Why Juveniles Should Stay In Correctional Facilities

While in these correctional facilities, many delinquents take medication to counteract their behavior. Inmates such as Conrad take medication for his bipolar disorder and ADHD (Primetime). The medication is used for diseases such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and even depression. Unfortunately, once these children are released, some families cannot afford to purchase the medication to help counteract the behavior. This then leads to the juvenile being sent back to the correctional facility, due to ill behavior. Conrad is one of these juveniles who has been sent back to correctional facilities many times because his foster parents cannot afford his medication (Primetime). Unfortunately, for some of the juveniles, medication does not fulfill their needs. Some children still act out and remain in confinement. Confinement does not seem so harsh, until all the child can do is think and look at the walls. Confinement can make some people go crazy, and even want to commit suicide, even though, admitting to these thoughts can make them have to stay in confinement

Statistics have shown, “In a study of 1,042 juveniles prosecuted and sentenced in Pennsylvania adult criminal court showed that juveniles received harsher sentences in adult than did young adults, even controlling for legal factors such as offense seriousness and prior record” (Whitehead 212). Statistics have also shown when a juvenile is in an adult facility; he or she is more likely to become a reoffender because he or she is treated as an adult rather than a child. (Whitehead 213). The brain function of a child is not mentally capable of understanding the punishment he or she receives if he or she is able to see the harsh crimes which go on behind the bars of an adult correctional