Introduction:
I. Attention Getter: At any given day 10,000 minors are in adult prison (Lahey).
II. Motivation for Listening: Housing juveniles in adult prison can give rise to many problems for both the juveniles and the community.
III. Establish Credibility: Today I am talking about this topic because I have read many articles and done extensive research and my research has shown that this is a big problem in the United States.
IV. Thesis Statement: Juveniles should not be housed in adult prison.
V. Preview of Speech: In this speech, I will talk about why adult prison is dangerous for juveniles, how the adults’ and teenagers’ brains differ, and the difference in services in adult prison and juvenile detention facilities.
Transition to body
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Establish Secondary Problem: Adults and minors are different but treated same in criminal court:
a. In my survey, I asked at what age the brain stop developing. 7 people said 21, only one person said 23, 3 people said 20 plus and the rest said anywhere from 17 to 20. The truth is that the brain does not stop developing till 25. This means that the brains of teenagers are different from adults.
b. According to Illinois Department of Human Services, researchers have found that in teenagers the frontal lobe is less developed than adults. The frontal lobe is the part of the brain that is responsible for reasoning for decision making, controlling impulse, assessing risks, making moral judgements and analyzing short term and long term consequences. Since the frontal lobe is not fully developed the teenagers depend more on amygdala and the limbic system which are parts of the brain associated with impulsive behaviors and strong emotions (Kollmann). Since the ability to make rational decisions differ in adults and teenagers, it makes sense that they should be treated differently in the justice
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The survey I conducted showed that 11 of you believe that juveniles in adult prison are more likely to re-offend which is true. But, one of the biggest reason people support trying minors as adults is because they believe that the harsh punishment will deter crime among juveniles (Reaves). This notion may seem reasonable but, according to Justice Policy Journal, there is no deterrence in crime by housing juveniles in adult prisons. In fact, six studies on the subject showed that transfer increases the chances of recidivism (Miner-Romanoff).
b. Another reason that people give support to transferring is that they believe that kids know the effects of crime and if they commit adult crimes they should also get adult punishments (Reaves). As I said before, minors do not have the same reasoning ability as adults. They are impulse driven (Kollmann). This does not mean that they should not be held responsible for their actions. Rather, that they cannot be compared with adults who when committing crimes have more reasoning abilities. Furthermore, sending minors to prison increases chances of re-offending. It is, therefore, better to send them to juvenile detention facilities.
Transition: This leads us to ask the question how can we change this?
Call to