Juvenile Rehabilitation

Juvenile correctional systems have many different components and some are likely to be affected with a primary focus on rehabilitation. Today the United States falls short of providing adequate public juvenile facilities. With a focus on punishment, the need for new facilities will continue to rise. Switching the primary focus to

There are times juveniles should not be convicted as adults because sometimes the “crimes” may not harsh enough to be charged as an adult. For example, if a 8 year old saw a gun in their mother's purse and thought it was a toy and grabbed it and began to shoot who would be at fault ? Plus children in adult prisons are 10 times more likely to be taken advantage of in their time. Research shows that children prosecuted in the adult criminal justice system are more likely to reoffend than those held in the juvenile justice

Although some people believe that juvenile offenders should be treated like adults and take the same treatment as adults. The sentencing of a juvenile offender should not be tried as an adult, children should not be given the same handling as adults do, adults are different from kids. Adults know how to intake all of the effects of being treated the way they get treated in jail. Children are not capable of the pressure of being treated like adults yet, it also puts a lot of pressure on the juvenile and creates mental breakdowns. This is not right nor fair for children to have to be tried as adults, it is not the same punishments that adults get in jail, it’s more of a harsh and cruel system for adults than for the children to be placed in the facility they are in and get treated like they do.

Every process has room for improvement, but the juvenile justice system can be altered by adding in possible solutions of what can be done to help this problem in American society. About 100 years ago, juveniles were always tried as adults. Now, that the government has altered the system for the better, the government knows that trying juveniles as adults is not always justified. It depends on the crime, but the majority of the time, juveniles are often always tried as juveniles, based solely on their age. Not only that has changed; the process of juvenile justice has changed as well to better help the juveniles in the system. The rights of juveniles in the system have changed so that the children can improve their lives once they are out of the system. Even though the process has changed and the rights have improved for the juveniles, there are still many improvements to be made. Studies show that recidivism rates are in fact going down, but the rate can always be better so that juveniles do not return to a life of crime.

However if we take a step back and look at how incarcerating youth is hurting them. According to the risks juveniles face when they are incarcerated with adults written by Jason Zeidenberg "juveniles are more likely to be targeted for rape five times more than the adult prisoner and suicide rates among juveniles are 7.7 times higher than those that are in juvenile detention centers." Those two statistics alone explains the reason juveniles should not be placed in prison with adults. Another reason juveniles should not be locked up with adults is because "juveniles are twice as likely to be beaten up by staff." This statistic is very sickening because in the prison the people the juveniles should trust are also bringing them

The United States sentences more juveniles to death than any other nation in the world (Justice, 2009) and our juveniles are being sentenced as young as ten years of age. These are juveniles being tried as adults, and something has to change and change fast. The younger generation is supposed to be our future leaders. How will our juveniles or the citizens of this country prevail if this continues we won’t be able to because most of our future leaders will be prisoner. (B, 2005)

Imagine sitting in a courtroom, hoping the the judge will not give a harsh sentence. Unfortunately, that’s the case for many juveniles, some as young as 13! A juvenile is subject to a more severe sentence with the limited sentencing available. It is estimated that 250,000 youth are prosecuted as adults, each year. This number should change, as juveniles are not adults, both mentally and physically. Juveniles need an environment surrounded with guiding adults, education and the resources to help them. A juvenile is not an adult, and should not be tried as one.

For offenders with mental health impairment, TJJD’s institutional facilities are staffed with mental health professionals in order to provide services that meet the needs of each juveniles. For those diagnosed with severe mental health issues they are most likely placed in Corsicana Residential Treatment Program. The immediate goal is to treat the youth’s mental health impairment. Once this is accomplished the focus of treatment is on changing the delinquent and criminal patterns within the juvenile’s behavior. The final goal within treatment concerns reintegrating youth with his or her family. Unfortunately handling juveniles with mental health problems pose a particularly difficult problem for TJJD. However, according to TJJD the specialized

It is the very nature of the criminal justice system to hold those accountable for their actions. In the adult courts the purpos is to be judged by a jury of our peers and held accountable for crimes committed. There must be consequences faced for criminal actions. The adult and juvenile courts handle the proceedings quite differently. The adult court has a defendant whom appears for a bail hearing. The defendant than is sent to trial in front of a jury of his peers, based

The criminal justice system is locking our young men and young women under the age of sixteen in prison for the rest of their lives. These are children who are just becoming teenagers and still have the possibility of living production lives. These are children who make the wrong decision because of impulse or persuasion. Have we lost hope in our youth of tomorrow.? Do we just give up on our kids because they make a mistake? Does placing a child in an adult prison decrease crime among juveniles? How can a 13-year-old understand the Miranda rights? The system now focuses on the punishment of crime committed, when we need to focus on the child. We need to provide our youth offenders with options other than prison. Juveniles under the

Juvenile justice has failed our delinquent children by being too lenient in punishments towards crimes that, if committed by and adult would garner a life sentence or death. While many people argue, “they’re just kids” we should look beyond that. True, they are kids, but if they don’t learn that there real consequences behind what they do, where will our world be in the future. I feel the justice system is far too lenient with kids, giving them a couple of year’s stint in a juvenile hall for heinous crimes.

The failure of the juvenile detention systems is clearly demonstrated by a lack of direction for the youth. An outstanding 55 percent of the youth put out on probation are rearrested in a 12 month period according to a recent study at youth.gov. This may very well stem from the lack of attention to the children while incarcerated. Punishment is often used as a way of “correcting” the youth. This often escalates into maltreatment of the kids

The juvenile justice system is always changing and developing new ideas. The first example of a change or development can be the status offense reform. The basis of this are they are trying to keep the non-delinquent kids form the juvenile justice system. Some examples of status offenses are skipping school, or running away – offenses that are not illegal for adults. These offenses can lead to possibly detention, which might do very little to rehabilitate or change the issues that juvenile has. How this can all change is to bring these troubled kids to community based services to make them learn that it is possible to change and become a better person. Some other examples of changes or developments in our juvenile justice system (that I won’t go into detail about) are the quality of aftercare and how the system is trying to reduce racial-ethnic discrepancies and making it fairer for everyone (models for change).

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.

This assignment states that the current juvenile system focuses on rehabilitation rather than punishing the juveniles. With that in mind, the assumption is that all juveniles can be rehabilitated. The question posed to me is my view on why or why not all juveniles can be rehabilitated? The Webster dictionary defines juvenile’s delinquency as, “A violation of the law or some type of antisocial behavior by a child or young person, and rehabilitation is, “To restore someone to good condition or health.