Juvenile justice is becoming a major discussion topic among political officials, law makers and law enforcers. People wonder if it’s just better to lock these youths up and throw away the key, or is there a chance to change them for the better. Others want to figure out what makes these kids tick and what causes them to commit these crimes and are they able to be saved. With juvenile’s crime going from petty theft to armed robbery even as far as murder, what’s the next move for them? In response to this some juveniles are now being charged in adult court. In adult court cases juveniles are now being facing the same charges for their actions as if a 40 year committed the same crime (Part 1: Juveniles Locked Up" 1995). In the article they stated in 2000 they estimated that about 14,500 juveniles under the age of 18 are in adult prisons (Kupchik 248). In these adult prisons they video stated that these teens are going in as kids and if they ever get out they risk coming out as harden criminals (Part 1: Juveniles Locked Up" 1995).
Rehabilitation has been a great topic for debate, does it really work and if so why? In the movie they showed you a camp called, the “Last Chance Ranch.” This ranch is for kids who are sent there to learn discipline, gain an education and hopefully change their life around in efforts to beat their jail or prison sentence. You see the leader of the group and he shows you the much love and respect he has for the small group of kids. He states that he could have 700 kids at the ranch but if he did he couldn’t have a “relationship” with each kid. He describes his goal to have the cook, the guards the maintenance people etc, to have a relationship with each boy and know who they are. Lastly he states that if the kids don’t want to learn he doesn’t want them, send them to prison, he wants the one who wants to change who wants to learn. Towards the end of his segment you actually see a success story on how this program worked. The young gentleman is now supporting himself on his income. He graduated high school and is now on a scholarship at a college to help better his education. This just proves how rehabilitation in people who want to change can work and is successful (Part 1: Juveniles Locked Up" 1995).
Another topic they covered was prevention. One form of prevention they covered was instead of charging everyone as an adult, teach kids who commit petty crimes what they did were wrong and show them the consequences. An example one person had was on the first offence have the kid on the side of the street in an orange vest doing community service. On the second send them to jail on for one weekend, and so on and so forth till they understand what they are doing is wrong and there will be consequences to their actions(Part 1: Juveniles Locked Up" 1995)
Another thing these kids need and I saw this in the movie was therapy. Most of these kids do their crimes because they are hurting inside. Some because they are having family issues at home, some were molested as a child and others are just searching for love and affection that they aren’t getting at home but are through gangs and violence. The kids in the movie are learning to cope with what they did and how their choices affected other people. One of the girls in the movie I felt hit the nail on the head, she stated that people especially kids get busted and go to jail and feel no remorse for their crimes. Once they are relished they just go on doing what they do and tend to commit more and more crimes. Through therapy she was able to understand how her crime affected other people. Another girl said that she could easily hit the girl next to her, but didn’t want to because of the pain it might inflict on her and she would feel bad(Part 1: Juveniles Locked Up" 1995).
These success stories show the importance of trying to help change the kids behaviors not by throwing the book at them and throwing away the key, but by changing the person within. My dad used to always tell me that he could give me a fish to eat every night, but it’s better for me if he taught me how to fish myself. I know everyone have heard a saying like this but I kind of attribute this to juvenile justice. The adult mind is already set in its ways and hard to mold while a young person’s mind is still able to be changed. If you just throw him in jail for 10, 15 even 20 years he is not going to change his ways. But if you teach him how to fish, or in this chase help change his behavior through the Last Chance Ranch or therapy, they will have a better chance to survive out of an 8 by 10 cell.
Work Cited
Films for the Humanities and Sciences."Part 1: Juveniles Locked Up" 1995. Online video clip. Arizona Universities Library Consortium. FMG Video On Demand. January 1, 2011. http://digital.films.com/play/ HVKF9
Kupchik, A. (2007). The Correctional Experiences of Youth in Adult and Juvenile Prisons. Justice Quarterly, 250-255
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