The Juvenile Prison System in America One of the most debated topics in our country is that of the American prison system, and where juvenile justice fits into the equation. From that topic, there is one main question that arises; should someone who is under the age of 18 be placed in a formal prison system where they will pay for their poor choices as a child well into adulthood? Many people argue that placing juvenile offenders into a lock down facility like prison only hardens the young into a lifelong pattern of criminal behavior, not to mention the psychological damage done when sexual or physical abuse occurs. With this said, can placing juveniles in prison be beneficial to our nation’s future? The purpose of this paper is not to …show more content…
Upon release from prison, these youth will have a long road ahead of them, filled with many years of life’s trials and tribulations. Is society obligated to give these young people the skills, confidence, tools, and support to turn their lives around, or allow them to learn from the school of hard knocks? Any society who cares about the future of our world should care enough to give juvenile offenders another chance in life. Of all the criminals in prison, those most capable of accepting change in life after lockdown are those who are still young, impressionable, and have a chance to make a difference with their lives. It would behoove those involved in the lives of juvenile offenders to be sensitive to their fears and motivations after prison because no one deserves to fail the test of …show more content…
There are more poor children then ever and the violence laden media glorifies violent behavior,” reported Thomas Geraghty who has been a juvenile lawyer for many years. “Put such at-risk-children together with the availability of guns, and you have an explanation for the relatively few, but lethal, highly publicized, and tragic acts of young people.” (Geraghty, p.363). Geraghty goes on to suggest that placing children in jail is only placing a band-aid on a larger issue at hand. The bottom line is that the support systems that were once available to children at home no longer exist as prevalent as they once did. Education, community outlets, and alternatives to formal prison are all suggestions for getting our juvenile offenders out of a predestined life of failure. The threat of prison to a young person rarely means anything significant because they lack the maturity to understand the reality of prison, until it is too late. Removing these children from the environment that gave rise to their criminal activity is a key concept, but placing them into an even worse environment is not a logical solution. Finding out what creates a young juvenile delinquent, and then changing some of those factors is a better way to handle the growing epidemic in this country. To get to the issue at hand, children need to feel loved, needed, and appreciated; a small step to changing what can become the life of a juvenile
Adolescent criminal acts, which include but are not limited to murder, rape, armed robbery, violent assault, mugging, arson, vandalism and robbery are a large portion of the crimes represented in the media. Alternative options to throwing these kids in juvenile detention centers is a rehabilitative boot camp where they have no control over even their own bodies or programs similar to scared straight where they see possible consequences to their actions. The importance of the success or failure of these programs is important because right now it is the popular solution. If these programs are going nowhere, time should be invested in creating new ideas and methods to treat these children before they become adults in the prison system.
The adjustment from incarceration to society causes a series of problems, making rehabilitation difficult. When the juvenile’s leave home to be detained, all ties with society, the support systems they had, the gangs they associated with, school they attending are no longer in close proximity, which is essential for successful rehabilitation (James, Stams, Asscher, Katrien De Roo & van der Laan 2012). Another problem association with the reintegration is that juveniles are in a particularly fragile state in that they are not only transitioning from society to detention, but from adolescence to adulthood, both of which are overwhelming adjustments. Research has shown, however, that if youths stay out of trouble within the first few months
There are millions of adults in federal prison, but The United States is the only country in the world that condemns children to die in prison (Pequeneza, 2014). It’s sad to think about children being sentenced to life in prison, and frankly it is a disturbing and a scary fact to face. However, in recent years the U.S Supreme Court has made it illegal to charge juveniles with life sentencing for anything less than murder (Pequeneza, 2014). This new law gives children a second chance at life when they are finally released from prison. Many children are forced to be in a household that is not suitable for a developing child. Children are mistreated, neglected, abused, and other factors. These unfit situations that children are in make them more likely to become violent, and maybe end up in juvenile
The Merriam Webster dictionary defines Probation as a period of time given to someone who commits a crime and instead of being incarcerated are allowed to spend their sentence in the community based on conditions set aside by the courts. (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/probation) The task was given to me to build the ultimate model of Probation Services. After careful consideration and great thought this is the route I decided to take. I believe that parents play a great role in some of the decisions their children make. The decisions children make today are a reflection of their parents. My focus on this probation model is to place both child and parent in an institution were they would undergo a period of restoration of family values, rehabilitation, parenting courses, academia and counselling. The ages of these juveniles will range between the ages of ten (10) to seventeen (17) years old.Therefore I stand for institutionalized probation and how this probation will assist in instilling family values.
Mary Vandergoot’s Justice for Young Offenders Their Needs , Our Responses clearly emphasizes the need
...ing with young minds and punishing them in juvenile courts may be of advantage to the young people and at the same time reduce propagating them into developing a violent future in criminal activities. Correctional facilities that address and cater for the juveniles are the way forward to streamlining the youths (Kristin, page4).
