"Rethinking Juvenile Justice"- Reading Response

In "Rethinking Juvenile Justice" by John Schwartz, the author addresses the issue of children (people under age 18) being charged as an adult for their crimes. In the 80's and 90's, crack was a popular drug, and the government was desperately making more laws to get juveniles tried as adults for their more violent crimes. But now the country is moving in the other direction. Experts say that jailing younger kids with adult criminals could do more harm than good. The state of Colorado has started making some serious changes to their crime punishment laws, and nearly half of the US had already done so or followed along. Local areas, cities like Washington and New York, are trying to get kids out of the court system altogether for more minor crimes.

This article definitely leans towards kids not being tried for adult crimes. I think the author wants the reader to be informed about the issue and against underage kids being put in adult jails. A harsh example of the worst effects of underage people being in jail is that in 2012, there were two child suicides in Colorado adult jails, including a 17-year-old named James Stewart, who was put in jail for driving drunk and killing another driver. A psychology professor, Laurence Steinberg is quoted, saying "Ninety percent of teen offenders do not become adult criminals". This is probably because at that age, kids' brains aren't fully developed. This shows that most child criminals who are put in adult jails for their crimes don't need or deserve what they must endure in these prisons. The Supreme court had been working on eliminating the more harsh punishments for juveniles for a long time; punishments such as "the death penalty, and life without parole", according to the article. The death penalty was rid of the juvenile court system in 2005, and life without parole was rid of in 2012.

23 states have already passed laws to keep juveniles out of the adult court system. I think that this is a good thing for the US. Since the government is always looking for ways to cut costs, throwing juveniles in jail is a "less attractive" option, as put by the author of the article. Personally, I think that most juveniles should not be put into adult jail. Some kids definitely deserve it, like rapists and murderers. I strongly believe it's very unfair to give a rapist, even a child one, only a couple years in juvi until they can be let loose to possibly do more harm. But I think it's a little different for child murderers. For a person, especially one under eighteen, to kill another person is a sure sign of poor mental health. If the child does have a mental disorder, they of course still need to be detained, but with therapy and possibly less harsh care. Also, like in James Stewart's case, it could be an accidental murder, like a drunk car crash. Overall, though most kids who commit certain crimes should not be tried as adults, it's very dangerous to have people like rapists and murderers out on the streets at all, children or not.