“And I see the- you know, when I go to the juvenile detention centers and prisons, I see people who can’t read now. And I know when they leave those prisons and those detention centers, they’re not going to be able to make it in our society.”-Walter Dean Myers. If we do not take a stand to youth spending 15 to life in jail we’re not benefiting our society but instead we’re tearing it down. Not only are kids as young as 6 being sent to jail but also most of them are being charged with felony murder in which they aren 't even the ones committing the crimes. Changing our justice system into something that is more beneficial would be a more proper solution. Although some people may argue that illegal immigration is the biggest issue facing our
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In the article “Incarcerating youth as justice” by Robyn Maynard not only does she give good insight on how detaining youth is not making the communities safer. Maynard also goes on to talk about possible solutions.“Policymakers, instead, should look to detention reform as a means to reduce the number of young people needlessly detained, and reinvest the savings in juvenile interventions proven to reduce recidivism and crime, and that can help build healthy and safe communities.” I think this is an great start to fixing this problem. The solution that robyn Maynard is proposing is that we instead of just thinking of jail and or detention centers as a means of punishment we should instead turn it into an intervention to help these kids while also reducing crime and making our communities and country overall more safe. Additionally Maynard also mentioned in her article about the defects that some youth face while being incarcerated. Educational researchers have found that “upwards of 40 percent of incarcerated youth have a learning disability, and they will face significant challenges returning to school after they leave detention.” This is significant because it backs up the fact that the solution to youth incarceration needs to be less of trying to punish these children and make them feel like animals, and more of trying to not only let them know what they did was wrong but also give them a place where they can rebuild themselves and also get help. Locking up children costs more than sending them to college so providing programs inside of these jails to help these kids would be the most effective. Just the United States prisons alone are costing taxpayers 39 billion dollars, which is $31,286, but in New york it’s $60,076. We should first start by trying to discard lifelong imprisonment sentences for youth, this alone would save a lot of money. Going off of that
In the article “Incarcerating youth as justice” by Robyn Maynard not only does she give good insight on how detaining youth is not making the communities safer. Maynard also goes on to talk about possible solutions.“Policymakers, instead, should look to detention reform as a means to reduce the number of young people needlessly detained, and reinvest the savings in juvenile interventions proven to reduce recidivism and crime, and that can help build healthy and safe communities.” I think this is an great start to fixing this problem. The solution that robyn Maynard is proposing is that we instead of just thinking of jail and or detention centers as a means of punishment we should instead turn it into an intervention to help these kids while also reducing crime and making our communities and country overall more safe. Additionally Maynard also mentioned in her article about the defects that some youth face while being incarcerated. Educational researchers have found that “upwards of 40 percent of incarcerated youth have a learning disability, and they will face significant challenges returning to school after they leave detention.” This is significant because it backs up the fact that the solution to youth incarceration needs to be less of trying to punish these children and make them feel like animals, and more of trying to not only let them know what they did was wrong but also give them a place where they can rebuild themselves and also get help. Locking up children costs more than sending them to college so providing programs inside of these jails to help these kids would be the most effective. Just the United States prisons alone are costing taxpayers 39 billion dollars, which is $31,286, but in New york it’s $60,076. We should first start by trying to discard lifelong imprisonment sentences for youth, this alone would save a lot of money. Going off of that