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. The text shows that by placing the juveniles on
The documentary, “Kids Locked in Solitary Confinement” depicts the toll that solitary confinement can have on the juvenile population. Approximately, 27% of adolescents in Riskers Island are in solitary confinement. The majority of which have not yet been convicted of a crime. However, these juveniles are in jail because they cannot afford to post bail. Supporters of solitary confinement believe that the segregation juveniles experience is not equivalent to the segregation in the federal system.
Demartini support this view by conveying alongside Tom Stickrath, “solitary confinement has helped prevent chronically violent offenders from further harming other inmates or staff members.” She notes that solitary confinement have made prisoners further secured. In addition, Demartini points out, two juvenile prisons--in Marion and Scioto counties--have discipline units for chronically violent youths. This source was issued in 2005 which means that it is not current. The article is most opinion and does provide references for quotations and data.
The kids in the juvenile facilities often suffer from physical or sexual abuse and the staff provide them with a safe environment. They will form meaningful relationships with these juveniles and then they become willing to change their behaviors. In addition, these systems are built like homes and close to families. They will never be far away from their families. This system implements a group treatment model instead of isolating them and leaving them defenseless to other delinquents.
One way to discipline delinquents or to remove them from society is to incarcerate them. Being surrounded by inmates whom you cannot relate to, not only on a mental level, but on a level of criminal activity is not the ideal setting for a juvenile to be placed in. When this occurs, youth then have to find ways to protect themselves. Which can result to further deviant behavior. "Studies have shown that continuing delinquent youth in correctional facilites will return to the same adverse environment".
In order to create a safe community it may be important and necessary to incarcerate some juveniles. I feel that the juveniles that need to be incarcerated are the most likely to reoffend or the juveniles who have committed serious crimes such as assault. I also think that incarcerating juveniles should be a last resort
Solitary confinement began as a standard punishment of the penitentiary system in the United States in the nineteenth century. It was a response to the philosophical transformation influenced by the Enlightenment, that sought to distance punishment from brutality (Cloud, Drucker, Browne, & Parsons, 2015). The penitentiary system was developed as a more humane alternative to the torture and executions that were happening in England (Cloud et al., 2015). Instead of having corporal and capital punishment, such as public hangings and whippings, individuals were confined to their own cells (Guenther, 2013). Supporters, such as the Quakers, believed that this confinement would force the individuals to confront their own conscience, and they would
If we ever hope to come together and promote equality as a society, how must we do so if we suppress the needs of those with suppressed rights? To amend the issues that we have created, there must be stricter regulations around solitary confinement as it is a cause of unnecessary suicides, robs citizens of their basic rights, and brings down our intersectionality as a collective society here in Canada. Lately, the number of solitary confinement prompted suicides have skyrocketed, and have been on a steep incline for nine years, with no plans for amendment. A study at Cambridge University has determined that 63% of suicides in federal prisons take place while the inmate is in solitary confinement. "Shalev, Sharon, A Sourcebook on Solitary Confinement (2008)."
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
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.
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.
Within juvenile detention facilities, staff place children in isolation for varying periods of time, ranging from hours to months. The reasons staff place children in solitary confinement cells vary widely from one facility to the next, and even from one staff to another at the same facility. Employees often place a youth in isolation because it is the easiest and fastest way to ensure facility security. Some rationales for the practice are: safety, security, disciplinary, administrative, protective and medical. Using this method to control a youth’s behavior or for a disciplinary reason is very common.
In the article, “Greg Ousley Is Sorry for Killing Parents. Is That Enough?” Scott Anderson exemplifies that juveniles may be living in a toxic home environment, which leads to potential murder. In “Juveniles Don’t Deserve Life Sentence,” Garinger speaks about juveniles that are mistreated and were subject to life without parole sentences. Lastly, the article that also justifies that juvenile justice is solidified would be, “Report: Juvenile justice system schools “do more harm than good,” Frey argues that the juvenile system may be harmful, in that some juveniles suffer from disabilities and behavioral issues.
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.”
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.
Can you imagine waking up behind closed walls and bars? Waking up to see your inmate who is a 45-year-old bank robber and you are a 14-year-old minor who made a big mistake. This is why minors who have committed crimes should not be treated the same as adults. Some reasons are because the consequences given to minors in adult court would impact a minor’s life in a negative way. If a minor is tried through a juvenile court, they have a greater chance of rehabilitation.