Juvenile Justice
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Juvenile Justice
Juvenile offenders have brought heated debate as to whether they should be subjected imprisonment or not. The future generation of any nation strongly lies on this young generation, maximum age being 18 years, age bracket might differ depending on the policies of a given country. Young people are at tender age and in most cases, they do things without any conscience. Children need to grow up happily, motivated and well knowing that the world is a place with full opportunities. They need to grow up on the strong ethics of mutual respect and trained to be law-abiding citizens. Every society needs to invest in their young ones in order to have healthy and sober future society. Important point to note is that the responsibility belongs to all parties in the society. Parents, teachers and the state have big role to play in shaping up the future nations, for continuity of a competitive future society.
However, in recent times, young kids are being involved in all sorts of violent crimes, in most cases resulting to deaths. These forces the state to put some behind bars, and others in special programs recommended for them. Research has revealed that putting them behind bars has done more harm on them than good. The solution have not yet been found since each party strongly support their arguments, and even according to the law, juvenile offenders are not subject to imprisonment. This articles also covers the position of the author on juvenile justice, and the role he is playing to change this situation. Apart from the role, author contribution to the matter will also be discussed in depth. At the later stage in this book the author tries to find out if the strategies being applied are really a solution to this. Some scalars have made a move to make situation better, in this article, the author will also compare their views with his and if the step taken was a success or not.
To begin with, I am against the issue of harsher punishment to juvenile offenders. However, punishing one is a constant reminder to his or her peers that committing a crime is unacceptable in the society and has tough consequences. Most of them have unstable decision making mind, and they needed guidance more than being punished. Locking up young ones in prisons only mean that they are missing out the time they are supposed to be in school, and in long run most of them after they are released languish in unemployment misery. This exposes the society to more danger than ever. Young people are easily influenced with literature they are exposed to, what they see and hear especially the things they watch on television. According to them, what they watch can be practically applied in real life situation, and they feel violence act is okay, and without knowing, they end up breaking the law. Berry Field agreed in the article, Abolishing the Juvenile Justice System “Unlike adults, Juveniles are more vulnerable to peer influence; they do not think about consequences…Their brains are yet to develop” (Field, B 2006). This very sophisticated situation needs critical approach. On my capacity, I have written some articles both online and print, addressed to the parents on reasons to why juvenile offenders need to be close to the society than getting separated and getting locked in prisons. I am putting emphasis on consistent parental guidance. Parents should be the first mentors to their young ones, set good example to them and assist them realize what is right and wrong. I have also organized scholarship programs through some philanthropists and big publishing companies. Through this bright kids from very humble backgrounds have had chance to advance in their studies. Such young kids could otherwise have engaged in street fights ending up behind bars. Mentorship program is another area that I focused. Together with churches, institutions and business sectors, we are organizing seminars to all Christians and non Christians, with the main target to have youth get interaction with successful people in the society. They are taught the importance of Christianity, and living according to God’s ways. Most of them have mentors through these programs, people they are looking up to; they are offered good professional, business and religion advices. I can proudly say that this has been a great success. Another thing that have been done, young people have been mobilized and visited their friends who are serving various sentences in prisons, talk to them and make them feel part of the society. Most of youth who are incarcerated suffers most from the feeling of being left out of the society. I strongly believed that this campaign was of a great benefit to them, even the response was amazing, and some confessing that if they could get a chance they strongly believe they could do things differently. Lastly, I have organized sports events with the aim of getting talented youths in various field sports. Some of them have been absorbed by sports academies in the country, and they are doing wonderful, some are already earning a living out of their talents.
My opinion, Juvenile justice system failed long time ago, and it is no longer a solution to social challenges facing the youth in the society. (Field 2006) “The juvenile justice system has been unable to satisfactorily fulfill either of these goals”. Other mechanisms have proved to bare fruits. Through the scholarship program, hundreds of youths have gone up to university level in their studies, this is bright idea that I believe if taken with lots of consideration, and thousands of juveniles would not be in the streets doing what they are doing. Those who got chance to succeed through talent search initiative are doing pretty good as well, they have joined sports clubs and soon will be representing their own country in the in international competitions, what a patriotic initiative. Juvenile justice is also sometimes subjected to Bias, (Gaterly, 2013). “Young people of color often face bias in juvenile juridical process”. This is a clear indication that there is no fairness in this system.
The juvenile justice system discussion is a sensitive area that touches our lives as a whole. It is of great importance not only to the youth themselves but also to the parents, whose task is to ensure their young ones grow well leaving a lot to desire. Some argues that no citizen is immune to law; all wrong doers should be separated from other population to avoid influence. However, from another angle, putting them in jails and living them live with prisoners –rapists, murderers and robbers- only exposes them to more dangerous influence. Some argues that victim’s justice should be given a priority, like in the case where young one killed or harmed somebody. All the same those who are against and those who are for juvenile justice have equal rights; this puts the discussion in a fixed situation. Collectively, all the stakeholders in the society should work together to come up with a clear structure for this pressing issue. Government need to support the initiatives already in place to save young people. They have right to live happily among others just like the rest of the population. Building and sustaining more and more rehabilitation centers equally have a negative and positive impact but this is a more reasonable method. In a positive note, rehabilitation centers are built to change young people from being a liability to be of great importance to our society. They are given second chance to make up and redeem their image in life. In these centers, the young people are trained on professional skills, morals, and all other factors that people in the society should live by. The government also needs to come up with the mechanism to tap and get young offenders into this rehabilitation system. Once they are released to the population, the Government should make strategic follow-ups to ensure they practice what they have been taught. But on the other side, being in a rehabilitation centre altogether forms a group of young wrong doers who are believed to have nothing positive to teach others. These facilities are also very expensive to maintain, and others could view this as a waste of tax payer’s money, who work so hard to develop their nation.
In conclusion, the government need be more proactive and deal with root course of this instead of waiting for a problem to escalate, and find itself in a rush to contain the situation. The research by Casey Foundation in collaboration with Julianne Hing concluded that the government need to find out the reason behind young people becoming law breakers. The report also recommended that these young people should be put in rehabilitation programs that are community based as opposed to being put behind bars.
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