Juvenile Injustice Since the late 90’s juveniles, who have committed crimes, have been given life sentences without parole. After reviewing many cases, where juvenile's shared their stories and how they have changed, people are questioning the life sentence action. On one hand the Supreme Court and many judges feel that juveniles who commit crimes should not be given life sentences. On the other hand four justices believe that a crime is a crime and everyone who commits a heinous crime should be given a life sentence; including juveniles. Juveniles should not be given life sentences due to the neglection of juvenile’s background, how laws such as felony murder are basically made to get juveniles in jail, and the benefits of
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First, the rehabilitation process helps juveniles to change their behavior. When the Centinela Youth Services created a rehabilitation program for juveniles, they found that the “over 1,000 youth [who had] been enrolled, [had a] 69% [of] successful completion. Of those who have completed the program, over 70% demonstrated markedly improved behavior as measured by pre/post assessment of risk factors (e.g. school/work challenges, physical health, stress levels and risk behaviors for infectious diseases, mental health, substance abuse, crime and violence”(Caster). If we begin to give juveniles the chance to change their behavior and actions, through rehabilitation programs, we can begin to turn these juveniles into mature adults. We can show them the error of their ways and teach them to use their strength for the betterment of society. Which in turn will prepare the juveniles to be released from prison as adults, decreasing the amount of juveniles in prison. Furthermore, the rehabilitation programs decrease the amount of money taxpayers give to the prison system. A clinical professor of psychiatry and an adjunct professor of law at New York University found that the “program saved the taxpayers $4 for every $1 spent on [the rehabilitation program.], since the lower reincarceration rate saved roughly $30,000 a year per person.”(Gilligan). By creating …show more content…
Their mental states and backgrounds have been ignored during the court process. Unfair laws such as Felony murder have been created to make it easier to put impressional and manipulated juveniles into prison. Finally, programs such as rehabilitation have been denied to these so called harden criminals when these programs can be effectively used to help juveniles become a benefit for society. It is plain and simple that juveniles shouldn’t be given mandatory life without parole. A crime is not just a crime and everyone who commits a heinous crime should not be given a life sentence; especially juveniles. The sooner that the sentence of mandatory life without parole is taken away from the juveniles, the sooner we can see them for who they are and help them change their lives away from a life of
First, the rehabilitation process helps juveniles to change their behavior. When the Centinela Youth Services created a rehabilitation program for juveniles, they found that the “over 1,000 youth [who had] been enrolled, [had a] 69% [of] successful completion. Of those who have completed the program, over 70% demonstrated markedly improved behavior as measured by pre/post assessment of risk factors (e.g. school/work challenges, physical health, stress levels and risk behaviors for infectious diseases, mental health, substance abuse, crime and violence”(Caster). If we begin to give juveniles the chance to change their behavior and actions, through rehabilitation programs, we can begin to turn these juveniles into mature adults. We can show them the error of their ways and teach them to use their strength for the betterment of society. Which in turn will prepare the juveniles to be released from prison as adults, decreasing the amount of juveniles in prison. Furthermore, the rehabilitation programs decrease the amount of money taxpayers give to the prison system. A clinical professor of psychiatry and an adjunct professor of law at New York University found that the “program saved the taxpayers $4 for every $1 spent on [the rehabilitation program.], since the lower reincarceration rate saved roughly $30,000 a year per person.”(Gilligan). By creating …show more content…
Their mental states and backgrounds have been ignored during the court process. Unfair laws such as Felony murder have been created to make it easier to put impressional and manipulated juveniles into prison. Finally, programs such as rehabilitation have been denied to these so called harden criminals when these programs can be effectively used to help juveniles become a benefit for society. It is plain and simple that juveniles shouldn’t be given mandatory life without parole. A crime is not just a crime and everyone who commits a heinous crime should not be given a life sentence; especially juveniles. The sooner that the sentence of mandatory life without parole is taken away from the juveniles, the sooner we can see them for who they are and help them change their lives away from a life of