FREE ESSAY ON JUVENILES IN PRISON

JUVENILES IN PRISON

Juveniles in Adult Prisons Term Project Abstract A deep look into juveniles in adult
prisons. Touch bases on several smaller issues that contribute to juveniles being in and
effects of adult prisons. The United States Bureau of Prisons handles two hundred and
thirty-nine juveniles and their average age is seventeen. Execution of juveniles, The
United States is one of only six countries to execute juveniles. There are sixty-eight
juveniles sitting on death row for crimes committed as juveniles. Forty-three of those
inmates are minorities. People, who are too young to vote, drink alcohol, or drive are
held to the same standard of responsibility as adults. In prisons, they argue that the
juveniles become targets of older, more hardened criminals. Brian Stevenson, Director of
the Alabama Capital Resource Center said, "We have totally given up in the idea of reform
of rehabilitation for the very young. We are basically saying we will throw those kids
away. Leading To Prison Juvenile Justice Bulletin Report shows that two-thirds of
juveniles apprehended for violent offenses were released or put on probation. Only
slightly more than one-third of youths charged with homicide was transferred to adult
criminal court. Little more than one out of every one hundred New York youths arrested
for muggings, beatings, rape and murder ended up in a correctional institution. Another
report showed a delinquent boy has to be arrested on average thirteen times before the
court will act more restrictive than probation. Laws began changing as early as 1978 in
New York to try juveniles over 12 who commit violent crimes as adults did. However, even
since the laws changed only twenty percent of serious offenders served any time. The
decision of whether to waive a juvenile to the adult or criminal court is made in a
transfer hearing. The two major criteria for waiver are the age of the child and type of
offense alleged in the petition. Some jurisdictions require the child to be over a
certain age and charged with a felony, while others permit waiver if the child is over a
certain age regardless of offense. Still yet, others have no conditions. Juveniles can be
tried in all stated in one of three ways: 1. Concurrent Jurisdiction: the prosecutor has
the discretion of filing charge offenses in either juvenile or criminal court. 2.
Excluded offenses: the legislature excludes from juvenile court jurisdiction certain
offenses that are either very minor, such as traffic or fishing violations, or very
serious, such as murder or rape. 3. Judicial waiver: the juvenile court waives its
jurisdiction and transfers the case to criminal court. Barry Feld, Juvenile Law Scholar,
suggests that waivers to adult court be mandatory for serious crimes. Those espousing the
crime control model believe that the overriding purpose is protection of the public,
deterrence or violent juvenile behavior, and the incarceration of serious youthful
offenders in the adult criminal justice system. The rehabilitative justice model view
this as an attack on the juvenile justice system, but crime control advocates consider
such steps a necessary response to a rising juvenile violence rate. Life in Adult Prison
The Southwest Multi County Corrections Center, a two-story adult jail is the largest
maximum-security program for juveniles under federal authority. The BOP pays $99.80 a day
for each juvenile. About half of the juveniles are over two hundred and fifty miles from
home. Distance is on the main criticisms of putting juveniles in the BOP system. Most
experts agree that for rehabilitation to succeed, families of jailed youths should be
involved in their therapy and lives. Larry Beredtro, President of Reclaiming Youth
International, address "Obviously, the government needs to cease using nonregional
placement for kids. My concern has been with the issue of the federal government placing
kids hundreds or thousands of miles away from home. The facility Director Norbert Sickler
says "the facility helps pay travel expenses for some families and offers free
accommodations in the area. We do encourage the kids to keep family connections both by
writing and telephone also." The BOP does plan to house all federal juveniles within two
hundred and fifty miles of their homes by fiscal year 2000. Staff attorney for the Youth
Law Center says even that might not be good enough. He stresses the point that no strong
after-care programs are set up so therefore is no transition back to the community.
Leaving the kids to pick up right where they left off. Although the Congress is talking
of charging more juveniles in federal courts, no one has answered if the federal prisons
can handle more juveniles. The BOP already struggles to handle the two hundred
thirty-nine juveniles under its control. The federal prison system is built for adults
and has one hundred sixteen thousand of them. The number of youths has already risen from
one hundred and eleven in 1990. There are not many talks of how they will handle more
youths just that they are going to get tough. Youths can land in federal prison for
violations of federal law such as drug trafficking and bank robbery or for crimes on
federal property. Most are in for felonies committed on Indian reservations. Native
Americans make up two-thirds of all juveniles in the BOP system. James Cunningham,
another juvenile-justice expert says that the BOP's "instruments were geared toward adult
penal situations and not toward rehabilitating children. What they are doing is not
meeting then needs of those children in terms of rehabilitation." An audit team found
that each youth gets just twenty hours a week of programs including schooling, vocational
training, counseling, a and mental health services; if that. It is also known that most
of the juveniles have serious problems with alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine so they need
some licensed counselors to address those addictions. The BOP does plan to substantially
upgrade programs for juveniles, says sledge, of the agency's community corrections and
detention division. Could the BOP handle even more juveniles? Youth advocates, judges,
and police have been critical of the movement to federalize crimes already handled by
states. They see no advantage to sending kids to faraway prisons under federal
jurisdiction. Juveniles on Death Row Should society protect itself from the "fiendish
acts" of young killers or give them the chance to put their lives back together? Clayton
Joel Glowers is awaiting execution in Holman Prison; he is the youngest person in
Alabaman on death row and the second youngest in the country. He was sentenced to die in
Alabama's electric chair for sodomizing a junior college coed, beating her to death with
a car jack and dumping her body in a creek when he was 15 years old. "It's rough, all the
tension, and all the worry, knowing that I didn't do the crime, and I have been put in
here." Flowers said during an interview in prison. Jay Thompson, who was 17 when he was
accused of murdering an elderly couple, p\spent five years on death row in Indiana for
his sentence was commuted to one hundred and twenty years. With good behavior, he will be
78 years old when he leaves prison. Thompson says, " It is a very hard thought because I
will never experience having a family, kids and a normal life. You don't realize many
things until it's too late." There are sixty-eight juveniles nationwide on death row.
