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Gail Garinger's 'Juveniles Don' T Deserve Life Sentences?

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Juvenile crimes are essentially crimes committed by adolescents. Some examples of juvenile crimes include homicides, robberies, and drug use. While these crimes are basically the same crimes that adults commit, the difference is that they are committed by adolescents and the motivation behind these crimes. The motives for which a crime may have been committed are stronger in adolescents such as stress, jealousy, impulse, or simply an attempt to seek attention. These things are important factors in differentiation between juvenile and adult crimes. While the crime committed may be atrocious, adolescents should not be sentenced to life in prison without parole; therefore, they should be given a chance to correct themselves through parole. The …show more content…

In Gail Garinger’s, “Juveniles Don’t Deserve Life Sentences,” she argues that juveniles have great potential in being able to change their lives for the better. Garinger starts off with the superpredator theory which involves kids who will commit crimes in groups, and in response, laws were made to easily try kids as adults in court. Even with the superpredator prediction never coming true, the laws that were made still exist. Garinger then moves on to describing how teens are different than adults in many different aspects. Garinger states, “As a former juvenile court judge, I have seen first hand the enormous capacity of children to change and turn themselves around” (Garinger par. 8). As a former judge herself, Garinger has seen many juveniles who committed crimes become better people. Kids are still growing, still learning, and this makes them open to rehabilitation instead of just locking them up in prison without parole. Through rehabilitation, juveniles will be able to have a chance at rehabilitation and turn their lives around for the better. Even if, for example, a seventeen year old were to commit an extremely evil crime, that seventeen year old would still have a chance to change their life around with the right rehabilitation through parole. Thus, adolescents should not be given a life sentence to prison because they have the potential to

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In the documentary “When Kids Get Life” by Ofra Bikel we see five men who were sentenced to life in prison for committing crimes in their teens. We hear the stories of how it happened, why it happened, and what life is like for them today. This documentary sheds light on the battle that juveniles face when they commit crimes and the judicial system. This documentary relates heavily in the material we learn because although it is about teenagers who receive life in prison, the judicial system plays a key role.

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The article, “The Steep Costs of Keeping Juveniles in Adult Prisons” written by Jessica Lahey states, “Juveniles constitute 1,200 of the 1.5 million people housed in federal and state prisons in this country, and nearly 200,000 youth enter the adult criminal-justice system each year, most for non-violent crimes.” Minors should not be tried as adults because their brains are not developed, they may come from bad backgrounds, and they have their whole life ahead of them, and their life should not be determined by the mistakes they made as a child. Juveniles who are usually 14 or older who have committed serious crimes are tried as adults and are put into adult-state prisons. This is inhumane and unsafe for the child’s physical and mental health. One of the many reasons that minors should not be tried as adults is because their brains are not fully developed, so they cannot make good decisions until they are older, far into their twenties.

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Adolescents can then be put into rehabilitation programs and detention centers to help them recover without going through the struggle of prison. However, most programs and centers are “meant to be transitional placements, yet over half of the youth they hold are there longer than 90 days” (Sawyer). This proves that juveniles are not being helped and they will not mentally improve. In conclusion, there are many valid arguments that individuals could share about never trying juveniles as adults but it’s unethical to always let them off

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There are certain instances of juveniles being tried as adults and sometimes ending up getting a life sentence without a chance of parole. I find that pretty harsh because there have been some cases where the juvenile meant no harm, they were either confused or brought along by gang members and they end up being charged along with the gang members for just being with them when a crime goes down. I believe that juveniles do not deserve to be given a life sentence because for one they are still maturing, they can learn from their mistakes and make amends, we still have to combat crimes like intended murder committed by a juvenile with extreme punishments especially if they are well over the age of 16. In the article published by the New York Times on March 14, 2012 “Juveniles Don’t Deserve Life Sentences”, Garinger discusses that juveniles deserve a second chance since their brains are still developing.

