Monday, November 9, 2009
Juvenile life terms
The Supreme court is deciding whether or not sentencing a juvenile to life in prison for a crime less serious than homicide is cruel and unusual punishment. Two Florida convicts both charged as teenagers are being considered in the case (both did not commit homicide, but did do pretty horrible things). The two convicts are now adults...should the justice system give them and others like them a second chance? Go to the link embedded in the title
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3 comments:
I heard that an argument against giving juveniles charges as an adult (such as time terms) is that a person's brain is not fully developed until the time they're in their mid twenties. The counter argument for this is that a person under the age of 18 is perfectly capable of making the same decisions as adults in situations.
To read more about this, here's a link. (This link is in argument for adolescent brain development being a factor in crimes, but it still has some interesting information.)
http://physiciansforhumanrights.org/juvenile-justice/factsheets/braindev.pdf
I was kind of surprised they gave a life sentence for an armed robbery, especially to a juvenile. I think that should give them a second chance. The crimes (esp the 13 year old) were really heinous, but I feel like those crimes aren't really so severe that they deserved to be in prison for life. I don't think we should completely eliminated the life sentence for juveniles though.
I think we use the life sentence way too often. We really ought to concentrate on rehabilitation, but instead we concentrate solely on punishment. And when it isn't a life sentence, we punish them and let them go. They have nothing to help them become a productive citizen once they are out of prison. Possibly a reason the life sentence is used so much - we don't expect them to ever amount to anything, we expect them to just go out and commit more crimes. But this only happens because we don't try to help them learn not to.
I think the life sentence for minors should be used rarely to not at all - they should have time in prison, during and after which time they should receive help in rehabilitation, so they can realize their crimes and learn not to repeat them.
-Ilan Seid-Green
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