Life Without Parole

Juvenile Justice Should juveniles get treated as adults that’s one of the biggest controversy in our nation now days, with many juveniles committing crimes that are inconceivable according to their age. Judges have the last word on how to treat this young people. Many people argue that “the teens that are under eighteen are only kids, they won’t count them as young adults, not until they commit crimes. And the bigger the crime, the more eager this people are to call them adults” (Lundstrom 87). This is why people can’t come to a decision as how these young people should be treated like.

Juvenile Justice Should juveniles get treated as adults that’s one of the biggest controversy in our nation now days, with many juveniles committing crimes that are inconceivable according to their age. Judges have the last word on how to treat this young people. Many people argue that “the teens that are under eighteen are only kids, they won’t count them as young adults, not until they commit crimes. And the bigger the crime, the more eager this people are to call them adults” (Lundstrom 87). This is why people can’t come to a decision as how these young people should be treated like.

The first person she killed was a man named Richard Mallory; he was found in a junkyard with five more men’s bodies (College). Aileen Wuornos was found out and convicted with the death sentence; even if her sanity was questioned she was executed by lethal injection in 2002. On the psychological side of the scale, both Nature and Nurture are present in this case. Aileen had a very bad upbringing being abused, and abandoned which in tow would seem as if the nurture of her past drove her over the edge to commit those murders, but on the biological side of things her dad had some sort of problems as well, her father being a child molester that it could be argued that he gave her traits of being a molester, through heredity. This being said, in this case both nature and nurture had some play in part to why Aileen Wuornos became a serial

These juvenile offenders are treated like adults because they made adult decisions when instead they should be given attention and support to turn them into better people. A public defender says in a short documentary that, “We are seeing far too many young offenders entering the adult system who should be dealt with in the juvenile system”, and that a way some juvenile offenders are treated far worse than they deserve. Just because juveniles made bad decisions in their youth does not mean that they should be given a life sentence or put on death row, because they were just children who made some terrible mistakes. The people that think juveniles deserve the worst punishment they can get are probably don't understand that juveniles don’t really know what they are doing and it most likely isn’t always their own

In fact, this may also be because of our own habits as a community, we as teens, we are used to learn from what we see, and from what we heard from the people around us. It's not like if by blaming will make a difference, like it was all their fault. As it’s mentioned on a documentary called, “When A Child Kills”. The documentary is about a boy, whose name is Nathan, he was charged with second degree murder. The boy was found guilty and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

For Starters, the Juvenile Justice center doesn’t help some of the troubled teens. According to “Report: Juvenile justice system schools “do more harm than good”, it states, “Overall, 30 percent reported they had been physically or sexually abused, 37 percent had problems with hearing, sight or teeth, and 20 percent “wished they were dead,” according to the report.” So not only are the teens not being helped out, but they are getting abused physically and sexually. Some of these teens were probably bullied or are having trouble at home. If these teens were to get the proper help they needed they most likely wouldn’t be harming themselves or anyone. The report found that most of the students there has learning disabilities, emotional and behavioral

Kids aren’t allowed to do certain things because you need to be an adult, so the same rules should be applied we it comes to give children jail time. That’s why I am against trying kids as adults. As a kid growing up your body is going through many emotions, so being put in an adult jail can really mess you up physically and mentally. A famous neurologist named Sarah-Jayne Blakemore states that a teens brain isn’t fully developed enough to make any type of decisions and that teens brains can’t put themselves in an adults point of view. She says that teens only care about their own point of view on things.

Juveniles this age don’t even have a fully developed brain and also can’t fully understand the circumstances they’re in. Juveniles can be good kids inside and out, but if they somehow manage to be involved in a heinous crime, they suffer the chance of being incarcerated for up to life. With that being said, courts should not be given the power to grant juveniles with adult sentences because the environment around adult prisons are far too violent for people under the age of 18, therefore, proposition 21 of 2000 and other sentence enhancements should be abolished to lessen the severity of juveniles’ punishments and instead give them a bigger chance at rehabilitation. When juveniles receive such harsh sentences, such as sentences adding up to the majority of their life in prison or their life as a whole, more often than not they tend to lose hope. They really don’t have much to look forward to.

In 1993, Christopher Simmons, age 17, and an accomplice plotted, and went through with, the murder of Shirley Crook. He was put on death row for this crime, but he made his way through the courts and eventually won his case (Roper v Simmons, 2005). Simmons argued that offenders under the age of eighteen should not be sentenced to death (Casebriefs). While the crime that he committed was definitely reprehensible, the death penalty for criminals under the age of eighteen are immoral and should not be used. Individuals under the age of eighteen do not have fully developed brains.

“New Orleans prosecutors are seeking life without parole [for juvenile offenders] in half of all cases; in West Baton Rouge Parish, 100 percent,” (“Justice for the Youngest Inmates”). Whenever a minor is found guilty of committing a crime, he or she must go through the processes of the juvenile justice system. There has been much controversy over how young criminals should be punished and corrected for breaking the law. The goal of the juvenile justice system is to rectify the mistakes that youths have committed in order to produce functional, well-mannered members of society. However, juveniles are often treated poorly after being tried and come out of the detention facilities in a worse condition than when they entered.