Sixteen years old and sentenced to life in prison. Sarah Johnson shot her mother in the head while she was sleeping and then her father while he was stepping out of the shower. She tried to pin the murders on an intruder but there was numerous amounts of evidence against her. Johnson was tried in an adult court even though she was only 16 years old. She was sentenced to life in an adult prison. (Stinson) At just sixteen years old Sarah didn’t know the full consequences of what she did. Juveniles are not adults. They do not have the same knowledge or capability as an adult. They deserve the chance to be taught right from wrong before being thrown in prison. Where the only thing they will learn, is how to survive a life contained inside four walls. Juveniles should not be tried as adults and should have a chance to be rehabilitated.
No matter what, there will always be crime. In low income areas stealing and aggravated assault are everyday occurrences. When children under the age of eighteen are put into these environments they do not know any better than to adopt the criminalistic lifestyle. This leads to crimes being committed by
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Every child deserves a chance to be the fireman or astronaut that they dream of being. If the laws were non-existent fifty percent of those kids with a dream would not make it to a third of their life expectancy. Throwing a child into prison is equivalent to the latter. They need to be taught the right way to behave. A juveniles brain is less developed than an adult’s, “it does not have the level of maturity, thought process, decision-making, experience, or wisdom” that an adult’s has.(Juvenile) Putting a juvenile into a good environment where they can be rehabilitated before it is too late is the only beneficial choice. No one wants to see their child behind bars with gang members and killers. Children belong in desks in front of a chalkboard. (love and
The article, “The Steep Costs of Keeping Juveniles in Adult Prisons” written by Jessica Lahey states, “Juveniles constitute 1,200 of the 1.5 million people housed in federal and state prisons in this country, and nearly 200,000 youth enter the adult criminal-justice system each year, most for non-violent crimes.” Minors should not be tried as adults because their brains are not developed, they may come from bad backgrounds, and they have their whole life ahead of them, and their life should not be determined by the mistakes they made as a child. Juveniles who are usually 14 or older who have committed serious crimes are tried as adults and are put into adult-state prisons. This is inhumane and unsafe for the child’s physical and mental health. One of the many reasons that minors should not be tried as adults is because their brains are not fully developed, so they cannot make good decisions until they are older, far into their twenties.
Many think otherwise, but in reality and fairness, anyone, especially with proven murder should certainly be tried as an adult. The quote “if you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime” plays a decent role in this specific case. It’s simple, if you can’t bare being confined in prison, don’t do the causing action. Additionally, the fact stated “If juvenile
In most instances the juveniles who are arrested for crimes are either at the wrong place at the wrong time or usually with a group of people who are doing the crimes. Many juveniles are forced into the criminal lifestyle from the area that they live in and around. Through these environments and areas of livings, most juveniles have learned and adopted to defy authority and
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.
If the adult brain and Juvenile brain are different than it only seems fair to treat them one another in a peculiar way when relating to crime. It is completely absurd to believe that a 12 year old can be held to the same standards as a 30 year old. Yes some do deserve to be in juvenile hall but not in prison with older inmates who have fully comprehended that what they did was most of the time inexcusable
America has the most overpopulated prisons in the world and that is because we would rather put a person (or in this case child) in prison for life than address the root of the situation. Data analyzed by Ashley Nellis, Ph.D., Research Analyst with The Sentencing Project, a project that advocates for the reform of justice policies and tackles the disparities in race and gender in the criminal sphere, reported, “ Survey research in the past 10 years consistently shows a majority of the respondents to favor trying juveniles in adult court for serious felonies, with roughly 75% of the typical adults surveyed believing that violent juvenile offenders should be treated as adults” (Neils) this attitude towards juvenile criminals is insidious to America’s youth, and does nothing to lower the crime rate. The real question is not when should juveniles receive life sentences, but how can we prevent it? How can we reform the Juvenile Court System in a way that actually addresses the crimes (and the needs) of Juvenile criminals so that they can be punished, rehabilitated, and reintroduced to society to actually love their lives? It is not until we see the bigger picture that we can make this
Annotated bibliography Childress, S. (2016, June 2). More States Consider Raising the Age for Juvenile Crime. Retrieved from PBS: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/more-states-consider-raising-the-age-for-juvenile-crime/ More states are considering to raising the age for juvenile crimes before being tried as adult because young offender's mental capacity. The idea is to cut the cost of incarcerate young offender in adult prison and ensure offenders to receive proper education and specialized care to change their behavior. Putting children in adult prison does not deter crime.
