Sentencing Children As Adults By Lawrence Gorski

Anthony S. Tomasso
Professor Rodriguez
ENG-101
12 APR 2023
The Struggle Between Juvenile and Adult When we as a society picture what age group is the most innocent and precious, we typically agree on children. When a child commits a serious crime such as: rape, murder, armed robbery, many teeter between sentencing that child as an adult rather than a child. In this essay, “Sentencing Children as Adults” by Terence Gorski (2001) discusses the difference in the Juvenile Justice system and how detrimental it is to not place the juvenile child in that system. “Cruel and Unusual: Sentencing 13- and 14-Year-Old Equal Justice Initiative Children to Die in Prison” by the Equal Justice Initiative (2007) gives a plethora of examples of children sentenced as adults and factors that influence crime at such a young age. Children need the chance to grow and be rehabilitated into

If a child is surrounded in violence as they grow up, they are more likely to become violent. If they are surrounded by such negative influence they themselves are more likely to become what they are surrounded by. For example, Ian Manuel was raised in extreme poverty and violence. At the age of four, he was raped by an older sibling. During an armed robbery, he was a part of when he was 13, a woman received a non-fatal gunshot wound and Ian Manuel was sentenced to life in prison. “Now 29, he has spent half his life in a closet-size concrete box, getting his food through a slot in the door, never seeing another inmate, not allowed to read anything but legal and religious materials, so bored that he cuts himself with fragments of a toothpaste tube or a tiny piece of glass. In the past year, he has attempted suicide five times” (Equal Justice Initiative, Pg 12, 2007). Ian Manuel is an example of cruel punishment. Instead of learning from his mistakes and becoming a better person, he wastes away with only pain and