Willie Bosket Essay

William James Bosket shot and killed Noel Perez on March 19, 1978 at the ripe age of 15. A week later he shot and killed yet another man, Moises Perez, in an attempted robbery and finally shot and killed a New York Transit employee in between the two previous murders. He was tried in New York’s family court and pled guilty, receiving the maximum sentence of five years in a youth facility. Because of this short sentence the Governor called in a special session of the state legislature and passed the Juvenile Offender Act of 1978. Children, as young as thirteen years old, could be tried as an adult for crimes such as murder. New York was the first state to enact this type of law but all the states have since followed. There are many ideas on

Hirschi and Gottfredson theorized that if these controls are not instilled at a young age then they can result in the low self-control issue. The blame could be put on bad parenting since his mother was unable to teach him controls and his father was unable due to incarceration. Because of his inability to control his actions, Willie Bosket is a prisoner for the State of New York. He resides in an isolation cell, in which he has little human contact. Willie will remain here for the rest of his life, alone, no contact with the outside world and minimal contact in his

Today we have between 200,000 and 250,000 children below the age of 18 being charged as an adult every year in the United States. What’s important to note, is that the racial gap in arrest rates is even larger for teens than adults as kids of color are disproportionately affected. Willie has spent the last 30 years in isolation and as a 54 year old man he has nothing to look forward to but the same. He has claimed to have committed over 2,000 crimes and while his original crimes only netted him 5 years of incarceration, he soon proved unable to live in society by assaulting a 72 year old man soon after his initial release. Once in jail again he stabbed a guard and was sentenced to 25 years to life. His isolation is scheduled to go on until the year 2046. He has become the living embodiment of incorrigible prisoners and what to do with them. Some say his isolation is inhumane and others say he cannot be let loose on the general public because he has a wanton disregard for the lives of fellow inmates or guards. He was violent or threatening violence every day but since New York will not execute him he is stuck in this system. In an interview 10 years ago he stated that he would take the lethal injection if it was offered to him because he would rather be