Draft Paper In the documentary film, “Kids for Cash”, Robert May shows his audience the horrors of the Luzerne County justice system. He uses imagery, appeals to logos and pathos, personal experiences and anecdotes to support his claim. Robert May made this documentary to show the world that the government needs to make sure that even minors have a fair trial and justice before being incarcerated.
Craig Haney’s article Mental Health Issues in Long-Term Solitary and “Supermax” Confinement illustrates the complications faced in solitary confinement emphasizing the rise in mental health challenges imposed. Particular attention is paid to the escalation in the nature of mental health-related issues, including the negative psychological effects of imprisonment. Haney discusses these increasingly widespread and specialized units that bring forward the issues presented taking into account the notion of isolation and the association of the high percentage of prisoners suffering from mental illnesses. The article briefly assesses the recent case law concerning the difficulty of mentally ill prisoners, suggesting that the majority of broader psychological problems have been overlooked by the courts.
According to the book, Lost Angeles County is the largest juvenile justice system in America; yet, the home for most of the youths who have committed grievous crimes. Home for those who seems to have a chance at rehabilitation but are sentenced to adult prison for no logical reason while some youth are freed with little consequences after committing a violent crimes. This is a shameful thing that needs to be corrected in the juvenile justice system. Two and half million children under eighteen are being arrested in the United States in a year, three out of four will be released as if nothing happened, their cases will be dismissed because they are too minor for the system to break-down or too difficult to try. The repeated offenders will receive a meaningful punishment when their offenses have progressed to a more serious level.
Major Ethical Issues of Solitary Confinement Solitary confinement can affect a person’s physical and mental health simply because it deprives an individual of their need to interact with others on a daily basis. Solitary confinement, which is used to restrain violent and volatile inmates from the general prison population, is done in increments ranging from several months to years. In an article retrieved from the American Psychological Association, ‘Alone, in ‘the Hole’’, the author states that, “for most of the 20th century, prisoners' stays in solitary confinement were relatively short.” This was the standing rule, in which inmates visited what is known as ‘the hole’, for several weeks to months. As time went by, the average length of stay
This can be seen in the growing number of court-involved status offenders who were being detained and placed outside of their homes for noncriminal behavior (Shubik & Kendall, 2007). Following multiple studies and research, the President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice recommended that the juvenile court be the agency of last resort and that community-based organizations, not penal institutions, should be responsible for these youths (Shubik & Kendall, 2007; Farrington,
In the early 1800s the punishment of juveniles altered to the notion to rehabilitate juvenile offenders among with separate juveniles from adults in the system, and to keep the juvenile recidivism rate low, therefore the creation of the New York House of Refuge began (ABA Dialogue Program, n.d., p.5). The House of Refuge was the first prison to separate juveniles from adults and “were supposed to provide a home for unruly and troubled children, where they would be reformed, educated, and disciplined (Roberts, 1998, p. 96).” The program did not concentrate on punishment or pain, but on life skills that the juveniles could utilized once released. According to Roberts (1998), “Order, discipline, and moral teachings were emphasized (p.97).” The
The author presented good points when it comes to the issues with placing juveniles in secure confinement. When placing these juveniles into confined locations it can sometimes set them up for failure and the chance of rehabilitation is slim to none. In the text it mentions issues these kids face by being in a secure facility, the issues consists of not being properly handled to due undertrained staff , not having enough staff to monitor the kids, and keeping the kids away from the adult offenders if they are placed in that type of facility. These issues and others have been known to cause depression, suicide/suicide attempts, rape, and other horrible things to happen to the kids.
