Should Juveniles be Tried as Adults?
Araziel Jackson
Rehabilitation
Racial Issues
The main concept of the juvenile justice system is rehabilitation. If a juvenile receives the appropriate training, counseling, and support they are able to change for the better.
The racial disparities in the criminal justice system dates back centuries
Abstract
Should Juveniles be Tried as Adults?
Education:
- “Children and youth in juvenile corrections have statutory rights to education services of comparable quality to those found in the public schools” - Dr. Peter E. Leone
- Juveniles can gain their GED and other forms of education through strong programs.
Job Training:
- Juveniles can learn the necessary skills they need so when they are released they will not have to turn to a life of crime.
- "Children in adult jails are denied access to rehabilitation, an education, counseling, and job skills that could help them improve their lives" - Deborah Vargas of Justice Policy Institute.
Counseling:
- Counseling comes in many forms including individual counseling, group therapy, family counseling, and more.
- Mental illness in the juvenile justice population is significantly higher than that in the general population (Grisso and Barnum, 2000)
- The U.S. Census Bureau states that African-Americans make up only 13.3% of the population (2016)
- The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) states African Americans constituted 2.3 million of the 6.8 million correctional population (2014)
- African American children represent 32% of children who are arrested, 42% of children who are detained, and 52% of children whose cases are judicially waived to criminal court. (NAACP)
- African American juveniles are more than four times as likely to be committed to secure placement facilities as white juveniles. (SentencingProject.org)
- Hispanic or American Indian decent, change on a state by state basis, but the majority were more likely to be committed than white juveniles (Rovner, 2016).
Children who commit violent crimes should not be tried as adults because:
- The juvenile system provides rehabilitation
- The adolescent brain is not fully developed
- The criminal system can be racist towards juvenile of color
Laws in the the United States have made it easier for children who commit crimes to be tried as adults. The juvenile system was founded to stop children from re-offending by providing them with rehabilitation. Also, the main idea of the juvenile justice system is that children's brains are not fully developed so they are more readily able to change. Lastly, there are many racial issues within the criminal justice system therefore everyone deserves equal opportunity in the juvenile system.
Susan Betzjitomir, Eric Smith’s attorney, credits the 6 years he spent in the juvenile center receiving intense counseling to his extreme development and change
Youths of color do not commit more crimes than other kids, yet they are confined to youth facilities nearly three times more often than white youths...even as youth confinement is down nationwide, the latest reports show that racial and ethnic disparities in the system have intensified. - Sarah Breyer of the National Juvenile Justice System Network
Eric Smith
Brain Development
Eric Smith was 13-years-old when he murdered four-year-old Derrick Robie. He dropped rocks on Robie, strangled, undressed, and sodomized him.
The juvenile justice system was founded on the very belief that children are developmentally different than adults and they are more capable of changing their behavior.
- Smith was the subject of constant bullying during the days he spent in school. Kids made fun of his red hair, thick glasses, freckles, and even his ears.
Frontal lobe:
- This is the part of the brain that is responsible for cognitive processes such as planning, organization, thoughts and actions. (Laura Dimon, 2014)
- The section of the frontal lobe called, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, is not developed until mid-20s. This is responsible for inhibition of impulses and the consideration of consequences. (Laura Dimon, 2014)
- Bullying made Smith weak, vulnerable, and enraged
Victoria Freile, Twitter, 2016
American Psychological Association:
- Juveniles are less capable of participating in their own defense (as cited in Mayse, 2011).
- more likely to be influenced negatively by peers into committing criminal acts (as cited in Mayse, 2011).
"I began to believe that I was nothing and a nobody. And my outlook on life was dark. I felt that when I went to school, I was going to hell because that's what it was for me"
- Eric Smith in Why Did Eric Kill (Leung,2004)
Do you think 13-year-old Eric Smith had thought about the consequences of his actions?
Reminder: Smith was a tortured adolescent that did not know how to cope with his horrible childhood.
Juveniles in Adult Prisons
Juvenile Justice System is for the Youth
Studies show that juveniles who come out of the adult justice system were 30 percent more likely to commit a new crime (Smith, 2002, p. 11)
The key to stopping juvenile crime is not giving them harsher sentencing, but in fact rehabilitating them and putting them through the system that was designed for them.
Sexual assault:
- Juveniles in adult prisons are subjects to many forms of sexual assault
- National Prison Rape Elimination Commission observed that, “More than any other group of incarcerated persons, youth incarcerated with adults are probably at the highest risk of sexual abuse”
Question for thought:
- Think about yourself as an adolescent: Do you still do the same things you do today? Would you want to suffer a life sentence for something you did in the past?
Racial Disparities:
- Racially fueled incarceration may take decades to fix. However, the U.S. can start with the youth.
- All children, no matter the crime or race should go through the juvenile justice system and only if progress is not shown, that is when they should receive a harsher sentence.
Lack of Resources:
- Children do not have easy access to rehabilitation, job skills, counseling, education, and more as they do in juvenile centers
"Prosecuting kids is counterproductive. It created more crime” - Mark Soler of the Youth Law Center