When it comes to the word “juvenile delinquency” people tend to think about black kids because a lot of them are just out of control, but a problem is that delinquents don’t need to be put into overcrowded detention centers. Juvenile delinquents need someone who will listen instead of punishing them, discipling them, and sending straight to a detention or rehabilitation because harsh conditions and overcrowding in detention facilities lead to increased reports of suicide attempts, stress–related illnesses, and psychiatric problems (National Juvenile Detention Association and Youth Law Center, 1998).

The need for transformation in how we think about and react to juveniles we define as delinquent would be that once a kid acts out of hand that they need to be put into a detention center because people don’t take the time to actually find out what is wrong with them. The household of the delinquents usually consist of the parents showing less attention to their kids, hatred, no self control, and the parents just don’t find a way to talk to their kids correctly so they become distant from their children. When the adults become distant to their children they then can’t figure out what they need to do to “control” them or to have an understanding on why they are acting as delinquents.

When it comes to power I automatically think of the three branches of government which are Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branch but the main focus is the Executive branch. Those come to mind because thats were a lot of power and knowledge that I was taught is located there within the government. There is power within the Executive branch because it includes the President directing government, imposing the Armed Forces, dealing with universal powers, representing as chief of a law enforcement officer, and accepting or declining laws. I’ve noticed that a lot of the power has been within the enforcement because of what happened in Ferguson, shootings towards African American kids, and being overly abusive because they want to. Also, there has been just a lot of negative unnecessarily force from the enforcement for centuries and decades, yet it still has not stopped. There’s knowledge in the government since that is where everything is figured out on how to run things, mostly our lives, and were the rules generate from.

What is truth? How do we know that the “truth” we’ve been told is real? Well we don’t know if its 100% true we just go based off of the after affects. There is a problem with truth because a lot of the authorities are more of “pharisees” because whatever they say goes yet they themselves won’t follow their own rules, so what they want us to believe we may not need to because it’s not truly accurate. The definition of truth means “the quality or state of being true”(5), and that “the real facts about something:the things that are true.”(5) With juvenile delinquency there needs to be a change because the detention centers are just a waste of money spent on delinquents that could just get a psychiatrist or counselor. Yet people would disagree and say that detention centers are where the delinquents need to be put to so they’re not out in the streets. People would say that detention facilities are in good use because they keep the killers and thieves from killing or stealing anymore. Also, that it will change their aspects and their actions so they will change and if they have the chance to come out into the world they’ll come out a “new person,” yet that doesn’t happen. Lastly, you can’t expect someone to change by sending them to a detention facility because they’ll still be messed up in the head and will still want to continue their ways to look cool or to fit in. “Kids who entered the juvenile-justice system even briefly — for example, being sentenced to community service or other penance, with limited exposure to other troubled kids — were twice as likely to be arrested as adults, compared with kids with the same behavior problems who remained outside the system.”(4) Also, detention centers are just buildings with delinquents and criminals crammed into one place, and more and more get added into the mix. Once you add criminals to more criminals you’ll end up more chaos and people dying because they’re mindset have became worse. Also, “The kids who have behaved worse than others — committing robbery, for instance, vs. smoking cigarettes — earn the most credibility with their peer group, which encourages further bad behavior.”(4) That credibility encourages bad behavior because all it does is amp their heads to thinking that they’re the tough guys and they rule the place.

There have been a lot of incidents where people were accused of something they never did but still got sent to jail or prison, yet the real victim is still out in the open. So when I see reports like that it makes me wonder if enforcements are really doing their job or are they just throwing people in jail based on their assumptions? Also, when they put those in jail who did not commit the crime those people will then suffer in the detention facilities and possibly end up committing suicide or just going crazy because they do not need to be in there.

To finalize, juvenile delinquents need someone who will listen instead of punishing them, threatening them, and sending them straight to a detention or rehabilitation because harsh conditions and overcrowding in detention facilities lead to increased reports of suicide attempts, stress–related illnesses, and psychiatric problems (National Juvenile Detention Association and Youth Law Center, 1998). Also, even though detention facilities can be a good use of locking up criminals, it also doesn’t stop them from being criminals.