Juveniles in prison face increased violence and sexual abuse, and are at much higher risks of committing suicide than juveniles in juvenile prisons. In addition, the number of released prisoners that turn back to crime is much higher for those that were juveniles in adult prisons. Juveniles will face the consequences of their actions in juvenile prisons, but will also be given a second chance to change their lives through rehabilitation. It is time to stop failing this nation’s juveniles and build a system that benefits not only these children, but society as a whole through the end of a vicious criminal
In the article, “Prison for Young Killers Renews Debate on Saving Society’s Lost” by Don Terry, Terry talks about the debate on how to treat a twelve year old and a thirteen year old that had dropped a five year old child out a 14-story window. Both boys, whose names were not given, had lived in a dangerous neighborhood and had all the adults in their lives fail them. Also, both of their IQs fall below the average IQ of a normal person. Each state had called for a harsh punishment for the boys. The age for being put into a maximum security juvenile prison had been lowered to a ten years of age.
Why should teen felons get to spend their jail time in juvenile detention centers for committing the same crimes as adults? In today’s world, teens are increasingly committing violent crimes and being put in juvenile detention centers. Teens need to be tried as adults because it helps to bring justice to families of victims, and it also teaches the teens accountability. Charging teens as adults will also help reduce crime in the United States. Although many people feel that teens should not be given severe punishments because they are immature and innocent, they have not considered the problem teens are creating by committing these crimes..
Regardless of their crimes, the adult prison system will not lead to reformations within these children but the juvenile system will. We have to realize that children do not understand the severity of their crimes and are too young to comprehend that they have took someone’s life. These youngsters are malleable by their environment, family and friends and that is why they should not be tried as adults. These children need to be sent to the juvenile system for a second chance and when they become adults it should be determined whether they need to be sent to prison for adults or be let out into society. We cannot abandon these children without a chance to reform, they are the future of our
Juveniles should be convicted as adults for violent crimes because it is not fair for juveniles to commit big crimes and get away with it so easily. If they want to act like adults, they should be treated. Some teens commit crimes and don't have a really good excuse on why they do it. In the article “On Punishment and Teen Killers” by Jennifer Jenkins she explains how the teenager that killed her sister, husband and her unborn child excuse of killing them was that he just wanted to “see what it would feel like to shoot someone”, which is no good excuse for what he did to this family. Another example from Jennifer's Jenkins article she states how “undeveloped brain” has nothing to do with teens committing these crimes.
Doing so has had countless adverse effects on the youth. Despite this, many prisons and facilities have turned a blind eye to these negative factors, and continue to plant them in the adult systems. Children should not have to be put in jails and prisons with adults because they have an increased chance of being raped, educational services are often too expensive, and their minds are inclined to becoming mentally unstable, which often leads to suicide. Solutions to these issues include lifting the ban that prevents grants to be awarded to inmates, and abolishing children from adult jail facilities altogether. Conversely, others may argue that these children deserve this treatment, children are becoming more intelligent and know right from wrong, and that these sentences will show others what can potentially happen.
At the same time their family and home environment should not be considered. Juveniles who commit a crime should not be given parole because they
The consequences may affect the minors negatively. Minors have a higher chance of rehabilitation if they are tried through juvenile court so that they can become better members of civilization. Despite that, some people think that minors may not learn their lesson if they are put through juvenile court, but minors should not be treated the same as adults. Minors should be treated for their age, not their crime so that they have the opportunity to change and become a better member of