The major problem is the amount of minorities being sentenced. The system is giving harsher penalties to minorities and to girls (North Carolina Public Radio, 2015). People don’t see youth incarceration as an issue because it affects more of the lower class. On any given day in the United States, approximately 70,000 juvenile criminal offenders live in residential detention facilities, and about 68% are racial minorities, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (Journalist’s Resource, 2015). The lower class teens are doing more of the crimes because they do not know better. They are doing what they feel that they need to to survive. Teens aren’t thinking of the consequences of their actions. They are focusing on what they need and have to do to get it. Many of the teens that commit crimes are from struggling families. The teens don’t have the things that they need to grow up properly. Also, they tend to live in environments where the crime rate is high. The teens are doing the things that they see others do. They are following the directions of the people around them. Crime becomes all that they know. They don’t realize that they can have a different …show more content…
Some have a positive effect and are able to continue life successfully. Many have negative effect. Juvenile incarceration decreases the chances of high school graduation by thirteen to thirty-nine percentage points and increases the chances of incarceration as an adult by thirty-three to forty-one percentage points, as compared to the average public school student in the same area (Journalist’s Resources, 2015). When a person is sentenced to prison or a detention facility, they will also have that over their heads. When applying for schools or jobs they will have to inform their superior. When people found out that someone has a criminal record they tend to look at the person as if they are dangerous no matter what the crime actually was. Once a child is sent to a facility their life will changes drastically. In Texas, a recent study found that youth in community-based treatment, activity, and surveillance programs had lower rearrest rates than those with similar criminal histories and demographic characteristics who were released from state facilities (The PEW Charitable Trusts, 2015). The Judicial System needs to understand that sentencing child cannot help them if they can not be able to continue with their life. They will also be looked at as lesser of a person for a mistake that they made as a child. As a teenager, people do not look at the future. They just