Friday, February 9, 2007
Video
I strongly believe that there is a difference between having youth and adults in jail. I do feel that someone who is constantly molesting children should rot in jail, i don't understand how someone can be so sick as to prey on little children. I do feel that people who have done wrong should get counseling because there is still hope for them. But i also believe that things should be taken case by case because every one's situations are different. There is no reason that a teenager especially one that hasn't reached puberty yet should be in prison for fifty years. Psychologically they are not even fully development to be put in situations like that. In the video it seems that prison does not help the majority of the people in there because they are in a constant battle for their life. For instance for the child to get raped on a regular basis by her father she needs counseling not to be thrown in jail. Things such as that can alter your entire life. She has not even been able to enjoy her childhood having a life such as the one that she had it is hard to stay on the straight and narrow because she has no outlet. She didn't even feel comfortable talking to her mother about the situation. Also i feel that children should not be portrayed in the media like that. So youth may get the wrong impression when they see a child going off to jail. There also should be programs for children whose parents are in the system or are in jail. Programs that will teach and lead them in the right direction and show them that the streets doesn't have to be an option.
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11 comments:
I don't mean to sound like a monster but there is a huge issue that were side stepping.
There has to be some formal, documented way to approach justice. Zero Tolerance, Adult Crimes do Adult Time and Mandatory Minimums all were created at one point in time in best interest in society. The people who created these policies did it with good intention. In fact, the reason these policies exist is because of the very thoughts and feelings we have.
We have to keep in mind that despite the fact that the girl was raped by her father for a long time, she still did the crime. And yes I do agree that she should have some treatment for the rape history but she also must be punished for her crime.
I offer another story...
I grew up with a kid in high school. He was poor, had trouble in school and was easily classified as one of "those skater punks". He was beaten by his father growing up until his father left. He was molested by his uncle at the age of 6 a few times. When he told his mother, she didn't beleive him. The family was dependant on the uncle to pay for their rent at the time so the mother refused to talk about it despite her gut instinct. When he was in highschool, his mother had boyfriend. One day, after coming home from school, he found his mother at home crying and with a black eye. This kid went nuts. That night he broke into the guys house and beat him. He ended up breaking the guys arm and he cracked two of his ribs while he bit him with a pipe he found.
Despite the fact that this kid had a terrible upbringing he still committed this crime. Should he pay or should he be forgiven?
I totally agree with you, there is a difference between adults and children in jail. I honestly believe that children at a young age have an opportunity to change their lives around if you are willing to give them a chance,but how many people are willing to give them asecond chance not many. It has come to the point now where even parents are giving up on their children because they dont know what to do with them.They feel once they have commited one crime, they are going to continue to commit crimes and that is not always neccessarily true. I was watching the show "JUVIES" and one mother told the judge to keep her daughter behind bars because she is a treat to society and will never become nothing. How can you honestly say that about your child not just any child,but your own thats a question that we need to address, if parents give up so easily does that give teachers the same right??
Before watching this video and I hadn't really thought much about the effects of youth jail sentencing. I knew that there were some extreme cases that children were being sentenced as adults, but watching this video put into perspective on sadly how normal this is becoming in our country. I think that if a child commits a crime they should be punished, but accordingly. There seems to be lack of common sense applied to some of these cases. In the video, it showed two girls who had committed similar crimes under similar circumstances and their sentencing times were very different. I don't really understand. But by keeping these children in jail they are missing out on their chance to make their life right. Putting them in jail does not make them a productive member of society. I don't know if any of you have seen a new TV show on MTV (I know, MTV, but go with me!), they have a new TV show called Juvies. This show it takes place in Lake County, Indiana. The children and teens in this show really want to make a change in their life, and the most common response in from these kids is that they want to "go home and go back to school". I do believe that even just a taste of jail is enough to make a "tough" kid make a turn around!
The part that really struck a cord for me, on top of many other parts, was the fact that these juveniles had nowhere to turn for advice. These teenagers were facing life-altering events, and the video mentioned that they could not even talk to their parents when deciding their fate. I don't know about all of you, but I ask my parents for advice on what seems like a daily basis. Although I may not agree with their opinion, it is nice to know that I have someone looking out for my best interests. Who is looking out for these teenagers? Obviously not the judicial system, who from the video clearly could care less about these kids.
