Some 10,000 children are housed in adult jails and prisons on any given day in America.(children-prison). There is definitely controversy over teens being charged as adults. Many people do not think of the factors that drive these juveniles to commit such heinous crimes. Factors like poor education, troubled homes, peer pressure, and mental illness lead teens to do such horrible acts.
Poor education can be crucial to a teens life. Many times students who are failing classes in school can be a way to predict future criminal behavior. Americans say, “In our nations failing public schools, children experience “overcrowded” classrooms, lack of qualified teachers, insufficient funding, and even lack of textbooks are what push many students on a path of incarceration”(Regis University). In addition, when a child is not getting a proper education they lose interest in school and that 's when they start to seek fun and information in the wrong places. For
…show more content…
Overall, sometimes juvenile crimes are caused by mental illness. “Estimates reveal that approximately 50 to 75 percent of the 2 million youth encountering the juvenile justice system meet criteria for a mental health disorder. Approximately 40 to 80 percent of incarcerated juveniles have at least one diagnosable mental health disorder” (MDPI). In murder cases, the judges do not take into consideration that maybe the teen killers have a mental problem so they send them to prison instead of a mental institution. A mental illness can make the person commit acts they are not aware of or just have no control over. For instance, people say, “Reliance on juvenile justice systems for the care of the mentally ill adolescent has increased”(NCBI). Yea, maybe the system is helping juveniles with mental illnesses but many countries just lock them up instead of helping them. Prison does not help them, in other words, it makes their illness worse and resources are being wasted in keeping them locked up with no chances of getting