Which is a big increase from thirty-seven in 1982. Two-thirds of this group are
minorities, and two-thirds of their alleged victims were white. Funny how society is
willing to give second chances to white children, but that does not extend to Latino or
black children. In 1988, The Supreme Court ruled in Wayne Thompson vs. Oklahoma that it
us unconstitutional to execute anyone who was 15 at the time of the crime. In 1989, The
Supreme Court upheld the death sentence for those who committed a capital offense at age
16 or 17. Many people fear that the increase in juvenile murders will spur renewed
interest in executing teens or locking them away for the rest of their lives. Prosecutors
say many of these adolescents must be executed or given life sentences because they are
depraved killers who pose a serious threat to society. Others-contend juveniles should be
given the opportunity to put their lives back together. District Court juvenile Judge
Robert E. Lewis of Gadsen, Ala says, "I've seen 15-year-old kids who were 25 years old,
streetwise. Some have reached the point where they are not anything in this world but
vicious predators. The jungle is the only place predators can roam free. A civilized
society is not supposed to have predator at large. The message ought to be that it is a
no-no to go out and kill, and if you do you may pay for it with your life."+ The politics
of it all is that many prosecutors will seek the death penalty more for juveniles who
kill-as a plea bargain tool to encourage the youngsters to plea to life without parole.
For a 14-15-16 year old, the thought of being strapped in the electric chair or death
itself, is so frightening that they are coerced into pleading for life in prison. Every
politician is promising to get tough on juveniles. It is the new catchword. We will
probably see even more call for the death penalty for juveniles for re-election sake. A
1988 study of fourteen juveniles on death row in four states concluded they had brain
abnormalities, low IQs, poor mental test scores, a and serious psychiatric problems. All
had suffered severe head injuries as children. Only a psychiatrist before trial had even
examined five of the fourteen subjects. Although Troy Dugan was borderline mentally
retarded and extremely mentally ill when he killed a man at age 15, today he lives on
death row in Louisiana's Angola Prison. His parents' fed him liquor form the time he was
six years old to calm him down. His original defense attorneys never presented any of
this information at his trial. Victor Strieb, a law professor at Cleveland State
University says, "It is basic human notion that you don't hold juveniles to the same
standard. Politicians who say the death penalty will cure the homicide problem are like
snake oil salesmen." Justice Scalia examined State and Federal laws and jury decisions
regarding capital punishment for juveniles. In concluding that the evidence of a national
consensus against capital punishment for juveniles was inadequate, he relied upon the
fact that fifteen of the thirty seven states have capital punishment precluded its
imposition upon 16 year olds, while twelve foreclosed its imposition upon 17 year olds.
Justice O'Connor, concurring in part and in the judgment, agreed that no national
consensus existed rejection the execution of 16 or 17 year old capital murders, and that
the death sentences should be affirmed. She also stated that the Court, in the Eighth
Amendment Jurisprudence, should also determine whether the punishment imposed was
proportional to the blameworthiness of the defendant. In a nationwide poll conducted for
TIME and CNN, those responding expressed strong disapproval of the death penalty for the
retarded, although a majority supported executing teenagers. The United States is one of
the few countries in the world that executes juvenile offenders. There are only six
countries that are known to have executed juvenile offenders in the 90's: Pakistan, Saudi
Arabia Iran, Nigeria, Yemen-and the US. We should be embarrassed to find ourselves in
that company that other countries are known for human rights violations. Of the
thirty-eight states that allow the death penalty, fifteen set the age at 18, four set it
at age 17, and 21 have a minimum of 16 years of age or no minimum at all. Because
American justice grinds on so slowly, because the appeals process in death penalty cases
often lasts years, juveniles who face capital punishment are almost always adults by the
time the sentence is carried out. The aging perhaps makes it easier to flip the switch,
pull the lever, or inject the needle. Putting young offenders in adult prisons leads to
more crime, higher prison costs, and increased violence, not to mention placing them in
danger from the adult prison population. 
Bibliography
References Glick, B. (1998) No Time to Play: Youthful Offenders in Adult Correctional
Systems. American Correctional Association Wilkerson, I (1996) "Death Sentence at Sixteen
Rekindles Debate on Justice for Juveniles." New York Times, November Butts, J.A. and
Snyder, H. (1997) "The Youngest Delinquents: Offenders Under the Age of 15," Juvenile
Justice Bulletin (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice) Lefevre, P.S., "Professor
Grapples with Execution of Juveniles." National Catholic Reporter Snyder, A. "Serious and
Violent Juvenile Offenders" (1997) National Center for Juvenile Justice