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Why Teenagers Should Be Allowed

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All our life we commit mistakes, but should a young teen’s life be taken away in a an instant because of an idiotic mistake they made? According to the eighth amendment, “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” It would be cruel to give a young teen a mandatory life sentence without parole without giving them the chance to redeem him/herself and get their life back together. I understand that there are crimes that have no forgiveness, however there are several teens that don 't realize what they are doing. “Young people are biologically different from adults” (Garinger 1). In this case, I agree with the majority of the Supreme Court Justice who believe that mandatory life …show more content…

There are television shows that kids grow up watching and in some there are imaginative violence where a character can come back to life or a character can get hit and nothing happens to them. I do believe there are kids that think that is possible for that to happen. “You want to throw the adult book at kids? Fine, lower the voting age to fourteen” (Lundstrom 1). It is insane to imagine kids as young as 11 or 12 to be able to vote or even be able to drive at that age. Since they are not the legal age, that being 18 they should not be charged as an adult. “We’ve created this image that teenagers are something to be feared” (Lundstrom 2). We should take account the teens that want to change their life around and truly regret what they did. Kids are kids and they should not be something we fear and it should not be a time in like when it is taken …show more content…

When teens face this type of situations they should not feel like it is the end of the world for them. “They were denied access to education and rehabilitation programs and left without help or hope” (Garinger 1). Without the help they need, how will they learn to deal with everything and understand that what they did was wrong. As a kid growing up we get lectures from your parents telling us right from wrong and without the help they could fall into a bad road. “As a former juvenile court judge, I have seen firsthand the enormous capacity of children to change and turn themselves around” (Garinger 2). It has been done, teens can change with the help that they need and get their life back together. They can emerge out from crime and instead of getting life without parole they can be released because of good behavior and the determination to turn

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