They Call Us Monsters Summary

In the documentary, “They Call Us Monsters,” there are four guys that are in a screen writing class, and they are writing a movie. These guys are not men, but still teenagers. They are at a juvenile hall in California awaiting their trial outcome. In this film, we see how these teenagers are treated, and see how they live their lives in the juvenile hall waiting to see if they will be free to leave with probation, or if they will end up going to prison. In one of our lectures, we talked about how most juveniles are sent to a facility that is less like prison, and more like a boot camp or school. They are under custodial supervision though, because their crimes are more serious. They are small, and staffed intensely (Gerlinger, J. (2017). The …show more content…
The youngest boy is Antonio, he is fourteen years old. There are two who are sixteen years old, Juan and Jarad. The oldest boy is seventeen years old, and his name is Darrell. Antonio is in the juvenile hall and awaiting trial, because of attempted murder, two counts. He was later transported and released on probation. Jarad is still awaiting the outcome of his trail, and he was accused of attempted murder, where he pulled up next to a car, and began shooting. Darrell was told that he would get sentenced for about twenty years in prison, but they took a deal where he would only have to do 15 years in prison. Juan was arrested for first degree murder, and awaiting his trial outcome. It is shocking to me how young some of these kids are that are ending up in a juvenile hall awaiting a trial outcome, and that they are being tried as an adult. Kids are going to be kids, but some of them end up in the wrong, and have to take on the consequences that they chose when they did the crime. Juan, Antonio, Darrell, and Jarad all lived in neighborhoods that weren’t the best, and had heard about shootings happening often, and even watching people get …show more content…
Seeing that California passed a bill in 2014 that will give a juvenile hope of parole after doing fifteen years to me is something good. Most kids don’t realize what they are doing until after they have already done the deed. One of the people in film, Joel Anderson, didn’t like the Senate Bill 260. He talked about how this could be bad for others, and how the ones that committed the crime could just commit another crime once they had been released for parole. This could happen, but it could be a good way for them to change their ways. This Bill gives them a second chance. It is also punishing them for what they have done, and also showing them that they have a chance to make their future better. At the end of the film, it shows that Jarad will have a chance for parole, because of this Bill, in