In this book, Hubner explores a juvenile correctional facility and provides the readers with insight on the school’s ultimate goal of resocializing the teenage delinquents held there. Hubner points to the reason as to why systems that include retributive justice do not work as such, “With a few exceptions, most institutions incarcerating juveniles do not rehabilitate. Indeed, they are not that much different from adult prisons. At best they are holding tank, at worst, they are finishing schools for career criminals” (xx). In institutions such as the ones Hubner described, the teens are essentially doing easy time because all they have to do is sit there and feel sorry for themselves and convince themselves they have been wronged, they are not being forced to think about what they, themselves did wrong.…
Sentencing wasn’t the only thing that ultimately affected these juveniles lives. Being young and locked away as a prisoner, is frightening, no support, and sometimes years of nothingness essentially leads many of these individuals to miss out on life, and…
Criminal Justice Frontline’s video, “Second Chance Kids,” takes its viewers through a controversial topic: life in prison for those who committed crimes as teens. Before the mid 2000s, teenagers who murdered someone get sentenced to life without parole. The arguments that teenagers grow up and change convinced courts to reconsider giving parole to those who were convicted for their crimes made as a teen. In one case, Anthony Rolon was 17 years old when he committed a crime. He was helping his father with selling drugs but a party next doors got really loud.…
Juveniles should not be sentenced to life without parole for first degree murder. We don’t treat kids as adults in society, so why should we punish them as adults. The document video Lost for Life: 2014 tells us stories of kids who are in the juvenile system for mistakes that they deeply regret. Brian and Torey killed a girl because Brian wanted to be known as something and Torey wanted his fantasy of Scream to come to life.…
Weeping in the Playtime of Others In reading Weeping in the Playtime of Others: America’s Incarcerated Children by Kenneth Wooden, I learned about the devastating, heartbreaking truths about how corrupt our juvenile legal system is. I knew there was probably some violence within the facilities, but I didn’t realize the extent of the torture and physical abuse the youth experienced within in the juvenile correctional facilities across America. I was shocked by the amount of youth that weren’t actually what we would consider criminals. These children were incarcerated because they were emotionally disturbed, mentally handicapped or because they ran away from home to escape a bad situation.…
Juvenile Transfer Laws Alonza Thomas was a 15 year old teenager with no prior convictions or a record. He decided to run away from home and found himself staying with someone he thought he could trust. Unfortunately, the man he was staying with demanded that Thomas was to rob a gas station to pay him back in return for staying in his house and eating his food. The man supplied Thomas with a loaded gun to rob a gas station.…
While the “criminal is a child” approach to the juvenile justice system is appealing due to its forgiving nature and emphasis on rehabilitation rather than punishment, there are some cases in which this decision is not so cut-and-dry. One of these instances of a legal “gray area” is the case of Marin Sinzer, who was charged for the murder of Tammy Shevin, 25 years after the crime was committed. The now 38 year old is petitioning to be tried as a juvenile, since he was only 13 at the time of the crime, a year younger than the waiver age at the time. While many proponents of the “criminal is a child” approach take that stance because of the physical and psychological dangers posed to juveniles who are placed in adult prisons, in this unique…
One reason why juveniles should not receive life in prison without parole is the undeveloped thinking process that occurs. This is further explored in the article, “Startling Finds on Teenage Brains,” by Paul Thompson, an assistant professor of neurology at the University of California, Los Angeles. In the article, Thompson focuses on the cognitive development of the juvenile brain and compares it with the brain of a full grown adult. He uses an example of a juvenile being tried as an adult for second-degree murder to point out how when questioned, the juvenile was unable to give a reason for his actions. He then reports on findings about the teenage brain that he and his research team had discovered.…
Juveniles are not mentally capable to understand the crime they commit like an adult is, thus they should not be tried as an adult. A child, just like any living thing, goes through developmental stages. Throughout their growth periods, juveniles learn new skills and so do their brains. In a study, “Dr. Dorothy Otnow Lewis of New York University led comprehensive diagnostic evaluations of 14 juveniles on death row (at that time, 40 percent) in four states. She found that nine had major neuropsychological disorders and seven had psychotic disorders since early childhood” (Ortiz).…
Children are usually seen as innocent, as they play around with others and are just balls of energy. Often seen as simply kids who have no experience in the outside world until they grow older. However, sometimes a child’s play can go wrong and can affect another’s life. When these incidents happen where a death is involved, it’s often easy for society to look at the offender as a murder who should be in prison for the rest of their life despite what age the offender may be. While juveniles committing heinous crimes should be punished, they should also be given the chance to rejoin society at an appropriate age; therefore juveniles who redeem themselves should be able to get released earlier and be able to put their life together.…
The article On Punishment and Teen Killers by Jennifer Bishop Jenkins speaks about how we here in the United States although we do give teenage murderers very big sentences that make them spend the rest of their life in prison we still respect their human rights. We do not imprison children nor torture and hurt the offenders, we simply are not letting their crimes go in vain. The authors purpose is to let us know that all though many people believe that teenagers who commit crimes should have a smaller sentence because of the way and the time it takes for their minds to develop. In fact she even states the following, "If brain development were the reason, then teens would kill at roughly the same rates all over the world. They do not.…
Juveniles and Life Sentences Do juveniles deserve mandatory life in prison for their crimes or should they have the opportunity to receive a second chance? In 2012, the Supreme Court ruled that mandatory life sentences for any crime are now illegal to give to juveniles meaning that juveniles are no longer allowed to serve mandatory life sentences in prison. This ruling is agreeable because juveniles are not fully developed, and it is unfair for juveniles to serve mandatory life sentences. Juveniles do not deserve life sentences because the teenage brain is not fully developed.…
Juveniles should not be tried as adults for it is wrong to hold adolescents, under the legal age, to adult standards. If children do not even receive the same rights as adults in the first place, it makes no sense to try them in adult court. These juveniles should have the opportunity to be rehabilitated in a positive manner, for they tend to come from troubled households and violent neighborhoods. In over half of the cases these troubled kids don’t know any different way than a life of crime when surrounded by both social and environmental factors that influence their delinquent actions. One must commemorate that juveniles are mentally underdeveloped, and still have time to innovate if their issues are dealt with precisely and accurately.…
The decision of juveniles being tried as adults in the world of criminal justice has usually been an object of controversy. Some agree that an adolescent who commits a serious crime like murder deserves to be penalized exactly like an adult; while others declare that a minor should not face the same punishment as an adult. However, no matter how severe or appalling a crime may be, juveniles should not be tried as adults; the reason being that everyone should be granted the chance to learn from their mistakes. Juveniles should not be punished as adults, simply because they biologically distinct from adults. Teenagers are the midsection between children and adults.…