So often, the punishment did not fit the crime. In fact, the video mentioned that the sentences are often given as a sort of pre-emptive strike against future offenses. Many of these kids were first time offenders. To me, counseling and crime prevention programs seem more the route to go. What do you all think?
I think it's assuming quite a lot to say that policies such as Zero Tolerance and mandatory minimums were created "with good intentions" and "in the best interest of society." It's assuming, first of all, that we all have a common interest, that we all--rich, poor, Black, Latino, White, immigrant--benefit or suffer equally from such policies. It's assuming, as well, that the justice system is fair and impartial, and that any "get tough" measures will be meted out in equal measure to people from all backgrounds. But are they? Are sentencing guidelines that punish crack cocaine offenders one hundred times more harshly than powder cocaine offenders "unbiased", or do they target specific groups of people? And even if the laws were colorblind and class-blind, who has a better chance of evading serious jail time--the kid who relies on a public defender, or the kid whose parents can pay for a top-notch private attorney?
Yes, kids who commit crimes must make restitution, but as the Schwartz & Reiser article asks, what should the purpose of the juvenile justice system be? Deterrance? Retribution? Rehabilitation? Redemption?
Is it really a choice between whether kids who make mistakes should "pay" or "be forgiven"? Or are our options broader?
What if, whenever a kid committed a crime, the standard we used to guide our decision-making was, "What if this was my child?" What would the juvenile justice system look like then?
I agree with the side that says kids should not be punished with adult time for adult crime.
There definitely should be some type of punishment for children who commit adult crimes. But, I could not believe what I saw in Juvies. How they talked about getting addicted to drugs and almost having no choice when it comes to choosing a mate.
This may sound too simple of an explanation but kids will be rebellious. They are still developing and yes, adult crimes do deserve a more severe punishment but not to the extent of doing adult time. The children in the video were outrageously cheated in their situation. A 14 year old girl will never get to be a teenager because she will be spending it in jail.
There should be a policy I guess you could call, in between, adult and minor crimes.
This is a hard situation to discuss because there are many different variables to keep in mind before arguing either side. I watched the movie, and I felt for those children because the harshness of their punishments. And those children shouldn't have had to go to adult prison at such a ripe age where they are still impressionable. Jail is no place for children, shit jail is no place for adults. For example, killing someone that person should be in some type of detention center because that is a crime that counseling may not be able to fix. But drug possesion or even drug trafficing for minors should not require intense sentencing. I feel that many of you are thinking that children shouldn't be going to jail, but I think that those same children shouldn't being doing things that may put them in jails. I know that sounds rather obvious but that is the real issue.
There is a difference between youth and adults in jail. At times, there may not be much difference between crimes, but still one person is a child and another is an adult. Like stated in some other comments, mentally these youths are not fully developed like adults. I am not saying that youths should not think about what they are doing or that they have absolutely no clue, but their series of thinking for the action and the afterwards is different than an adult's. An adult knows what he/she is doing and can fathum the punishment. I was shocked while watching "Juvies"
mainly because of the inconsistency in sentencing for these youths and also because of the extremities. How can a boy that witnessed a crime, maybe even if he was tried as an accomplice, deserve 35 years in prison? The only way he was affiliated was because it was his car. This is really did not understand. Also, I cannot believe there is so much inconsistency...I know that every judge is different and so is the jury, but shouldn't there be slight guidelines to common offenses these youths may be involved in?
Another thing I agree with is that there needs to e counseling and maye even some other programs for these youths to get involved in if they do have to be in jail. Many of these youths have hardcore issues that need to be worked through, but they have never been given a chance so they turned in a bad direction, and I think that jail is the worst and we should be working to turn these youths around. Not every kid in jail is going to want this, but counseling should be an option for kids to have. The original post which mentioned a program for kids, I think, is good. These kids need to be shown other options because most of them may not have had any other exposure than the streets and know nothing different. Maybe if we work to show these kids they have other options, it will help them once thay are able to get back to the "real world". But this can also only help if we stop placing youth in adult jails and if we make their sentences punishment, not life-taking sentences.