Parents should be more involved with their children’s lives, and try to discipline and set rules at an early age. It is better for a juvenile to be confined rather than him/her influencing average teenagers to follow in his footsteps. It is a sad day when a teenager has to spend his/her days in a juvenile facility rather than outside enjoying his freedom and childhood. Children, who attend these programs and cannot cope with the challenges, can be easily abused. The risk in enrolling these teenagers into such disciplinary programs may either break them or make them improve their behaviors and quality of life. Teenagers who come out of these camps are stronger, disciplined, educated and even become role models to other teens can someday help other delinquents. In order to change someone’s life, one must first change his/her actions and
There are numerous critics of the juvenile justice system, and while most of their denunciations remain the same as those of the justice system at large, an ample portion of their criticisms revolve around the claim that incarcerating young people not only doesn’t work in deterring or rehabilitating them, but makes them worse and leads to adult misconduct. A report noted that youth sent to juvenile prison were 37 times more likely to be arrested as adults (Szalavitz, 2009). Another major problem some cite with the juvenile justice system is that most delinquent offends have some form of mental illness, and that while studies have shown that mental health treatment would be a better alternative, they are simply ignored or incarcerated (Ramirez, 2008), completely contradictory to the core values of the juvenile justice system which stresses rehabilitation and restitution above all else.
Juvenile delinquency is a conduct by a juvenile or a person below the legal age that is above parental control thus dealt with by the law. Crime in this case cannot be punishable by death or life imprisonment. There are many cases of juvenile delinquency in recent times that have raised many issues in the United State’s legal systems. There are many ways of explaining juvenile delinquency and crime when it comes to; cause, results, and legal actions pertaining to crimes. Alex Kotlowitz in his book, “There Are No Children Here” focuses on crime and juvenile delinquency through life experiences. This story is about the life of two boys who the author researched for a few years. The two boys were from Chicago, grew up in a poor family, surrounded by poverty, gangs, and violence as do many of us who come from low income, minority filled areas. The two boys unfortunately, sad to say end up in juvenile hall which clearly depicts the whole concept of crime and juvenile delinquency that arises from more issues than simply meets the eye . Issues relating to the social disorganization theory of poverty, disorganization, and low community control. This paper will analyze the story using themes that relate to juvenile delinquency and further discuss causes and ways to control juvenile delinquency
“Jail staff are simply not equipped to protect youth from the dangers in prison” (Berlatsky, Juveniles Should Not Be Placed in Adult Prisons). “Transferring the problem of the most serious juvenile offenders to an even more overwhelmed and less effective system makes no sense” (Roush and Dunlop). Does prison actually rehabilitate anyone adult or juveniles? I wish there was a way to actually answer that question, in some cases prison of any sort turns some around. In my opinion this is not the case with real criminals. That is the difference between a mistake and an actual crime. “Juvenile justice systems must balance the public mandates to dispense justice and to rehabilitate youths” (Wright, Tibbets, and Daigle, Criminals in the Making, 263). “Several studies have shown that incarcerated youths experience higher rates of depression, although the highest percentage being youths placed in adult incarceration facilities” (Y.H. NG et. al, Incarcerating juveniles in adult prisons as a factor in depression). Incarcerated adolescents with depression at 30.6% whereas only depressed non-incarcerated youths are at 4.1%. Arrested and detained youths in adult court show 16% are depressed whereas youths
The juvenile system was first established in the United States around 1899 when Illinois had their first court appearance including a juvenile. This then led to the Nation’s first juvenile system being created, which was for youth under the age of eighteen who have been convicted of crimes. Up until then, most youth were tried as an adult until the system was put into place. The system has different sections in which they youth is taken in such as: intake, adjudication, disposition, and post adjudicatory.
In the second article “Cruel Punishment for Juveniles” the authors hold a different view from Linda J. Collier. Treating juveniles as adults only helps society to forget that they are really still kids. They feel that subjecting children to adult punishment is cruel and unusual. They think, “Most youthful wrong-doers do not become adult criminals. There are turning points----quality education, well paid work, stable marriage------ that helps young offenders become law-abiding adults.” (Pg. 637) Certain community youth programs that deal with kids have shown to work in dealing with juveniles.
The dilemma of juvenile incarceration is a problem that thankfully has been declining, but still continues to be an ethical issue. The de-incarceration trend has coincided with a decrease in crime. It is hopeful that our nation is changing the approach to the treatment of juveniles in the criminal justice system. It means we know what to do and what is working, now just to follow through and continue the change to creating a juvenile justice system that is truly rehabilitative and gives youth tools to be able to be positive members of
Juvenile crime is a term around the world that is difficult to pinpoint and although there are several definitions many fail to be concrete. There are many factors that play into sentencing juveniles or minors upon a crime committed. How old are they? Can they mentally form criminal intent? Are they old enough to no longer be treated as children? Some people would argue that a criminal is just that, regardless of age. Research on the other hand shows that juveniles have underdeveloped brains who at times have difficulty rationalizing decisions and weighing out consequences. It is important that these issues are addressed because of the implications this has on not only the juveniles but the community around them. These juveniles have the opportunity to be molded into functioning members of society, yet lack the necessary resources to do so. This occurs due to the negative connotation that comes with juvenile delinquents and their behaviors. Every country has their own ways of dealing with crime, and in particular juvenile delinquency, in this piece there will be an in depth analysis of the United States juvenile justice system and England’s juvenile justice system. Although there are many similarities between both developed countries England’s approach to juvenile justice is more effective long term by its implementation of rehabilitative and restorative programs. In return tackling the problem of high recidivism rates and reintegration into society.
Throughout this paper, one will obtain a better understanding of the correctional system and how it is an important aspect of the criminal justice system. Therefore, the history of corrections, their mission statement, and sentencing goals will be briefly discussed. In the correctional system, there are different alternatives to imprisonment, such as probation, parole, and intermediate sanctions. I believe that parole makes a significant impact on the criminal justice system because it gives inmates who have already served time and shown good behavior the opportunity to be released early from prison. For example, there are two primary models of parole. First, the parole board grants a prisoner their parole based on their judgement