. The article “Sentences Show Acknowledge Juveniles’ Maturity, and Immaturity,” by Laurence Steinburg and the article, “Remember the Victims of Juvenile Offenders,” by Jenifer Bishop-Jenkins differ not only in their views of issues surrounding the American juvenile justice system, they differ in quality; however, Steinburg who argues for rehabilitation, clearly presents the best argument using logical reasoning and relevant evidence.

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 film “Juvies” really made me think about how the criminal justice system treats young children. Before watching the film, I was under the impression that children were treated fairly and with care when they commit a crime. After all, they are just kids. However, to my surprise, this was not the case. Many children have been cheated by the law because they are put through the adult system and are not given a fair trial. Meanwhile, these children are expected to make the rational decisions that an adult would make. There is biological evidence that kids do not have the ability to control impulsive behavior because their brains are underdeveloped. Thus, I believe this system is extremely unfair because children are not protected in adult prisons, which makes it very difficult for them to succeed once they are released back into the free world.

Children in adult prison are in severe danger. They suffer higher rates of physical and sexual abuse and suicide. Compared to those held in juvenile detention centers, youth held in adult jails are 7.7 times more likely to commit suicide. Five times more likely to be sexually assaulted. Twice as likely to be beaten by staff. 50% are more likely to be attacked with a weapon. In the public’s eye, the teens that suffer through this are just getting what they deserve. But in reality the restricted youth are at great risk of sexual assault. More than 1 in 10 youth in state juvenile facilities and large non-state facilities reported experiencing one or more incidents of sexual victimization by another youth or facility staff in the past 12 months or since admission, if less than 12 months. We agree that adult court is for the most serious and radical offenders. While it is true that juvenile offenders are waivered to adult courts because they are a menace to the community and the reasoning of their crime, did it occur to you that youths held in adult prison are at greater risk of sexual victimization? The National Prison Rape Elimination Commission found that “more than any other group of incarcerated persons, youth incarcerated with adults are probably at the highest risk for sexual abuse.” Some of you may say that this isn’t such a horrible thing compared to their sins. But this crucial and inhuman act may be more deadly than you think.

Youth incarceration is a growing dilemma in the United States that populates facilities as well as ruins lives at an alarming rate. As a society we cannot expect our kids to be the future of this nation when we are placing them in facilities where they become victims of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse that is far worse for them than adults. Michelle Alexander is a professor at Ohio State University and a graduate of Standford Law school. She states in her award-winning book, The new Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness "Children are five times more likely to be sexually assaulted once being placed into a facility" (Alexander,123).  Adolescents being detained causes many problems that are much more detrimental to them than adults. Some of them will now have exposure to drugs and gangs. Others will become victims of sexual abuse from other older inmates or staff members and risk transmitting sexual diseases. Most young juveniles have a mental illness that has not been treated or they become suicidal when staying in a facility.  These young people are still adapting to their environment and should not be treated as adults.  They are unable to grow and develop when we are punishing them like adults and trapping them in the US justice system.  The families of these children will now suffer knowing what their child faces in these facilities. As a nation we cannot consider ourselves civilized when we are placing these young people in facilities that punish them like adults.

Children have been described as our future, our greatest resource, and our hope for a better tomorrow. For many Americans, though, children invoke fear. They represent violence, a segment of society lacking in self-control and devoid of ethics and morals, and the failure of the family to instill traditional values, chief among them being the value of human life and respect for others.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, 10,000 juveniles are confined in adult prisons and jails rather than in juvenile facilities that were built for them. Josh Rovner reports in his article “Juvenile Life Without Parole: An Overview” that 2,100 child offenders are serving life in prison without the possibility of parole before the age of 18. In 26 states, a life without parole sentence is mandatory for first degree murder – regardless of age. Juveniles housed in adult prisons face a disturbing number of dangers such as physical as well as sexual abuse, assault, and high rates of suicide. While juveniles should be held accountable for their actions, they should not be prosecuted as adults because they are incapable of exercising the same judgement and maturity as an adult, housing them in adult facilities leaves them vulnerable to their surroundings, limits their educational growth and giving out a harsh sentence will not rehabilitate them nor deter other juvenile crime.

