Imagine you are being sentenced to serve life in prison without the possibility of parole at the age of 14 . Your naive self was present during the scene of a crime where someone was murdered. You, yourself didn’t do anything, but the judge feels you don’t deserve to ever be a free man or live a normal life. In similar instances, this is the reality of many juvenile inmates, who are currently spending the rest of their lives behind bars. The controversy that surrounds adolescent punishment in the United States is constantly being justified. In numerous cases, the subject of the prison sentence among these young individuals who break the law is always being argued about and whether it serves justice. Ultimately, keeping juveniles in prison for the rest their life and not giving them a chance to live freely as a better person after time was served is unethical and causing taxpayers millions of dollars. To be a teenager is a point in life that the majority of the …show more content…
The price tag of just one individual is already expensive on its own, now imagine what it would be for the approximate 2,100 juveniles serving the life sentence. This leaves millions of Americans, no choice through government issued taxes to fund the containment of these adolescents. The same individuals who haven’t experienced paying taxes themselves or ever get the opportunity to live freely. Life is being taken away from teenagers who will stay behind bars longer than they need to. An offender deserves punishment, but it should be adjusted for juveniles to serve appropriate time to mature into civilized adults. Giving them a chance of redemption after years spent in prison will lead positivity with these ex-convicts making the most out of it. It also could mean less taxpayer money would go to fund prisons and can be directed somewhere more beneficial for the