Juvenile Incarceration System

If we choose to do nothing, our prison conditions will continue to bring about health hazards for the inmates. Stevenson strongly advocates for a more humane approach to youth justice and is strongly against trying minors as adults. The juvenile justice system needs to place more emphasis on support and correction than on punishment, taking into account the vulnerabilities and developmental differences of young offenders. In addition, it is important to convert juvenile correctional facilities into therapeutic and educational settings that target the underlying causes of misbehavior. In order for these children to become successful individuals, the primary components of juvenile detention have to be educational opportunities, psychological services, and rehabilitation programs (Hanink, 2018).

This type of practice could have lasting effects on the child, potentially leading to more harmful acts and a criminal lifestyle (New York Times 601). Based on developmental research, it is suitable to raise genuine concerns about the relocation of juveniles to adult prison, because a child’s arbitrative capacity is quite minimal (Steinberg 605). In other words, most young children do not possess the fortitude they would need to fully tackle the brutal consequences that are tolerated in an adult prison. Therefore, children deserve the right to be regarded as juveniles no matter the nature of their infraction. Nevertheless, young offenders absolutely need to be punished for their violations, but they should be punished in a secure environment created for children, not adults (Steinberg

Childhood is a time in which memories are created, adventures are explored and social awareness begins to develop. The events that occur during childhood are pivotal in the development of a healthy and substantial life. However, what if those experiences were taken from a child? What would the outcome be if a child could not experience what it is like to be young? Juvenile incarceration strips a person of their childhood and essentially takes away the experiences necessary for them to develop into healthy functioning adults. Even though juvenile incarceration is an effective method of punishment for those who have committed heinous crimes, the justice system should not convict children and adolescents as adults because of the child 's circumstances that lead to the crime as well as the disastrous effects it causes on the mental and emotional state of the child.

In America we sometimes house juveniles and adults in the same prison system. In the state of Wisconsin in 2014, we have incarcerated 121 minors into the adult system. While incarcerating these juveniles in the prison system some may wonder how does it affect a juvenile, Also what problems do they face while in prison and lastly, how has their life change for better or worse after they are released back into society.

Mass incarceration not only takes a toll on adults but on children as well. Along with the men, women are also being incarcerated, in the last ten years the rates of women being put behind bars has increased. According to Court Services and Offender Supervision

There are more that 2 million men and women incarcerated in U.S. prisons and the majority of them are parents of children under the age of 18. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, parents in prison had approximately 2.6 million children at the time they were admitted to prison and of those children, approximately 1 million will reach the age of 18 at the time of the inmates expected release (Petit 2012. Previous research has shown that these children have been shown to underperform academically (Foster and Hagan 2009), have a higher risk of

Studies suggest that there is a divide between the government and public response to juvenile incarceration. Bullis & Yovas (2005) state that support is given to correctional facilities to house juvenile offenders as a form of punishment (as cited in Shannon, 2013, p. 17). Individuals who support this perspective are often more likely to support the construction of more prisons and stern penalties on crime based upon the presumptions that youthful offenders are aware of the consequences of their actions (Drakeford, 2002 as cited in Shannon, 2013, p. 17). On the other hand, opponents of this perspective believe that incarceration creates an opportunity to rehabilitate the offenders (Huffine, 2006 as cited in Shannon, 2013, p. 18). This perspective supports the purpose of juvenile detention centers as “preparatory in nature – that is, offering services focused on the development of skills needed to return successfully to mainstream

The United States leads the world in the incarceration of young people, there are over 100,000 youth placed in jail each year. Locking up youth has shown very little positive impact on reducing crime. Incarcerating youth have posed greater problems such as expenses, limited education, lack of employment, and effect on juveniles’ mental and physical well-being.

Killers, rapists, and other criminals are being released every day, after serving a very short, or easy sentence. Who are these criminals, and what is the reasoning for this type of treatment? These criminals are juveniles who have committed violent crimes. On a daily basis in the juvenile justice system, kids are being tried and being given short sentences, or are even being set free with a penalty as minor as house arrest. Meanwhile, their victims and the victims families, are left to suffer because of the decision of a kid. The belief that a second chance should be given to a youth who commits crimes, is why criminals are walking among us, living as our neighbors, and in many most cases committing additional crimes. Despite the fact that since 1994, the arrest rates for juveniles have plummeted by forty-seven percent, criminal statistics for children of seventeen and below are still extremely high. Juvenile crime statistics report that every year, juvenile courts in the U.S. handle an estimated 1.7 million cases, in which the youth was charged with a delinquency offense, or in other words, approximately 4,600 delinquency cases per day. The major issue with the amount of crime, when it comes to juveniles, has not been dealt with the way that it should be; with further actions being taken, and an increase in strictness in sentences.

