Essay On Juveniles

872 Words4 Pages
Accepting Responsibility Across the country, juveniles are making bad decisions and heading down the wrong path. According to statistics, over one million juveniles come through the court system each year and about 200 thousand get charged as adults. Harsher penalties should be enforced upon juvenile law breakers in order to teach them the consequences of their actions, save money, and to avoid repeat offenders. Many believe that it is a terrible idea to send any child or teenager to an adult prison. They believe that these juveniles would be victim of sexual, physically, and mentally abuse. Even though this may happen in certain situations many things are being done to combat this abuse. Such as segregated areas specifically for juveniles.…show more content…
This segregation is being put into effect in order to prevent juveniles from being sexually or physically assaulted and to prevent more dangerous juveniles from injuring the current adult inmates. Another reason why more juveniles should be tried as adults is because detention centers do not provide the offender with a harsh enough reality of their actions. Such was the case with and kid named Shawn. On Christmas night 1998, the sixteen year old attacked and repeatedly stabbed his father with a knife while he slept. Shawn’s home life seemed to be the reasoning behind the brutal crime since it had recently been disrupted by his habitual marijuana use, his recent expulsion from school, and arrest for strong arm robbery. Shawn was charged with attempted murder in juvenile court. During his incarceration, in the midst of the hearing, Shawn physically and violently forced his cellmate to perform oral sex on him. Even with this action the court saw no reason to try him as adult. He was sentenced to stay in a detention facility until he was 19. During his sentence he was allowed to leave the prison grounds to attend community college and eventually was able to go home for family dinner. After his release, Shawn again got into trouble with marijuana and fled town. He was found 4 hours away from home, belligerent and
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