The article “On Punishment and Teen Killers” by jennifer Jenkins, the author talks about a personal own story of a family member getting murdered by a juvenile who is now serving three life sentences and believed to be kept in prison because of violating the law. The author concurs that any juveniles that are imprisoned tend to commit a different crime after release, and people who fights for juveniles who are sentence life in prison should be kept. The advertisements of the media and legislator “ feature propaganda photos of 7- and 8- year- old child models on the cover, with misleading headlines that the United States was “sentencing children to die in prison”(Jenkins 92). This quote talks about the media’s way of misleading people on what the juveniles in prison truly

Did you know, that in the United States alone, Over 200,000 children are charged and imprisoned every year as adults? Early in the 20th century, most states established juvenile courts to rehabilitate and not just punish youthful offenders. The system was designed for children to have a second chance at their lives. “A separate juvenile-justice system, which sought to rehabilitate and not just punish children, was part of a movement by progressives to create a legally defined adolescence through the passage of child-labor and compulsory education laws and the creation of parks and open spaces.”(How to reduce crime Pg 1) Although the view on juveniles committing brutal crimes is nearly inconceivable, it is not a solution to give juveniles adult consequences because the effects of the adult system on juveniles are not effective.

There are articles or news reports every once and a while about juveniles committed heinous crimes, but not serving any real time for the crime. Juveniles or even adults should not serve a few years for murder or rape. Murderers, rapists and other criminals are being released from jail every day after serving only very short sentences for their heinous crimes. (Source #1) Who are these criminals and what makes them so special? The criminals are juveniles who commit these awful adult crimes. Juveniles are being tried every day in juvenile courts and are receiving shortened sentences, and they are being released and given new identities to continue to live in peace. All while their victims and their families are left to suffer forever. Because the juvenile rights and courts believe that second chances should be given to youth that commit crimes. In my opinion that is half-true, if it is a minor crime then yes. If the crime is very serious or heinous or harmful. They should not get a second chance and be tried fairly as adults.

This type of practice could have lasting effects on the child, potentially leading to more harmful acts and a criminal lifestyle (New York Times 601). Based on developmental research, it is suitable to raise genuine concerns about the relocation of juveniles to adult prison, because a child’s arbitrative capacity is quite minimal (Steinberg 605). In other words, most young children do not possess the fortitude they would need to fully tackle the brutal consequences that are tolerated in an adult prison. Therefore, children deserve the right to be regarded as juveniles no matter the nature of their infraction. Nevertheless, young offenders absolutely need to be punished for their violations, but they should be punished in a secure environment created for children, not adults (Steinberg

There are many known, crooked, twisted ways of our juvenile system.So many young children getting their lives destroyed and ruined all because of our juvenile system.This Problem became noticed in 1960 when a 15 year old boy got arrested and had a life changing, ruining, experience all because of a prank phone call. In 1967 the supreme court finally tried to resolve this problem and bring justice to all children, but fixing it wasn't going to be as easy as giving childrens, teens, rights to a lawyer, and no double jeopardy. In the late 90s and early 2000s over 200,000 children were tried as adults, children getting the death penalty and getting life in jail without even chance of parole.There was even a

Humans all make mistakes, it is a part of life that no one can avoid. However, young adults are more likely than the older generations to make bad decisions and take part in things that they may someday regret. Some people say that making mistakes is just a part of growing up. But what if just one wrong decision could mean the difference between a normal childhood and spending the rest of adolesence behind cold steel bars with cruel and vicious adult criminals? Unfortunately for a growing number of young teenagers, their reality is never being given a second chance to change or correct their mistakes. Why? Some may ask, because instead of attending school, learning the difference

Imagine sitting in a courtroom, hoping the the judge will not give a harsh sentence. Unfortunately, that’s the case for many juveniles, some as young as 13! A juvenile is subject to a more severe sentence with the limited sentencing available. It is estimated that 250,000 youth are prosecuted as adults, each year. This number should change, as juveniles are not adults, both mentally and physically. Juveniles need an environment surrounded with guiding adults, education and the resources to help them. A juvenile is not an adult, and should not be tried as one.

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