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The article “Juveniles Don’t Deserve Life Sentences” argues that children in prison need to be given a chance to mature and be rehabilitated (Garinger 9). Because these killers likely committed these crimes on impulse, they would often realize after the fact that they were wrong to do such an action. Therefore, when they are released, they will be more careful and think about their actions before committing. If they are given a life sentence, they will never be given this chance to fix their life. Older people who commit murders are less likely to learn from their mistakes since they put more thought into the killing than adolescents

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The Supreme Court of the United States of America in 2012 ruled that juveniles couldn’t be tried as juveniles and be sentenced to life without the possibility of bail, no matter how harsh the nature of the crime committed. Justice Elena Kagan argues that juveniles who commit crimes typically have a rough upbringing or unfortunate circumstances which cannot be controlled by the juvenile. She argues that if they are serving a life in prison without a chance of parole, it causes damage to them psychologically due to the lack of experiences. They will miss the most important moments in life that define who they are as an individual.

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Juvenile Justice Essay In the United States, there have been many cases where a juvenile would be found guilty and be tried as an adult. There are other cases where those juveniles are tried as adult forever. I am against charging juveniles as adults when they commit violent crimes, the juveniles lose many educational opportunities and the adult system is far too dangerous for the young juveniles. Juveniles are also young kids but only the fact that they do not get the same amount of education or experience that other teens gain.

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When teen felons choose to act without thinking, they are putting other people’s lives at risk. They need to be charged as adults because the victims of the crimes will not be given the justice they deserve when they have to worry about that criminal harming them again. Although some people think that sending a juvenile through adult court gives them no hope, they should have given this a little thought before committing the crime. Teens need to think about the consequences and how their actions affect others before they act. When choosing between putting a violent adolescent in prison and taking the chance of letting them commit that crime again, it is most suitable to let the teen be tried as an adult and to place them in prison.

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Based on strong textual evidence and corresponding research it is clear that mandatory life sentence for juveniles who commit murder is unfair because juveniles are immature, cannot remove themselves from a toxic home environment, and is

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Juveniles in prison face increased violence and sexual abuse, and are at much higher risks of committing suicide than juveniles in juvenile prisons. In addition, the number of released prisoners that turn back to crime is much higher for those that were juveniles in adult prisons. Juveniles will face the consequences of their actions in juvenile prisons, but will also be given a second chance to change their lives through rehabilitation. It is time to stop failing this nation’s juveniles and build a system that benefits not only these children, but society as a whole through the end of a vicious criminal

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There are differences between a juvenile court and criminal court in the United States. The focus of the juvenile justice system is on rehabilitation, in hope of deterring the minor away from a life of crime so they will not commit a crime again as an adult. In contrast, the criminal justice system focuses on the punishment and often bases the sentencing outcome on the criminal history of the youth. In a study conducted, Butler (2011) showed that the participants’ experience with adult jails and prisons show that those facilities may instill fear but are otherwise emotionally—and often physically—dangerous for youth. Many of the adult prisoners, who were minors when they enter the adult institution, felt they were forced to “grow

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If a juvenile is defined as a person under the age of eighteen can we justify trying them in as an adult? Is convicting juveniles as adults a better solution? The first juvenile

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Juveniles Justice Juveniles who are criminals being sentenced to life without parole can be shocking to some people. I believe if a juvenile is able to commit a crime, then they are able to do the time. The article “Startling finds on Teenage Brains” talks about how the brain can be different from the time you are teens to the time you are an adult. After, considering both sides on juvenile justice it is clear that juveniles should face life without parole because they did the crime so they can do the time. Also I believe the juvenile’s age should not influence the sentence and the punishment give.

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Can you imagine waking up behind closed walls and bars? Waking up to see your inmate who is a 45-year-old bank robber and you are a 14-year-old minor who made a big mistake. This is why minors who have committed crimes should not be treated the same as adults. Some reasons are because the consequences given to minors in adult court would impact a minor’s life in a negative way. If a minor is tried through a juvenile court, they have a greater chance of rehabilitation.

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Teenagers are not perfect, and their irrational behavior can lead to poor decisions that could potentially be dangerous and unlawful. A debate has now occurred for many years that deals with the issue of sentencing teens that have committed serious crimes such as murder and robbery. Many people argue that if juveniles commit these crimes that their punishment should be equal to an adults punishment for serious crimes, but juveniles shouldn’t have to worry about their lives getting ruined. Most juveniles and teenagers do not have enough maturity to survive in the adult prison system, and recent brain development research shows us that teenagers brains are not even close to being finished developing. Therefore, teenagers and youth under the age of eighteen should

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