Just Mercy Essays : Juveniles Being Tried As Adults

Many juveniles who entered the juvenile justice system are victims themselves of parental mistreatment such as neglect, physical, and emotional abuse. Once children into the juvenile system and is labeled a juvenile similar to adults being labeled a felon. These young offenders are stigmatized as criminal with little distinction between adults and juvenile offenders entering the prison system for the first time. Bernstein (2014) paints a vivid picture of how incarcerated juveniles expose to a new set of challenges such as posttraumatic stress syndrome, curtailed education, gang affiliation, and a gladiator mentality. These challenges that can develop in juvenile facility has

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, 10,000 juveniles are confined in adult prisons and jails rather than in juvenile facilities that were built for them. Josh Rovner reports in his article “Juvenile Life Without Parole: An Overview” that 2,100 child offenders are serving life in prison without the possibility of parole before the age of 18. In 26 states, a life without parole sentence is mandatory for first degree murder – regardless of age. Juveniles housed in adult prisons face a disturbing number of dangers such as physical as well as sexual abuse, assault, and high rates of suicide. While juveniles should be held accountable for their actions, they should not be prosecuted as adults because they are incapable of exercising the same judgement and maturity as an adult, housing them in adult facilities leaves them vulnerable to their surroundings, limits their educational growth and giving out a harsh sentence will not rehabilitate them nor deter other juvenile crime.

“There were three men who hurt me on the first night. They touched me and made me do things…. They came back the next night and hurt me a lot…. There were so many last night. I don’t know how many there were, but they hurt me . . . .” Charlie, a 14 year old boy, confessed reluctantly to Bryan Stevenson, a lawyer and social activist. Charlie was considered a “good kid”, until he shot his mother’s abusive boyfriend, George, a local police officer. After that, he was placed in adult jail. ("How America’s Justice System Failed Our Children"). Although what Charlie did was ruled second-degree murder, what he had to face, and will continue to face from the trauma, from adult jail is arguably worse. This tragedy continues to be the harsh reality of juveniles sent to adult jail. Each year 200,000 youths are tried as adults (Rozzell). Juveniles are put in stressful situations and without the role models they need, they make one poor choice that destroys the rest of their life. Some are held in adult jail awaiting their trial, many of whom committed nonviolent offenses. These incarcerated juveniles, who do not even have a fully developed brain, have their current and future lives destroyed by being tried and held as adults.

The novel, Just Mercy, by Bryan Stevenson covers many aspects of the legal system, including Stevenson’s quest to get prisoners who were convicted as adolescents out of adult prison. Later, Stevenson sees how the prisoners who were convicted as children revert to a very low mental state and often have a great deal of trouble readjusting if they are even remotely capable of doing so. Children should never be pushed into adult prisons or receive adult punishments because of their lack of brain development and not one hundred percent clear understanding of difficult situations. One of these difficult situations that Bryan Stevenson encountered was with a young fourteen year old named Charlie and the impacts of an adult world in a child’s head.

When a person is charged with a crime, many people don't think that the age of said person is important because in their minds a criminal should be charged according to the law and not according to his or age. I believe that juveniles should not be tried as adults because trying them as adults affects them in ways that it does more harm than good for them and their community. The first effect of juveniles being tried as adults is that it “alters the legal process by which a

UCLA Law Review source is most reliable because it draws leading practitioners, students, and professors to a forum that is designed to exchange of ideas and to facilitate. The presumption is that minors cannot legally consent to sex and thus are always victims. Being characterized as a victim helps youth access support services and avoid prosecution in certain circumstances. However, local and state governments struggle to provide all youth with comprehensive resources. The conventional wisdom is that the distinction between legal and equitable remedies is outmoded and serves no purpose. Young people locked up in juvenile prisons have an enormous need for mental healthcare, one which juvenile prisons have consistently found themselves unable

At the end of the 19th Century, the U.S. made legal history when the world's first juvenile court opened in Chicago(Horwitz-Prisco). The court was founded on two basic principles. First, juveniles lacked the maturity to take responsibility for their actions the way adults could. Second, because their character was not yet fully developed, they could be rehabilitated more successfully than adult criminals. More than a century later, these principles remain the benchmarks of juvenile justice in the United States(Horowitz-Prisco).In recent years, however, a growing number of juvenile criminals are being tried as adults. In part this stems from public outrage against children who are committing violent crimes. Many young children in America are

