... Highley Teens and the Prison System Teenagers all over the world are being sent to prison the youngest age of fourteen years old. Imagine being raped at the age fourteen and there is nothing you can do about it. “Children are five times more likely to be sexually assaulted in adult prisons than in juvenile facilities and face increased risk of suicide.” Throughout this paper the dangers present for a teenager in prison, why they should be in a rehabilitation center, and talking about the expenses if every teenager were to go to prison will be explored and detailed. Although juveniles commit similar or in the some cases the same crimes as adults they should not be incarcerated in the same facilities as adults. In fact depending on the crime teens should have multiple options for rehabilitation. Teenagers do stupid things growing up. In many cases prison is seen as the first and most convenient option. Rehabilitation should be an option because at adolescence the brain is not fully developed. Rehabilitation can help these teenagers with the choices they make. If teenagers want to keep making the same mistakes then rehabilitation is not going to change the choices they make and maybe they should go to prison and realize rehabilitation was better and trying to help them. Rehabilitation is encouraging in making adolescents go to school and better their education and life choices. “If the rehabilitation is done in the early years of a child offending...
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...Should Juvenile Be Charged as Adults in Criminal Cases? Robert Horn Post University The purpose of the Adult Criminal Justice system is to punish offenders according to the severity of the crime committed. The juvenile justice system’s aim is to rehabilitate or mentor the juvenile offenders, in the hope that they can prevent further crimes, and to change their behavior. The motivating principle of the juvenile system is rehab. The reason for this is because juveniles are not fully developed, mentally or physically. Many Juvenile offenders come from broken homes, been abused, or come from bad neighborhoods. Juvenile offenders need a second chance, because they have not even received a first chance. Rehabilitation is the best option for them because of the way they would be exploited and turned into criminals if they were sent directly to prison. If given the chance, the Juvenile Justice System can aid in successfully rehabilitating youthful offenders so they are not inclined to commit future crimes. With this reasoning, juveniles cannot be blamed or accountable for their actions the same way adults are. The Justice System fulfills and important function by establishing standards of conduct. It defines what is right and wrong for people and removes them from the responsibility of taking vengeance out on those who wronged them, which deters the escalation of feuds in the community. The Justice System also...
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...the main purpose of the adult criminal justice system is to punish the criminal according to the level of his or crime, the aim of the juvenile justice system is to apply rehabilitation or mentoring to juvenile offenders in order to prevent further crimes and to change their delinquent behavior. The core motivating principle of the juvenile system is rehabilitation. This is because juveniles are not fully mentally or physically developed; they cannot be accountable for their actions in the same way as adults. Additionally, many juvenile offenders come from broken homes or bad neighborhoods and many have been abused. They need a second chance because many have not received even a first chance. Additionally, rehabilitation is by far the best option for them because of the way they would almost certainly be exploited and turned into hardened criminals if sent to prison. This paper will provide further background to the issue of rehabilitating juvenile offenders, and strongly argue that it is the right approach. The justice system fulfills an important symbolic function by establishing standards of conduct. It formally defines right and wrong for citizens and frees them from the responsibility of taking vengeance, thus preventing the escalation of feuds within communities. The system protects the rights of free citizens by honoring the principle that individual freedom should not be denied without good reason. Rehabilitation has as its objective the...
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...CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM There are strength and weakness in trying a juvenile as an adult. One weakness is that adult prisons are more focused on incarceration. The juvenile will be treated as an adult within the prison walls and the crimes they committed are proportional to the offense that is committed. The juvenile is sent to prison and is required to serve their time without being offered programs that may prevent them from reoffending. Once that juvenile is an adult and enters back into society, he will most likely reoffend within three years of his/ her release. Another weakness is the juvenile being exposed to hardcore criminals. The juveniles are learning from the adults and learning new behaviors in which hardcore adult offenders expose them to. Conversations on crime, being tough and how to respond to violence are ways juveniles emulate adult behavior. In most cases these juveniles are not being watched and are being raped and taking advantage of. They have to learn to protect themselves from someone that is twice their size and eventually end up needing protection while in prison. These juveniles do what they can to survive in adult prisons with many committing suicide because of the everyday pressures they are faced with while in the adult prisons. Finally, the juvenile now has a permanent record and their livelihood when they reenter society is difficult. When the juvenile was tried as an adult, the court proceeding were not only open to the public but access...
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...Juveniles commit crimes all over the United States. Their punishments differ depending upon the severity of their crime. For serious crimes, the juveniles are tried in adult court. This means that the juveniles are held in the adult prison. This causes problems for the juveniles, the state, and the prison. This could be prevented by finding a replacement for the juvenile cases held in adult court. One specific replacement the juvenile cases is rehabilitation. This gives the juveniles a second chance upon their return to the world. Child psychologist Leland Yee said, “Children have a greater capacity for rehabilitation than adults.” In Missouri, juvenile offenders were sent to a community based facility rather that being sent to adult court. This resulted in the decrease of their return offenders, with recidivism rates shrinking to a mere 8%. This brings benefits to the state. David Gottesman said, “Research shows lower recidivism rates will save the state money in the long run.”...
