Karlan Stevenson Just Mercy

In the 1990s, there was a major increase in the number of juvenile prisons being built. By 2000, it was common for juveniles to be sent to adult jails for crimes they had committed (“Juvenile Justice”). Bryan Stevenson is a lawyer who works with children who were given the death penalty. During his career, he wrote the book, “Just Mercy” to inform people about how poorly and unfairly the justice system treats juveniles. In the book, “Just Mercy”, Bryan Stevenson makes the argument that the juvenile justice system needs to change. He supports his argument based on his experiences with his clients, the horrible conditions juveniles undergo while in jail, and reports and facts from experts.

Bryan Stevenson supports his argument based on his experience

Despite not having a fair trial, Charlie was also treated horribly and was forced to live in bad conditions in the county jail. In the book, it states, “There were three men who hurt me on the first night... Tears were streaming down his face. His voice was high-pitched and strained with anguish,” (Stevenson, 102). Charlie was talking about how badly the guards treated him. They treated Charlie so horribly to the point that he was in tears trying to talk about it. Even though he killed a person, Charlie is still a teen. No one Charlie’s age should have to go through all of that. Especially if they committed the crime as an act of self-defense. Another example is Joe Sullivan. When Stevenson visited Sullivan at the prison, he stated that, “The cage was so small that when the guards tried to remove his wheelchair, they couldn’t budge it... I could hear Joe crying,” (Stevenson, 216). This shows that the juveniles are locked in very small spaces in which they would stay for days. The conditions that these juveniles were in were very bad and could cause most of them to go insane and develop mental health

However, evidence has shown otherwise. Throughout the book, Stevenson used reports and facts from experts to prove his point. He explained that most children’s brains don’t fully develop until they are adults. This means that they don’t think a lot about the consequences of their actions. Putting juveniles in adult jails can also cause them to develop a lot of mental health issues. In an article about juvenile justice, it states, “Legislators have finally started to realize that treating juveniles just like adults does more harm than good,” says David DeMatteo, a professor of law at Drexel University in Philadelphia,” (“Juvenile Justice”). This supports Bryan’s claim of how juveniles were misunderstood in the past. This misunderstanding had caused most juveniles to end up in adult jails where they were mistreated and suffered from assault and abuse. Stevenson also stated that, “Many states had changed their laws to make it easier to prosecute children... Alabama had more juveniles sentenced to death per capita than any other state or any other country in the world,” (Stevenson, 93). This shows that giving children the death penalty was not uncommon back then. However, most juveniles that were given the death penalty did not commit the crime they were accused of. Not only is this unfair and traumatic to the juvenile, but it also