One of the biggest problems I see when I think of the youth that are put in jail, is that they don’t look for the motives or causes of the crime. I do not feel that each individual crime should be sentenced based on the reasoning of the child, because the system would get really unorganized. But I do feel that there needs to be somebody who looks within the child to see their reasoning. In many accounts the child’s personal experiences lead to the crimes they commit. A young child might shoot a kid at school because day after day that kid is threatening to kill their entire family. After finding out the motives behind a child's crime there really needs to be some sort of counseling and correction for these students. Putting America's youth in prison only teaches them how to be worse when they come out. In order to find solutions, the first step is to listen to the kids. Punishment is useless without teaching them a way to change. We need to teach these children how to be productive citizens before they are back on the streets, and then back in jail again. I really feel there needs to be someone who gives these children a feeling of meaning in their lives.
I agree that the kids who commit these crimes are not psychologically developed enough o understand the consequences or even severity of the acts they engage in. I know that as a teenager I did a lot of stuff without thinking bout the consequences and made a lot of bad choices that I wouldn’t make with the mindset that I have now. And I wasn’t even put in the situations that half these kids were put in.
When I was watching this video three things kept popping into my mind. The judicial system’s opinions on juvenile delinquents, what if a similar crime was committed by a child from a upper middle class, white family?, and society’s opinions of juvenile delinquents.
The judicial system seems extremely uncaring when it comes to dealing with troubled youths. It seemed, to me, by the youth’s sentences and the lack of rehabilitation that the lawyers and judges could care less about their future and expected nothing less then them spending time in jail. If this observation is correct (even though it is very general) then, the one of the reason these children are not getting the help they need is because the courts find it easy to send them to jail rather than trying to help them. By not helping, in my opinion, some of the children who need it the most, our judicial system is not doing anything to fix the problem, but rather allowing it to perpetuate. What can be done to help the individuals who are facing jail time or who returning home from there sentence? What should the judicial systems be doing differently?
If a child from a white middle class family committed a serious crime, no different from some of the things the kids in the video where convicted of, what would his punishment be? How is the judicial system biased in his favor? How does he benefit from those biases? And what are the advantages he has going into court, with him being white and coming from a rich family?
I think it is extremely easy for people to judge a person by the mistake they have made in their life. I also believe it is extremely hard to see a person for the potential they have inside of them. As a whole, I feel society has a very negative opinion of youths in America. These negative images carry over into the lack of help for juvenile delinquents. Within schools there is such a need for teachers whose see past children’s mistakes, see past the negative stereotypes society has on adolescents, and see what they can become. How many more programs would be available to these children if society, (teachers included) if we were less judging and more compassionate?
Response to Video:
The sentencing depicted in the film Juvies was outrageous. I knew that the justice system many times is not a just as it should be, but what was happening to the teenagers in video should encourage our society to act against the injustices implemented by the system that is suppose to protect our youth. Is throwing children into prison who do not understand the severity of the punishment or the consequences of their actions saving our youth or the future of our society? Or is it sentencing them to an ever worse fate? An online article suggests:
Prisons are meant to protect the community, but incarcerating people has minimal effect on the crime rate. Violent offenders are released to make way for nonviolent first time offenders, and most people, if they survive the prison experience, are worse off when they get out. Prisons are meant to punish those who have committed a crime, but usually do so with excessive and unintended cruelty. The unsanitary living conditions, combined with the absence of adequate health and medical care, mean that prison inmates and workers are highly susceptible to life-threatening diseases like AIDS, hepatitis, TB and food poisoning. These problems frustrate inmates and often lead to anger, depression and more violence. (http://www.forbes.com/2006/04/15/prison-jeffrey-ross_cx_jr_06slate_0418ross.html)
Secondly, many of the children from the video have experienced life altering events that may have promoted the behavior they exhibited. I agree that these situations should be taken on a case by case basis. Child development should definitely be considered during sentencing. It is not until the later states of development when the decision-making part of the brain is completely developed. Throwing teens in prison can only hinder this development. Teenage will not have the opportunity to engage in activities that encourage this type of development. Our justice system should also exhibit consistency when sentencing. It should not be acceptable for one teenage to be serving 11 years and another to be serving 27 for the same crime. In addition to this, I think rehabilitation should really be a goal of the justice system. Attempting to work through our youth’s problem is the only real way to handle their misguided actions. I think this video has several implications for educators. Many of the teens engaged in their criminal actions because they were looking for acceptance from their peers or the issues they were having a home. Teachers may not be able to change the harsh policies of the justice system but they can be contributors in the effort to keep teens away from it. This also shows zero tolerance in the larger sense. Throwing children out of our schools with no support can only push them along the path to criminal activity. This film also was very informative as far as what challenges today’s students face and this should definitely be of concern to anyone who works with children.
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