Simply placing juveniles in a prison-like setting and putting the facts of a substance dependence problem on the back burner is obviously not working. With a recidivism rate as high as 35%, jail time alone does not seem to be helping the juvenile drug offender. The program that I am proposing would give the individuals that were incarcerated a place to go after their school day, where constructive activities and counseling will take place, thus removing them from the violence and negativity of the streets, and replacing them with a healthy environment centered around keeping juveniles out of trouble and subsequently, jail. Substance use inevitably leads to reoffending (Chassin 3), and allowing drug offenders who have already been through the system to receive treatment and counseling for their possible drug addiction may decrease the number of individuals who will be brought back into the justice
Therefore, certain teen criminals deserve to have opportunities to rehab their inappropriate acts. However, the family members of victims argue that those young criminals had no regret to kill people and they would not change their bad behavior. The civil right group, The Equal Justice Initiative, rejected the media interviews before hearing because daughter of victims kept her belief of giving punishments for young criminals. Certain cases were shown that it was too cruel for young lifers. Quantel Lotts, who was put in prison without parole at 17 years old, still wished judge to give him a chance when he accepted the interview for New York Times.
At the age of thirteen, children are still very immature and naive. Sentencing a thirteen year old for life in prison with no parole is just cruel in my opinion. There is a lot of time for improvement and rehabilitation to occur. The child still has hope. The system is corrupt in a sense that these children are not given much freedom in these circumstances of young age.
Yet the law fails to distinguish between adolescents/children and adults when it comes to spending the rest of their lives in prison for crimes they have committed before their 18th birthday. Adolescents/children who break the law must be held accountable, however we cannot give up on the possibility that a still developing young person will reform. Justice and financial responsibility both demand a more thoughtful approach. When adolescents/children commit crimes, does he/she instantly become an adult? Or does he maintain some of his/her childhood, despite his/her actions?
In what sense is 6 months fair to the victim regardless of there age this is too lenient. If the victim is under 15 years of age, the sentencing is 2-6 years; in my opinion 2 years is still too lenient in the case of rape for any age. Another thing, which really bothers me, is sexual assault of a child between the ages of 4-12 years. Shouldn’t a child get a little more justice than this? An innocent child is only free from the fear of that person for 4 years; in my opinion this unfair in so many ways.
About half of the criminals released were previously incarcerated at least once and about two thirds of those released are expected to be rearrested for another felony within three years of their release date. It is clearly shown that what criminals go through in jail is not stopping them from committing crimes once they are released. Something more than a lock up and release method is necessary in the justice system. Education is the first step to creating a better future for the criminals that have a release date. Many inmates are disadvantaged and have not had the education to take their life somewhere.
The District Attorney’s Office charging these juveniles and taken the rights away from Judges. The fact that we do not have a juvenile justice system, that we have 51 separate juvenile justice systems. People should rethink the fact that children are children and need to be dealt with as so. The New Asylums The New Asylums was even more alarming than five children doing adult time. The mentally ill do not want or ask to be sick.
Minors should not be tried as adults because they have not experienced the world like adults have, and they are not competent enough to go through or understand a trial. Many argue that minors should be tried as adults because they know what they are doing, and since society is changing and it’s not how it used to be 10 years ago, minors should be tried as adults for the reason that they need to learn their lesson and realize the crime they did was wrong. But in a recent study examining the mental health of minors after being tried as adults says, “66% of youth processed in adult criminal court had at least one psychiatric disorder and 43% had two or more types of disorders”. Another study was done for adults and it said, “less than 35% of adult males have a psychiatric disorder compared to 64% of transferred Youth”. I compared the two studies, and you can see that minors being tried as an adult have more of a chance to at least one psychiatric disorder.
Assignment 3: A Problem Exists Kimla Hughes Professor: Erica Ellsworth English 090 – February 10, 2013 Should minors who commit violent crimes be tried as adults? The youth of today do not fully understand the consequences of their actions. They may think that doing bad things or making bad decisions might not lead to prison or jail time. Peer pressure and the environment in which they live can influence their judgments to do right or wrong. Youth that hang around people their age that are making bad choices and not abiding the law will involve in crimes with friends who are doing the same.
It's a pretty common discussion among just about everybody, mostly teenagers. Although most teenagers are going to be against the idea because they haven’t drove yet and are anxious, most adults would like to see different actions taken on young drivers. Should the legal driving age be raised to 18? The main reason most people think the age should be raised is that it would reduce automobile accidents and fatalities. Accidents are caused by multi-tasking, Teens are easily distracted while driving by cell phones, the radio or even something simple as a friend talking to you.