Should Juveniles Be Tried As Adults Essay
In 2008, there were 525 fitness hearings, out of which 193 youth were found fit and 332 youth were found unfit for juvenile court treatment. Not only in California are juveniles being tried as adults, but other places as well. Young people are being sent away to adult prisons that most likely “Have nothing to gain, or nothing to lose” (Coleman). Juvenile offenders should not be treated as adults because they have a time set aside for learning and growing, and they are still doing just that. Also, they don 't have the responsibilities of full-grown adults, and still depend on their parents to provide for them.
There are many different reasons that make people have their own opinions considering children and how they should be treated and tried in criminal cases. However, juvenile offenders are just children and adolescents who have not reached legal age to adult standards. In other …show more content…
Juveniles placed with adults have no choice but to feel hopeless, and one prisoner says, “You are given absolutely no incentive to improve yourself as a person. It makes you feel that life is not worth living because nothing you do, good or bad, matters to anyone. It is hopeless.” Children in adult prisons are five times as likely to be sexually assaulted, twice as likely to be beaten by staff, fifty percent more likely to be attacked with a weapon, and eight times as likely to commit suicide as children in juvenile facilities (Stamps). Why would you want to give these children this mindset that they can’t improve, or that their not worth anything?
Punishing these juveniles isn’t the right way to handle this situation. We should be protecting these children, not taking out vengeance. By treating kids as adults you are throwing away their future, and the goals they had wished to accomplish. Juvenile offenders deserve a chance to rehabilitated, and experience life without being behind bars.
Works
There are many different reasons that make people have their own opinions considering children and how they should be treated and tried in criminal cases. However, juvenile offenders are just children and adolescents who have not reached legal age to adult standards. In other …show more content…
Juveniles placed with adults have no choice but to feel hopeless, and one prisoner says, “You are given absolutely no incentive to improve yourself as a person. It makes you feel that life is not worth living because nothing you do, good or bad, matters to anyone. It is hopeless.” Children in adult prisons are five times as likely to be sexually assaulted, twice as likely to be beaten by staff, fifty percent more likely to be attacked with a weapon, and eight times as likely to commit suicide as children in juvenile facilities (Stamps). Why would you want to give these children this mindset that they can’t improve, or that their not worth anything?
Punishing these juveniles isn’t the right way to handle this situation. We should be protecting these children, not taking out vengeance. By treating kids as adults you are throwing away their future, and the goals they had wished to accomplish. Juvenile offenders deserve a chance to rehabilitated, and experience life without being behind bars.
Works