Dan Maccalair Argumentative Essay

From ages one to two, a person’s brain enters a critical developing stage, where a child learns how to communicate, show their ability to perform physical actions, think logically and abstractedly, and allow for the brain to control the organs and muscles that a person needs to survive with. The next critical stage, in which a brain enters development, begins during the adolescence years, where teenagers learn more than ever (aside from ages one to two). When a youth commits a crime and then sentenced to a juvenile detention center, and quite often adult prisons, the young adult loses valuable time to turn their lives around and learn valuable morals, ideas, and general knowledge. As said by the executive director Dan Maccalair of the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice located in San Francisco, California, “By …show more content…
The first question asking about his opinion on juveniles who have been sent to server time in adult prisons; Maccalair states that, “not only is the practice barbaric since it exposes young people to unspeakable abuses and violence, it makes them worse criminals.” Not only does Maccalair say that his entire organization disproves of the practice and that it goes against everything they work for, but that placing juveniles into adult prisons shapes the child into an even worse criminal. This further evidences previous claims made by Pagnanelli and Mendel and his studies, showing the capacity for a child to revisit his past and commit the same crime over and over again. Additionally, Maccalair states that, “the adult prison system does not reduce the criminal propensities of adults and there is no reason it would work for children.” Although meant for containment of hazards to society, prisons do not help a person become better; so, if a child enters an adult prison system, then he or she may not learn and improve their lifestyle before it becomes too