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Is Lionel Tate Actually A Bad Person And Irreformable?

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On March 9th 2001, Lionel Tate was twelve years old when he savagely used his MMA moves on a 6 year old girl. The fourteen year old was convicted as an adult with first degree murder and he was suspended from school fifteen times previous to this incident. Is Lionel Tate actually a bad person and irreformable? No he is not. Lionel Tate is 12 years old and he is surrounded by people who make different impressions on him that led to him acting out in aggressive ways. Lionel is one of the many teens that are being sent to prison for life but this is sending them to death without even giving them a chance to reform. We cannot help these juveniles unless we reform the system and restrict children from being charged as adults regardless of their …show more content…

Their cognitive part of brain, the frontal lobe, is still developing and from the research Thompson uncovered is that these undeveloped parts inhibit reckless behavior. Thompson says that “teens need all the help they can get to steer their development on to the right path” shows that we need to focus on reforming these children in the juvenile system and we cannot do that if we try them as adults. Who knows the mental damage being sent to maximum security prison can do to their minds? Constantly in fear of rape and being attacked by other inmates leads to psychological distress that makes them adults long before they have matured. For example, Alonza Thomas from Bakersfield was charged as an adult for robbing a gas station and he served 13 years in a maximum security prison with adults. That was Alonza Thomas’s first crime and he was under duress from another adult who gave shelter to him when he ran away from home. Alonza wanted to return home but the man responded that you think you can stay at my house and eat my food without paying me back? He then proceeds to hand him a gun and forces him to rob this gas station if he wanted to keep his life. The thirteen years passed and Alonza Thomas has since been released but has he recuperated since his time in prison with grown men? Alonza Thomas refuses to open up to his …show more content…

Regardless of their crimes, the adult prison system will not lead to reformations within these children but the juvenile system will. We have to realize that children do not understand the severity of their crimes and are too young to comprehend that they have took someone’s life. These youngsters are malleable by their environment, family and friends and that is why they should not be tried as adults. These children need to be sent to the juvenile system for a second chance and when they become adults it should be determined whether they need to be sent to prison for adults or be let out into society. We cannot abandon these children without a chance to reform, they are the future of our

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