Juvenile Justice - Free Essay Examples and Topic Ideas

Instead of locking up juveniles for life, the legal system should be helping these kids out by sending them to rehabilitation centers where they can get professional help and receive a second chance to redeem themselves while learning from their mistakes. Many of these kids need help but instead are locked up and left with discouraging spirits of a second chance. The legal system and those against the Supreme Court’s decision find it easier to punish juveniles rather than try and help turn a child around. What goes on in these prisons, how juveniles are treated, and other possible consequences are overlooked. In the documentary, “Prison Kids”, Glenn Holt, the superintendent at the Youth Study Center in New Orleans, states that these systems can really “mess up” a kid and create problems that were never there from the start.

Practices in jails and prisons like solitary confinement actually make people far more dangerous. Dr. Stuart Grassian, a psychiatrist, states that once juveniles are put into solitary confinement, they get worse because the experience is torture. These young kids can get PTSD while inside solitary confinement and need medications to treat other mental health issues which will alter brain activity. Despite my opinion, people will argue that these “murders” should not get a second chance because they are adults when they commit crimes and that if they are not locked up for life, juveniles will continue heinous acts. However, according to Gail Garinger, a juvenile court judge in Massachusetts from 1995 to 2008 states that as a former judge, he has seen the capability teens have to change with proper help and time to mature. In a short video, “New Model for Juvenile Justice”, the Waverly Regional Youth Center in Missouri takes a new approach on how to help troubled teens instead of throwing them in confined cells for life. The staff there tries to solve the issues juveniles have by encouraging teens to talk about their struggles, their emotions, and are given tips to help recovery even after they leave the center.

Many of these kids don’t have a great family growing up who showed them love and in the center, they are treated like a family and given hope that a second chance will help them right their wrongs. In the frontline PBS film, “Second Chance Kids”, Anthony Rolan was seventeen year old when he committed murder. He took full responsibility for his actions and when he was convicted, he states “they want me to die in prison”. Rolan states that the legal system doesn’t take your personal circumstances into account. However, he was given a second chance at parole and was able to turn his life around. He’s a prime example that even those who commit heinous crimes are capable of change because he’s now a father, a productive employee of a national company, and a law-abiding citizen

Conclusion

In short, I agree with the Supreme Court’s ruling and truly believe that juveniles who committed crimes should still be held accountable for their action and serve time but life without parole is not the answer. If locking up young kids would help them learn a lesson, then the United States would be the safest country. These juveniles need rehabilitation and should get a second chance to turn themselves around.