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...The Age and Time for the Crime in Juvenile Justice Natasha Yancey Strayer University March 16, 2014 The Age and Time for the Crime The adult criminal system is designed for the prosecution of adults not children. Both state and federal legislative have responded to juvenile crime by focusing on sending more and younger children to adult criminal court. How and where do we draw the line between adults and children? Where do we draw the line between justice and malice? Juveniles that commit crimes should be punished for the crimes that they commit, but they should not be tried as an adult. This paper will offer information on why there needs to be changes in the juvenile justice system, and it will analyze why the increased prosecution of juveniles in adult court is disastrous and nothing but a threatening policy. This policy is unjust, harmful to children and does nothing to increase public safety; consequently punishing adolescents as adults does more harm than good. Thomas J Bernard a professor of criminal justice and sociology at Pennsylvania State University explained how psychologists and sociologists saw young offenders. Bernard’s (2010) book The Cycle of Juvenile Justice recognized that minors are children and not adults. (p. 45) Bernard (2010) further explains that during the 18th century children were tried as adults. Juveniles as young as the age of seven could be tried and sentenced in criminal courts. (Bernard 2010) His research expounds on the Society...
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...Position Paper As adults, one of the best gifts we could ever receive is having a child. From conception, all parents want their children to be born healthy and with all their fingers and toes. As they grow older, we pry that everything we teach them is utilized to help them to become productive citizens. The last thing parents want is for their children to become juvenile delinquents. There is a saying that goes, “it takes a village to raise child”, which may be true, yet nobody wants to acknowledge or accept the fact their children is a delinquent, and do they want advice on ways to steer their child (ren) back on the right path of productiveness. Instead of feeling like we are failures and try to ignore our children’s behavior, parents should continue to show their children love by working hard to get them the help they need that would deter them from their criminal behaviors and activities. When dealing with juvenile delinquents, the first place we look for help is the juvenile justice system. I feel that too many parents and citizens look to the juvenile justice system for help correcting the behaviors of delinquent juveniles. Because so many people are depending on the juvenile justice system, they should take all necessary measures to aid juvenile delinquents on their return back to society as successful adults. For this reason, I strongly believe the juvenile justice system should focus on punishment instead of rehabilitation. Rehabilitation should not be completely...
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...During the late 1800’s early 1900’s youth at one point were locked up with adult offenders, and those that were mentally ill. “Delinquent, neglected, and runaway children in the United States were treated in the same way as adult criminal offenders” (Siegel & Welsh, 2011). They were punished for minute offenses and some for non-criminal behavior simply because there was no other solution. “The adult criminal code applied to children, and no juvenile court existed” (Siegel & Welsh, 2011). Because of this Houses of Refuge were created. Houses of refuge were the early introduction to juvenile justice. A house of refuge was ‘the first institution designed to house poor, destitute and vagrant youth who were deemed by authorities to be on the path towards delinquency” (Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, 2013). They were created and designed by the child savers to target youth who showed signs of delinquent behavior. Houses of refuge were located in impoverished or urban areas. They eventually became overpopulated because it, like adult prisons, was housing delinquent juveniles with not form of rehabilitation. A new plan of action had to take place to correct this system. The top goal of the juvenile justice system is to prevent crime and by juveniles and rehabilitate those that were accused of offenses. The juvenile justice system began finding alternative ways to deal with deviant youth. In 1874 The Society for the prevention of cruelty to children or SPCC was created in...
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...issue of cruel and unusual punishment towards juvenile life without parole is one that needs to be addressed. The facts stated earlier in this paper have given more than enough reason to abolish life without parole sentences for juveniles. It has been argued in Graham v. Florida that because juveniles have a weak capacity to comprehend their behavior and actions, the punishment of life without parole might not be an effective deterrent from engaging in criminal conduct. Some states have already abolished juvenile mandatory life without parole as they have all found it to be cruel and unusual punishment. Many groups and advocates against life without parole for juveniles have seen this as a step in the right direction,...
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...When an adolescent commits a crime, should that make them an adult in the eyes of the law? Or should their age be considered and acknowledged as a shortcoming of a undeveloped mind, impacting their capacity for not fully comprehending their actions? These questions have plagued the juvenile justice system both in our current time and its history. The choice between harsh punishment or attentive rehabilitation as convictions for youth offenders I think the best choice is rehabilitation because it gives juveniles to another shot. Youth offenders are different from adult offenders biologically and this should pose a greater impact in the sentencing made on the adolescents in the juvenile justice system . Punitive punishment have...