Throughout the juvenile sentencing process, 70% of children fourteen years old or younger are sentenced to life imprisonment without parole (lecture). In fact, they are five times more likely to be sexually assault within the adult prisons we have put them in (lecture). Children are born to roam, to be curious, to be free. The way the justice systems shoves them into these facilities that are meant for adults, should be considered demonizing. We are destroying the future of our country this way, and blaming these children for their flaws as if they knew any better. A typical trial from Just Mercy serves justice as a prime example of these consequences. Fourteen-year-old, one hundred pound Charlie was arrested for shooting his mother’s boyfriend, a law enforcement officer, dead; simultaneously after his mother was bleeding on the kitchen floor (pg. 118-119). He was then arrested, tried as an adult, and was put into adult prison. When Stevenson meets Charlie, Charlie wouldn’t say a word, or even make eye contact. After Stevenson’s long efforts to connect with Charlie and allow him to open up, Charlie aguishly said, “There were three men who hurt me on the first night. They touched me and made me do things . . . they came back the next night and hurt me a lot” (pg. 123). Later on, after Stevenson gave a talk to his church about Charlie, an elderly couple, named Mr. and Mrs. Jennings, were eager to meet Charlie

Juveniles should be tried as adults no matter the crime. Should juveniles be tried as adults is a question asked by most people, Being a juvenile is referring to someone who is young. Juveniles should be tried as adults because they want to act like they know everything, juveniles should be able to know what is right and what is wrong, juveniles should be able to make wise decisions and juveniles should not be tried as adults because they have a whole child hood ahead of them.

Crimes are committed in the world everyday. Half of the crimes being comitted are by teenages between the ages 13-17. How can they be tried as adults adults when they are incapable of thinking like one? If you take away their chance of a fresh start then it wouldn’t be fair and unconstitutional.

Throughout the United States many juveniles have been sentenced as adults and incarcerated with them. Those that are imprisoned in an adult facility face dangers

be seen in the article “Jailing Juveniles” (2008, p.127) revealing the danger of juveniles in adult facilities. Because youths are often isolated from other adult prisoners to prevent sexual and physical abuse, they are more vulnerable to various mental disorders. Moreover, suicide ideation of youth offenders in adult jails is 36 times higher than that of those in juvenile correctional facilities. As a result, youth advocates oppose treating youth offenders as adults. However, violent juvenile criminals should be punished for their misdeeds. Hunter (2010, p.101) insists that age should not be an excuse to oppose incarceration of youth criminals in adult prisons as a punishment for their crimes. In Hunter’s opinion, “cold-blooded murderers” like Jordan Brown, who killed his father’s fiancée while she was sleeping must be punished to the maximum extent of the law although Brown was only 11 years old when the murder took place. In her opinion, tough laws are crucial for upholding justice for victims and victims’ families who suffered because of these juvenile crimes. Indeed, the culprits should not be easily forgiven to make sure that justice is served for the victims and victims’ families. Juvenile criminals have to bear the responsibilities for their actions regardless of their age. The purpose of tough punishment for violent youth offenders is to let them learn and realize

After the sound of a gunshot, a desperate scream, the juveniles that were children yesterday instantly become killers, murderers, and criminals. In America, juveniles who commit adult crimes are tried every day in juvenile courts, where the juveniles are leniently given shortened sentences, and fail to learn from their mistakes. The criminals turn into our next door neighbors, our friends, and live their lives in harmony, leaving the victims and the victims’ families to suffer in pain and sorrow. Young people who commit violent crimes should be sentenced as adults because of the heinous crimes they committed, the unfairness to the victim’s family, and their potential danger to the society once they return.

These children are not receiving the proper psychiatric rehabilitation. These young people who are incarcerated are surrounded by violent criminals, and unsafe facilities. The justice system should treat juveniles differently because they may have a series of problems and can be reformed. Some have suffered from child abuse, mental illnesses, learning disabilities, and even exposed to violence. In the article from the New York Times entitled, "Juveniles Don't Deserve Life Sentences" by Gail Garinger, he writes "Nationwide, 79 young adolescents have been sentenced to die in prison-a sentence not imposed on children anywhere else in the world. These children were told that they could never change and that no one cared what became of them. They were denied access to education and rehabilitation programs and left without help or hope"(93). It would be considered neglectful to imprison our criminal youth in society because there is a lack of social reform and other important rehabilitation processes. In some cases the rehabilitation process has turned individuals around to be successful members of society. I read an article about a fourteen year old boy named Greg Ousley from Indiana. One  night his mother told him he was watching to many movies

Twenty-five years ago an eight-year-old boy was tortured and decapitated in San Jose, California. His assailants were two men over the age of sixteen and a fifteen-year-old boy. Unlike his older partners, the fifteen year old boy was only sent to a juvenile detention center until he was released at the age of twenty-five. On the other hand, the other two men were sentenced to life in prison. Once the public heard about this event, they were outraged. California then moved the youngest age at which one could be tried as an adult from sixteen to fourteen, in order to provide for the appropriate sentence for the fifteen year old and other young offenders in California (“Introduction” 2005). At first, laws were put in place by the Juvenile Justice System for smaller, less severe crimes, such as shoplifting and vandalism; however, as time