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Juvenile Offenders In Adult Prisons

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The growing number of juveniles being charged in the adult criminal justice system is rising. Youth are serving time in adult facilities for committing violent crimes committed while in their youth. This is a form of punitive punishment and deviates from rehabilitation. The Juvenile courts were established to protect youth from the adult criminal justice system. Also, the Juvenile court programs that are geared toward rehabilitating juvenile delinquency is affordable (Pearson, 2004). However through the many types transfer waivers violent juvenile offenders are handed over to the criminal court system. Youth are then forced to serve sentences in adult facilities where they are at risk for a number of things. According to Loughran, …show more content…
Bechtold and Cauffman argued that youth tried as adults while still considered, youth should not be housed with adults until they actually reach adulthood. Housing young impressionable teenagers in adult prison have the potential to increase criminal behavior in young adults. Youth who are housed with adult offenders are at risk for a host of factors not limited to rape, manipulation, suicide an violence in general (Bechtold & Cauffman, 20014).. Bechtold and Cauffman believe there are specific prototypes that are sent to adult prison over others. Their data reflected those youth who committed violent crime were more likely to transfer to adult facilities to serve time. Their result also looked more specifically at the court systems in which youth offenders receive their sentencing. Findings revealed that adult courts were more likely to prosecute youth as adults while juvenile courts were liniment with sentencing. Juvenile courts acknowledge the risks posed by trying juveniles as adults. However state transfer laws have little or no tendency to deter would-be juvenile criminal probably due to juveniles’ general ignorance of transfer laws and Risks (Firestine, …show more content…
The organization emerged from previous youth offenders who made the most of a Saturday morning program provided to them as an outlet. They were made aware the program was soon ending and youth would have one less place to express themselves in lower socioeconomic areas of Philadelphia. The group of previous youth offenders then started the YASP program to provide other youth offenders or those at risk an outlet to express themselves through a multitude of music and art forms (Ford, et.al, 2013). The goal of YASP is diminish the number of youth being pulled from the school system to be entered into the prison system. YASP is also an advocate for laws that could pose potential harm for youth. Ford stresses the importance of considering the factors that contribute to youth attitude and beliefs that may curve their decision, prior to sentencing (Ford et al, 2013). Ford looks at the factors surrounding several youth in Pennsylvania who are faced with a host of psychosocial factors. The factors observed are those that youth have no control over but may feel they have the obligation to change. This is how many youth get involved in a criminal

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