Should juvenile offenders be tried, sentenced, and jailed as adults? : On the topic of Juvenile offenders being tried, sentenced and jailed as adults, Researcher and Journalist Mike Allen claims that “report after report have concluded that trying teens as adults does nothing to deter crime -- and that sending teens to adult prison makes them more likely to become repeat offenders”.While I agree that sentencing a youth offender to a term of punishment to be carried out with adult offenders may continue the devastating cycle of violence in our culture, I do not agree that juvenile offenders should receive a smaller sentence or easier punishment on the basis of the affects of cross imprisonment.
Instead I would argue that the justice system of America must evolve to adequately evaluate and implement punishment and reform that is conducive to the development of juvenile offenders.Youth crime in America is becoming an unavoidable circumstance that is poisoning our culture and hindering many of our youth from the ability to pursue fulfilled and successful lives. Just as Derrion Albert was an innocent bystander who loss his life to reckless and senseless acts of violence, our world has lost its viable claim of goodness to acts of hate against humanity. Something must be done… Not tomorrow and not when the government is adequately over arguing the cases of health care reform, unjust politics and the influx of income made and redistributed illegally and unethically.Our world must focus on our youth. Today, right now! We are loosing the right to continue to call ourselves ethical and moral beings, when everyday, another youth, another child, when one more innocent life is lost to violence.
The issue of trying juveniles as adults, sentencing them and jailing them involves a range of legal, ethical, developmental, emotional, and pragmatic issues that need to be discussed. Issues that we, as a community must face together, outside of blame, regardless of cultural differences or backgrounds, aside from income and educational standards.Trying juveniles as adults calls into question our ability to provide a stable environment of humanity in which they can grow and learn, and reproduce actions of positivity and not destruction. A November 2007 report from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention finds that teens sent to adult facilities commit more crimes on average than those sent to juvenile facilities.
A study in New Jersey found that juveniles transferred to adult facilities are 39 percent more likely to be rearrested for a violent offense than are teens in juvenile detention.In Pennsylvania, teens housed in adult prisons for a violent offense had a 77 percent greater likelihood of being rearrested for a new violent offense than youth in juvenile detention. Juveniles jailed as adults in Minnesota were 26 percent more likely to be reconvicted. A study in Florida found similar results for teens arrested for violent felonies. Second, transferring more juveniles to brandish the threat of adult punishment doesn’t seem to deter other teens from criminal activity.
A study in Idaho found increased violence after a law mandating transfer of violent juvenile felons passed. Studies in New York and Pennsylvania saw no positive effect of transfers on crime. Finally, increasing transfers doesn’t appear to save money. While the juvenile system’s intensive services cost more than jail does, most youth—especially violent offenders—stay longer in adult jails than they would in juvenile facilities, boosting costs.
And, CDC statistics suggest that the community will experience more crime (and more costs from crime) over the long-run.
