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Juveniles in Adult Prisons

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Juveniles in Adult Prisons
Crimes in the United States have exceeded in the past years. Crimes such as murder, theft, or assault and, believe it or not, these crimes are being committed by young children. Now the court system is trying to put young children in adult prisons, but that is unacceptable. Juvenile criminals should not receive the same punishment as adults because they have a higher chance of getting raped or killed, they are still too immature, and they are more likely to commit a crime again. If juveniles get sent to adult prisons they have a higher chance of getting raped or being killed. “Juveniles sent to adult prisons are 7.7 times more likely to commit suicide and 5 times more likely to be raped”(Hanson, 47). Some adults in prison are there because of raping or killing young kids. If you put juveniles in with them you are practically letting the adults hurt young children. Juveniles sent to adult prisons will lower their self-esteem, which will lead them to thinking that they have no purpose in life and commit suicide. Getting raped or killed is not an acceptable punishment for doing a crime. Reasons why juveniles do commit crimes are because they are still too immature. Juveniles will always do dumb things and make wrong decisions because they are not mature enough to make smart ones, putting them in a harsh punishment such as adult prisons are not making any difference because most of them come out and commit more crimes. Having a criminal record as an adult has many negative impacts on a child’s future. The general public doesn’t really know what it wants from its criminal justice system so most of them just say guilty because they don’t want to get scared but are not thinking about the children. There is a reason why we don’t call kids adults.

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