Given these inconsistencies, mass imprisonment has introduced the criminalization of minority racial status, behavioral well-being issue, and destitution. Additional frustrating, the procedure of imprisonment worsens drawback and vulnerabilities among these as of now minimized gatherings (Clear, 2007; Roberts, 2004; Sampson and Loeffler, 2010). Once detained, a man 's entrance to the routine method for a citizenry that advance distance from wrongdoing is for all time disturbed (Reverse social work 's disregard of justice-included adults: The crossing point and a plan, 2012). At present, there are more than 40,000 state and neighborhood statutes that boycott individuals with histories of detainment from access to instruction, livelihood, lodging, and other social and wellbeing administrations accessible to the overall population (Legal Action Center, 2009). Kids with detained guardians will probably have behavioral and passionate issues and are six times more prone to be imprisoned sometime down the road.
Not only does Berstein call for an overall reform of this nation’s juvenile prisons, she goes as far as saying the practice of locking up youth is in need of a “more profound than incremental and partial reform” (13). The fact that Bernstein outlines the numerous failed strategies and goals of this practice with her compelling use of studies and statistics is enough to promote an audience to reject the practice of locking up youth. The statistic she shares that “four out of five juvenile parolees [will be] back behind bars within three years of release” as well as the studies she conducted on numerous instances when a guards abuse of power lead to the death of a child work to further prove her point: being that “institution[s] as intrinsically destructive as the juvenile prison” have no place in a modern society (13, 83). Bernstein refutes this false sense effectiveness further by sharing her own ideas on what she believes works as a much more humane solution to rehabilitating
In my honest opinion solitary confinement in the U.S. is not justified and only does more harm than good. Not only is it a rash punishment, but it is one of the worst kinds of psychological tortures that could be inflicted upon an inmate. Human beings are undoubtedly social creatures and without the mere contact of another person the mind decays and ultimately leads a person to anger, anxiety, and hopelessness. Psychologists also claim that solitary confinement and isolation in general also cause depression or the loss of ability to have any "feelings", cognitive disturbances, such as confused thought processes and disorientation, perceptual distortions, such as hypersensitivity to noises and smells, distortions of sensations, and hallucinations affecting all five senses, as well as paranoia and psychosis which often times involve schizophrenic type symptoms, and finally, the worst of all symptoms, being self-harm such as self-mutilation, cutting and even suicide attempts.
Youth advocacy groups report that juveniles housed in adult facilities are 36 times more likely to commit suicide” (Parsell). This hostile environment leaves a lasting impression on a young prisoner's personality, making assimilation into
He points to the most tragic repercussion of solitary confinement: the correlation between time spent in isolation and suicide. Lindsay Hayes has studied youth suicide in confinement settings extensively. He confirms
There are differences between a juvenile court and criminal court in the United States. The focus of the juvenile justice system is on rehabilitation, in hope of deterring the minor away from a life of crime so they will not commit a crime again as an adult. In contrast, the criminal justice system focuses on the punishment and often bases the sentencing outcome on the criminal history of the youth. In a study conducted, Butler (2011) showed that the participants’ experience with adult jails and prisons show that those facilities may instill fear but are otherwise emotionally—and often physically—dangerous for youth. Many of the adult prisoners, who were minors when they enter the adult institution, felt they were forced to “grow
The article, The Steep Costs of Keeping Juveniles in Adult Prisons by Jessica Lahey states that “due to the imbalance of power between children and adults, not to mention between children and prison staff, sexual abuse of juveniles in adult prison is underreported; fewer than one in 10 of the juveniles surveyed reported their abuse.” ( ). The adult prison is not safe because of the abuses between the staff and juvenile, they need to be aware of what happens in the adult system. Lahey wants to show how dangerous the adult system is by stating what actually happens in prison to the juveniles because of the adult prisoners and the staff. Lahey also explains about how the lack of services and safety, “juveniles housed in adult prisons are 36 times more likely to commit suicide than juveniles housed apart from adult offenders.”
Within the urban communities, negative perceptions are magnified. Adolescents are more prone to be a product of their environment, especially those whose parents are incarcerated. Because of this trend adolescents are being incarcerated at an alarming rate and sentenced to adult facilities. Lambie & Randall (2013) states, the United States have imposed harsher penalties on serious young offenders, and have consequently increased rates of incarcerated youth and made it easier for youth to be treated and incarcerated as adults within the justice