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...and 39 other states currently allows adult sentencing for children as young as 10, opening the door for some youth offenders to face life in prison without the possibility of parole. The concern of a 10 to 17-year-old juvenile, treated as an adult in court, has provoked considerable debates. Research suggests that the human brain does not reach the final stages of development until age 23, strongly suggesting that a minor does not have the capacity to manage emotions or impulse control in stressful situations. Amending legislation to give juvenile offenders the opportunity to rehabilitate, would not only address public safety, but would also give juvenile offenders the chance to become positive and productive citizens. Life without the Possibility of Parole Imagine sentencing a 10-year-old fifth grader to spend the rest of his or her life in prison. The only civilized country in the world, which does this, is the United States. Legislators have created a blanket of harsh sentencing in response to the public’s outcry to offenses committed by juveniles, such as in the Columbine tragedy. Although, no one can condone the devastating loss at Columbine, all juveniles should not be thrown under the same blanket, but reviewed and treated individually. Currently 11 states prohibit this sentence, which includes New Mexico and Oregon. Many other states are following suit, by introducing legislation to eliminate such sentences for juvenile offenders, including California. California...
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...daughter from a prominent white family (hopkins) juveniles have been taking advantage because of the things they are accused of most juveniles do not even know their amendments so they're not protected by them either. Juveniles under the age of eighteen should not be tried as an adult because a prison is not parenting any child, some of the punishments are too harsh, and because of their immature brains. Prison is not a place where juveniles will actually get to learn things like people expect them to. It does not provide help like a parent would. Most juveniles commit crimes because they are probably neglected or do not have a parent role model there for them. Any role model could do so much for an adolescent because they follow the steps of that person. Young offenders often end up isolated from society because of this they choose to do foolish things. The foolish things some end up doing are joining gangs, committing robberies and doing drugs. A prison is not going to help as much with those issues. A gang member still has a connection to the outside world so them changing is a bad bit Unlikely. Prisons can not change juveniles like people think they should. If prisons help so much why are there second offers? Most juvenile offenders become second offenders because...
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...Juvenile Delinquency December 3, 2014 Juveniles in The Adult Prison Children as young as 14 years old have been tried as adults and are sentenced to die in prison without considering their age and the factors that led the individual to commit the offense. Society believes that a juvenile should be tried as an adult because it will help them understand the consequences of their actions, however, children and teenagers that commit crimes are too young and they don’t have the mental ability to understand the consequences of their actions. These juveniles are not aware of what they are going to face behind the adult’s prison bars. According to the National Juvenile Justice Network, it states, “ 200,000 youths are tried, sentenced, or incarcerated as adults every year across the United States.” Studies have shown that juveniles that are sentenced to adult prisons are more likely to commit crimes again after being released from prison. Juveniles are more likely to be sexually assaulted, abuse, neglect, suicidal, and depressed in adult prisons. The adult prison has shown failures to rehabilitate these juveniles. Laws like the Felony Murder rule has to shown to be cruel and unusual punishments towards teenagers and children. Society does not bothered to look into factors such as the juvenile’s brain, mental disability, and their living environment that causes them to commit the crime. “Children are five times more likely to be sexually assaulted in the adult prisons than in juvenile...
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...Putting young adults who committed severe crime in to the jail should not be mandatory. There has been a lot of cases where young adults commit severe crime and put in to the adult jail. Young adult criminals shouldn’t be considered as an adult when they commit crime because they are not mentally fully grown up. Instead of putting young adults to the jail, they should be dealt with specialist to work to their success of rehabilitation. However, there might be people who disagree with this because crime is crime and the youth who commits crime probably won’t understand how bad jail life is due to their lack of knowledge but if they experience the intensity of jail life, they will understand that the life in jail is very harsh and won’t commit...
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...Child Criminals: Is Punishment or Rehabilitation The Answer? Lisa Perdew Prof. H. Mathers Ivy Tech Community College With the growing number of crimes being committed by juveniles the question of whether punishment as adults or rehabilitation in a youth facility is the better option has never been more relevant. Some say that if a child commits a heinous crime, such as murder, they should be punished just as an adult would be. Others say child criminals are children first and criminals second and that they should receive counseling and rehabilitation in order to give them a chance at a normal adult life. Most states in this country do not have set laws concerning the prosecution and punishment of juveniles involved in serious criminal acts and thus the punishment is determined by the judge of each case. This can, and has, led to some juveniles being punished too severely and others getting entirely too light a punishment. The debate has come to the point of whether there should be a blanket law where in all juveniles guilty of terrible crimes are treated as adults no matter their age or if because of their age, under 18, they should all be treated as children no matter the severity of their crime. Social workers have long been at the forefront of this debate and have very strong opinions concerning these children. Most of them think rehabilitation, or even early intervention, is the better option for these children. Many of today’s...
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