It is a common believe that adolescents require a special system thru which be processed because they are “youth who are in a transitional stage of development…young offenders that are neither innocent children nor mature adults…” (Nelson, 2012). Because juveniles are in a process of constant development sociologically, psychologically and physiologically, the juvenile court system focuses on alternative sentences and the creation of programs that will offer them rehabilitation instead of incarceration. However, in cases of extraordinary circumstances, the juvenile system shifts from looking at rehabilitation as a first choice to accountability and punishment (Read, n.d). All levels of society are collectively involved in delinquency

Many children become familiar with the Juvenile Justice System without knowledge of why they continue to commit crimes. Many of them suffered years of being abuses, which caused socialization changes that pushed them to withdraw or act out. This research is important because it shows the long terms effects child abuse has on children that become juvenile delinquents. Statistics show increasing numbers of children who are the victims of child abuse and neglect, although they decrease in delinquency may reflect a greater nation focus on the issue and the use of more effective programs to attack the problem. This research is important to me because the Criminal Justice System doesn’t address the causes of deviant behavior in juvenile delinquents to its full potential. They rather just focus on policing and tough sanctions. Hopefully with this paper and many others child abuse can be prevented along with the long-term effects of child abuse and better programs can be invented to treat child abuse victims. The Office of Justice Programs came up with a “Safe Kids Safe Streets” Program, which acknowledge the correlation between child abuse and juvenile delinquency and is aimed at breaking the cycle of early childhood victimization and later delinquency (Safe

Did you know, that in the United States alone, Over 200,000 children are charged and imprisoned every year as adults? Early in the 20th century, most states established juvenile courts to rehabilitate and not just punish youthful offenders. The system was designed for children to have a second chance at their lives. “A separate juvenile-justice system, which sought to rehabilitate and not just punish children, was part of a movement by progressives to create a legally defined adolescence through the passage of child-labor and compulsory education laws and the creation of parks and open spaces.”(How to reduce crime Pg 1) Although the view on juveniles committing brutal crimes is nearly inconceivable, it is not a solution to give juveniles adult consequences because the effects of the adult system on juveniles are not effective.

From an historical perspective, having a legal framework that consists of juvenile offenders is comparatively low (Elrod & Ryder, 2011). Throughout history, children who are as young as seven years old who may have been accused of doing wrong were imprisoned together with adults. In the nineteenth century the whole idea of reforming young offenders’ systems took root all over the United States and the house of Refugee found in the New York that opened in the 1824 became the first juvenile house. This one became the first house of juvenile offenders to be established in a separate facility and other states for example Maryland soon followed law suit (Harvey, 2011).

In the United States, the juvenile delinquency system is specialized and is aimed at rehabilitating children, rather penalizing them, an absent system in Russia. Prior to the birth of the USSR, there was a specialized system for juveniles and records showed that it was a relatively successful procedure. Once in power, the Soviet government abolished the practice in 1918, transforming juvenile affairs into a political commission and removing the need for lawyers. Since the fall the Soviet Union, the Russian Federation has yet to implement a specialized system in attending to the needs of juvenile offenders. The Committee of the Rights of Child emphasizes heavy concerns in the lack of a specialized juvenile courts, especially when they court

Something is wrong in society if more and more teenagers commit delinquent crimes. Focusing on what spawns delinquency in juveniles today, parenting is essential. During my visit to family court with fellow classmates I was honored to observe real live cases involving teenagers, and their parents. It was obvious that one main issue in the U.S. Juvenile Delinquency system is the lack of family structure. Family and delinquent relationships interconnect, ultimately, resulting to the core of delinquency. The articles “Juvenile Delinquency and Family Structure”, by Anika Doggett, and “Family Influences on Delinquency, written by David P. Farrington, both attempt to explain the effects of family structure on juvenile delinquents. The least