In this documentary kids behind bars the goals that are being achieved by institutions designed for youth juveniles are discipline, responsibilities, able to function in society, anger management, correct character deficiencies, drug and alcohol counseling. In Texas Paul was not able to function in society. Paul was use drugs and missing curfew. He was sent to a county boot camp for six months. Another Paul from England who is just 12 years old, got caught with the police for stealing golf clubs and a pack of Pokemon cards. Paul is also dyslexic, struggles in school and gets bullied. Sam who is 15 years old also from England, and she is very unruly. Sam been in and out of foster care, she runs away from home, gets drunk, gets into fights …show more content…
Around the world the government is puts children behind Bar toady more than ever before. Three and a half thousand children are in prison in the UK more than any other country in Europe. In Brazil where Victor Hugo and Julio stay a juvenile prison is being investigated by the UN because of the guard’s brutality against the boys. The investigators found a hidden room up above them were the guards beat the boys with wood boards. In the Philippines 12 years old Eugene and his Bother were arrested for rape. The 21year old women drop the charges, but since the system has not caught up yet the boys are still in prison. In the room where Eugene and his brother sleep at is very crowded with other kids. When there should be only 50 kids in a room there is 71, and the oldest one sleeps on the floor while the younger one sleeps on the top bunks. One practice I found intriguing was Ankara Turkey a child prison were nearly all the inmates stays out of trouble after they are released. Turkey is a prison where the children lives as part of the local community instead of being isolated behind bars. Turkey’s System is very effective because the inmates are able to go to school and work. There are no wall or gates so if the inmates wanted to escape the prison they could, but they chose not to because they actually like the reformatory because they’re able to still be a part of society. One other
Draft Paper In the documentary film, “Kids for Cash”, Robert May shows his audience the horrors of the Luzerne County justice system. He uses imagery, appeals to logos and pathos, personal experiences and anecdotes to support his claim. Robert May made this documentary to show the world that the government needs to make sure that even minors have a fair trial and justice before being incarcerated.
There are indication that most criminals have a juvenile records in the US, indicating that crime manifests from a tender age. Therefore, to reverse the incidence of crime, it follows that the best strategy is to reduce the criminal orientation in the juvenile offenders as opposed to hardening them and preparing them for criminal careers. The case of the Crossroads Juvenile Center demonstrates the willingness of the juvenile justice systems to make these changes on the children. References Day, S. (2014). Runaway Man: A Journey Back to Hope.
The federal government’s “War on Crime” by the Johnson administration in the 60s made way for tougher law enforcement and surveillance (Hinton, 2015). However, with this came the separation of children and adults in the criminal justice system; then the separation of juvenile delinquents from status offenders. As mentioned, status offenders are different from juvenile delinquents because they had broken rules which apply to only children. Meanwhile, juvenile delinquents are youths under the age of 18, who committed offenses that would be punishable to adults as well. By the late 1960s, there became a growing concern that juveniles involved in the court-based status-offense system, were not getting their best interests met (Shubik & Kendall, 2007).
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.
Imagine being a child imprisoned for committing a crime for which you did not understand the consequences. Alone and afraid, with only hardened criminals and psychopaths as adult role models, you live in fear. Through a vicious combination of physical, sexual, emotional, and mental abuse, there is no option but to turn back to crime as an adult, and continue the cycle. This is a daily reality for thousands of American juveniles. Yet, we continue to call it the juvenile justice system.
Many young children go to visit the child who is locked up and they get scared for life. LeGuin states “They feel anger, outrage, and impotence, despite all explanations. They would like to do something for the child. ”(LeGuin 3). The young children still can’t grasp the fact that people can be cruel and cunning.
In the documentary “When Kids Get Life” by Ofra Bikel we see five men who were sentenced to life in prison for committing crimes in their teens. We hear the stories of how it happened, why it happened, and what life is like for them today. This documentary sheds light on the battle that juveniles face when they commit crimes and the judicial system. This documentary relates heavily in the material we learn because although it is about teenagers who receive life in prison, the judicial system plays a key role.
There are more than 2,000 child offenders serving life without parole sentences in United States prisons for crimes committed before the age of 18 and Lolita Barthel is one of them. The United States is one of only a few countries in the world that permits children who commit crimes to be sentenced to prison forever, without any possibility of release. Only eight states in this country Alaska, Colorado, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, New Mexico, New York, and West Virginia and the District of Columbia prohibit life without parole for youthful offenders. Unfortunately, adolescents, like adults, commit horrible crimes and make terrible mistakes. And, like adults, they should be held accountable but in accordance with their age, stage of development, and greater capacity for rehabilitation.
There are differences between a juvenile court and criminal court in the United States. The focus of the juvenile justice system is on rehabilitation, in hope of deterring the minor away from a life of crime so they will not commit a crime again as an adult. In contrast, the criminal justice system focuses on the punishment and often bases the sentencing outcome on the criminal history of the youth. In a study conducted, Butler (2011) showed that the participants’ experience with adult jails and prisons show that those facilities may instill fear but are otherwise emotionally—and often physically—dangerous for youth. Many of the adult prisoners, who were minors when they enter the adult institution, felt they were forced to “grow
There are many children in the world who are being put behind bars and detained for alleged wrongdoing without protections they are entitled to. Throughout the world, children are charged and sentenced for actions that should not be considered as adult crimes. Here in the United States, the minimum age of criminal responsibility is age 12. Law enforcement officials and those in the juvenile justice system nationwide tend to mistreat underage individuals by trying cases while working through the lens of an adult. Unfair punishments are still handed down domestically, which is in violation of Supreme Court law.
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.”
Within the urban communities, negative perceptions are magnified. Adolescents are more prone to be a product of their environment, especially those whose parents are incarcerated. Because of this trend adolescents are being incarcerated at an alarming rate and sentenced to adult facilities. Lambie & Randall (2013) states, the United States have imposed harsher penalties on serious young offenders, and have consequently increased rates of incarcerated youth and made it easier for youth to be treated and incarcerated as adults within the justice
Discussion 1_ Going Straight Explanation of the Four “H’s” as they Relate the Society Bartollas & Miller (2014), identify four key components that are critical to facilitating a juveniles’ ability to turn their lives around for the better. These four essential components included habilitation, healing, hope, and honor. Habilitation involves teaching juveniles to respect the system and abide by its principles and conventions. It helps juveniles appreciate the importance of living productively within the community, and assist the juvenile become a better citizen in order to be released into the community.
While some approaches to rehabilitation involve therapy and restructuring individuals thinking processes, one might argue against this approach (Carney, 2015). Blackburn (1993) and Siegel and Welsh (2015) explain that this approach focuses on intellectual and moral development. This approach is widely used in the criminal justice system for rehabilitation in therapy and with juvenile delinquent programs. The disadvantage to this theory is that juveniles may just obey the law to avoid punishment, therefore not learning from their mistakes (Siegel, 2015). For example, a person who is on parole for a first offense may learn how to avoid getting caught again by learning what behaviors police watch for.