Incarcerating Juveniles

Do curfews keep teens out of trouble? The issue with this is, that teens disagree that they shouldn’t have curfews, but the curfews keep them out of trouble. A bad thing about this that teens say is, that it restricts them from staying over at a family or friends house too long. The curfew would keep them from wandering in the dark. Some teens speak out against this, and some are good with it.

1. Do children/juvenile have the capacity to understand the consequences of their crimes? Are the children/ juveniles able to be rehabilitated? Answer: Juveniles are between the ages of fifteen years and seventeen years of age. So, no they should not be tried as an adult because they are not eighteen years of age.

There are certain instances of juveniles being tried as adults and sometimes ending up getting a life sentence without a chance of parole. I find that pretty harsh because there have been some cases where the juvenile meant no harm, they were either confused or brought along by gang members and they end up being charged along with the gang members for just being with them when a crime goes down. I believe that juveniles do not deserve to be given a life sentence because for one they are still maturing, they can learn from their mistakes and make amends, we still have to combat crimes like intended murder committed by a juvenile with extreme punishments especially if they are well over the age of 16. In the article published by the New York Times on March 14, 2012 “Juveniles Don’t Deserve Life Sentences”, Garinger discusses that juveniles deserve a second chance since their brains are still developing.

Some people believe that minors shouldn’t get life in prison because they are “just kids”, others believe that minors should get life in prison if needed to. I highly believe and agree with those who believe minors should get life in prison,because if they had the courage to commit a big serious crime then they should also have the courage to accept the consequences given to them. If you really think about it,if one doesn’t give them a serious consequences due to their action they’re going to think that it’s okay,that the court system will take it easy on them because just because they are “just children”, which it shouldn’t be like that. Criminals are criminals whether they are children or adults. Age is just a number but their crime is

Over the years kids have rarely been trialed as adults and or been sentenced to life in prison. Today however many kids are being sentenced as adult and getting life in prison and some kids are as young as 12. In the United states it has came to be “normal” for children to be incarcerated for life with no chance of leaving. Kids in prison are not having a normal brain development and are have psychological issues.

Arriving at the connection of crime to all three of our group 's topics was fairly easy. Each member brainstormed, out loud, their thoughts on ways that plants and cars could possibly lead to juvenile incarceration, which is our third group topic, in order to reveal a general connection. Tying cars to juvenile incarceration took the least creativity, since grand theft auto, driving while intoxicated, and use of vehicles to commit crimes are all issues related to delinquency. Plants was a slightly more challenging topic to link with juvenile incarceration. In general, it was too broad of a topic.

In the United States prisons there are two thousand juveniles serving life without parole before, the age of eighteen. Only one of a few countries in the world allows children, to be sentenced to prison without release. And, the United States is one of them holding young teens accountable for their actions. But, there is accordance with age, stage development and how their cases should be dealt with in court. There are an estimated twenty-six percent of juveniles sentenced to prison for life convicted with felony murder.

In my opinion the film is biased, but I do agree with the fact that the kid prison system is corrupt. I disagree with the fact that at the age of 16 or 17 you can be tried as an adult in adult court, there is a reason that they have a kids court. On the other hand, I disagree with the film and the fact that there was so much talk about racial discrimination. There are over 54,000 kids in jail, and most of those 54,000 kids are not even in there for a crime. Skipping school, missing curfew, not obeying guardians rules, sneaking out, etc. are all reasons that kids are sent to jail.

What if a kid committed a crime and didn't get sentenced as an adult for a murder? If you don't agree that kids or even teenagers shouldn't be sentenced to jail i think you're wrong because what if they did the crime to your kid or a family relative. I believed that they should be sent to juvenile hall or jail because a teenagner should be able to think what they’re doing and have the mentality that they're doing something really bad. For a kid it is a 50/50 because i also believe that they should know what they are doing is bad but then again they are kids.

United Nations Convention Rights of the Child (UNCRC) states, that every child under eighteen has all the rights in the convention and all member state countries are obliged to undertake all actions and interventions in the light of best interests of the child (REF UN convention). Minimum age of criminal responsibility (MACR) is a challenge to the child in the perception of children’s right. The challenge is concerned due to the different ideas and view concerning the MACR which differs from country to country associated with social, cultural and territorial structures (Australia institute of criminology REF NEED).

Sentencing juveniles to prison happens to be a very controversial topic today. Many people believe that juveniles should receive the same consequences as an adult criminal and a vast amount of people believe that juveniles should be given a second chance. I personally believe that a child should not be given the same consequences as an adult so the question I would like to pose to my audience is should juvenile offenders be offered the same consequences as adult offenders? Statistics show that across the nation at least 1,200 people are sentenced to life without parole for a crime they committed when they were under the age of 18. Majority of people will argue that this justified because if a child is given a second chance they will continue to commit crimes in the future.