Burning Down the House essay

Joanna Weir
10/23/14
Soc 209: Juvenile Delinquency
Dr. Severance
Burning Down the House
1.
The “birth” of juvenile prisons began at the end of the nineteenth century. The idea of separating the youth and adults was to rehabilitate young offenders not punish. This began with the New York House of Refuge in 1825. At this time most of the youth that were put into the “homes” were generally poor immigrants. Due to the mass amount of immigrants there was a concentration of poverty in cities. Also the development of “parens patriae”, which was the government who was legal protector of the juvenile delinquent assumes role of “father.” Not too long after there were a dozen of juvenile institutions that were state supported commonly called reform schools, training centers, reformatories, or boys schools. At this time it was common for youth (generally poor immigrants) to get incarcerated without being arrested (pg. 40) When the reform schools first began it was meant to educate children and give them another chance to learn a trade and better themselves. Although it was not cheap to run and maintain these facilities but the people in charge found a solution, put the children to work. The boys who were more out of hand would get up at dawn to go to school thirty to sixty minutes then report to work to make chair frames, sieves, and rat traps. This would create a large enough cash flow to run the institutions (pg. 41). Reform schools claimed to not be prisons but homelike although they were much more brutal and disorderly (pg. 45). Bernardine Dohrn described in the Illinois training schools with “the repressed and joyless atmosphere, the rule of silence during meals, and exhausted staff who worked twenty-four hours a day” and the youth did not get any actual training (pg. 50). Children that were in “prison” had little to no choice to anything they did. They had to obey their superiors. Juvenile prisons have not changed a lot over time. They claim they have changed similarly to when they first started. The juvenile prisons are there to “help not discipline” the youth. Although the idea of a separate system for youth and adults was to ultimately separate juveniles and adults, most state institutions for juveniles are similar to the adult correctional institutions (pg. 22). Similar to reform schools juvenile facilities still continue routines for inmates leave cells, shower, go eat, school room, dayroom, yard, and cell again. The youth inmates are told what to do by bells, sound of swinging doors, or light out (pg. 24). Still continuing to this day “guards” still imply fear into the juveniles, intimidate them, sexual assault, and physically assaulting youth inmates. Youth prisoners are stripped of self respect and called names to dehumanize them. The juvenile prison have changed over time in some ways such as in order to be sentenced to a juvenile facility you have go through a trial, and even then you can be tried as an adult if found necessary. Also all trials for juveniles are not open to the public and names can’t be publically stated. Also most juvenile facilities are more like adult prisons as I previously stated before. When they first began to separate youth offenders and adult offenders they were more like homes with strict prison like rules.

2. The term super-predator was used to describe children who commit a huge number of offenses. The hype of the media played a large role leading the general public into thinking there was a large number a violent youths roaming the streets. The media displayed “more than half of local news stories about youth focused on violence” even though studies have shown that 80 percent of our nations adults are committing crimes. Many people believed a “super predator” was a very racial term in context (pg. 74). Because of this idea the media developed about a super predator, incarceration rates increased; more youths were sentenced to adult prisons and jails (pg. 75). As the incarcerations were on the rise cities crime rates decreased which leads me to believe that racial profiling was an issue for youths as well. “Six foot something, dark skinned and almond eyed, Lamont drew attentions everywhere he went. He had learned to expect that much of it would be fearful, but that doesn’t mean he had come to accept it” (pg. 71-72). Children around this era had to become more aware about what they were doing because of the general publics view on their “race”. If you see a black kid walking down a dark street it seems to be “sketchy” when you see a white kid doing the same thing you assume he is walking home. The whole era of super predator put everyone one edge as a whole. The general public felt uncomfortable around a certain stereotype and children that were of this stereotype lived in fear. The hype of the super predator era soon died out. New laws, new prisons built, and better community as a whole was developed. Not much was done to actually address the issue at the time, rather just keep them away (pg. 80).

3. According to Bernstein no one is being corrected in the juvenile facilities. I believe from the reading that one main reason why juvenile recidivism rate remains high is due to locking youths up for nonviolent crimes when they are not a danger to the public. “80 to 90 percent of American teenagers have committed an illegal act that could qualify them for time behind bars….most however never see the inside of a cell or even a police car” (pg. 8). With that said most teenagers have committed crimes, didn’t get caught and led a crime free life after that. Although for the few that do get caught and put into the juvenile facilities then fall into a deeper path of crime. If there were proper programs put in place for these youth rather than referring back to incarceration for our only answer, they would not go down a deeper path of crimes. Another reason for REENTRY is the lack of connection with at least one trusted adult to look up to. Bernstein has witnessed troubled youth “make it” through their troubles although one thing these kids had in common is they have at least one consistent relation with at least one trusted adult (pg. 10). Rather than locking youth up for nonviolent crimes, there should be proper programs set up for these individuals and their troubles filled interventions that rely on support and connection with others rather than isolation and confinement (pg. 13). In our juvenile facilities today there is abuse and chronic neglect which is what causes these undermining problems in the first place, correcting children does not take containing them. The last reason for juvenile recidivism is that when juveniles get out of prison they have a criminal background. An example of this is a guy named David who was incarcerated for most of his youth, he took advantage of the programs they offered such as vocational certificates for food handling, culinary arts, heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning. The certificates had no significance to potential employers because once they found out he obtained them while incarcerated they meant nothing (pg. 181). He is a prime example of someone who did everything they could, considering the circumstances, to prepare for the outside. With that said the youths that are released from juvenile prisons without a job or a safe home. Often time they return to neighborhoods with few youth supportive programs, high crime rates, poverty and poor schools (pg. 182). Many of them will resort to anything or even crime to obtain money because being eligible for a job is almost impossible for these juvenile delinquents.