Essay On Juveniles As Adults

Determining whether a juvenile is identified as a child or an adult is quite simple. If a juvenile is under the age of 18 then he or she is not an adult and if a juvenile has graduated from high school then he or she is identified as an adult. I believe that if a juvenile has not developed a certain level of intelligence or has not emotionally developed then they can’t be identified as an adult. In addition to that, although juveniles may have developed the sense of knowing right from wrong they may not know what’s right from wrong in the “adult world.” There have been laws passed to permitting juveniles to be transferred to adult court. The process with transferring juveniles to adult courts starts with the seriousness of the offense committed by the juvenile. If a juvenile has committed an offense such as armed robbery or murder then without a doubt there aren’t any excuses for
the juvenile, that offender has to be tried in adult court. However, in some states at the age of 14 or older juveniles can be transferred to adult court; there are a few states such as Vermont that starts at age 10.
When it comes to the youthful offender system there are a lot of concerns, how will a juvenile react to entering into an adult facility, what kind of pressure will be on the juvenile, will the staff be able to protect the juveniles, and is safety guaranteed to that juvenile. The youthful offender facilities were made to keep the older juveniles from entering adult court. In my opinion, I don’t think that a juvenile would be safe or survive in an adult facility, I know for a fact that adult prison conditions are harsh and a juvenile offender isn’t built mentally or physically ready for that type of environment.
When a juvenile enters into adult prison life, he or she is entering a dangerous and intimidating environment there will be many obstacles faced, some long and cold nights, the juveniles may be frightened by the other inmates, and the juvenile will have to learn how to stand up and protect their self.
I don’t think there is one juvenile living that is ready to be in a prison environment, it’s not anything that you can train for and I am also concerned about if the juvenile will receive the proper medical and mental health services. But for a juvenile to be on death row is very disturbing. Juveniles are young and juveniles haven’t gotten a chance to explore and actually live their life so this is a sad scenario. I don’t think there is any crime even a homicide or armed robbery is worth putting a juvenile on death row. The judge should have some sympathy and issue out a split sentence before even considering death row for a juvenile. The famous quote “if you can’t do the time don’t do the crime” is very serious but I think the system should be lenient and have some sympathy for
juveniles.