Juvenile Prison
Juvenile prison reminds me of that back room in the house that persons sometimes put that certain family member away from public viewing. Sometimes juvenile prison reminds me of the home for the aged. Juvenile prison gives a false sense of helping juvenile offenders recover. I just believe juvenile prison is like bad rehab. Juvenile prison is like drugs you must take to heal one problem but the same drug comes with a million side effects including death. When I was growing up, I thought a prison was for bad, big as in adult people. If we now have juvenile prison, are we saying you have bad children? Are children that bad that they need to be locked away and institutionalized?
I am not saying that children do not commit acts of serious offense. I would prefer they go to boot camp or a rehabilitation center but not juvenile prison. The term Juvenile prison has a negative ring to it and since juvenile prison is often much like an adult prison, the implications cannot be good. Have we noticed that the probability of returning to prison increases dramatically after actually being sent to prison?
I find the notion of juvenile prison hypocritical. When children commit small crimes, a slap on the wrist is the punishment. However, whenever that crime includes homicide, off to juvenile prison you go, because now you have a real problem and you are now criminally responsible. Juvenile prison is the sad place we send children to die. How does one get back into society after coming from juvenile prison? If adults find it a hard time coming from regular, how about the kids coming from juvenile prison? All prisons come with negative stigmas and juvenile prison is not exempt. How do you suppose a bunch of maladapted kids help each other in juvenile prison?
Juvenile prison is just a holding area for children with deep psychological and emotional issues that society is not ready to take responsibility for. I believe juvenile prison was invented to scare children so that they would not behave badly. Juvenile prison replaced the rod of correction. Just to make note, I am not advocating physical punishment, I am alluding to the principle of making children bear the consequences of bad decisions. There are many things we did wrong as children, but we did not have a juvenile prison then. As a matter of fact, the same offenses committed today are sure to land you in juvenile prison. What then is the premise for the change in the law?
Juvenile prison is a glaring fortress representing our inability to address the root of a problem. This root is multi-pronged and without eliminating the problem, juvenile prison is a surety.
I think that when we put our children in juvenile prison, we send them confusing signals. In one sense you cushion the blow by sending them to juvenile prison, but the basis for sending them there is that you judged them as adults. We sanction juvenile prison based on age, yet we hold them criminally responsible as adults. We send them away to juvenile prison for help, but they come back confused because they have gotten worse. We can continue to put them in juvenile prison, but the root cause of what got them there is not eradicated. In that sense, juvenile prison becomes the scientific medication for the psychologically impaired. They become dependent and cannot survive without juvenile prison. This institution becomes a crutch and then we wonder why there are repeat offenders.
