Adult Prisons

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“Approximately 500,000 adolescents are sent to juvenile detention centers each year, and more than 26,000 are detained on any given day, according to a publication released by the Juvenile Policy Institute and entitled "The Dangers of Detention: The Impact of Incarcerating Youth in Detention and Other Secure Facilities” ’ (Greenwood). Beth Greenwood, a writer for Everyday Life shows the ridiculous amounts of teenagers in custody, and even more shocking is the fact that there are children in adult prisons. Adult prisons are infamous for their cruelty amongst the adults, imagine the horrible things they would do to a child. Unfortunately, several courtrooms prosecute children as adults, with corresponding punishments for the same crime. Whether …show more content…
Robin Kowalski, a psychology professor at Clemson University who specializes in cyberbullying, argues, “How do you get a 13-year old whose frontal lobe hasn’t developed to the point where it can truly anticipate consequences, how do you get them to understand that?” (Leopold). When a child is deemed guilty and thrown in prison, his innocence, parental love, a home, and friends are all snatched away from him by the three loud thuds of a gavel that signal the end of his childhood and the beginning of his worst nightmare. Also, imprisoning a child will leave behind a permanent criminal record, which affects his future. Greg Toppo, a writer for USA Today points out the verdict of a district attorney that marred the futures of six adolescents: “On March 29th of that year, District Attorney, Elizabeth Scheibel announced felony criminal indictments against six teens, five of whom were minors.” Imprisoning a child will have no positive effect, instead it ruins someone’s entire future and prevents him from achieving his goals and dreams. Additionally, the abuse of a prison is incomprehensible to anyone outside those cement walls. Greenwood explains the extent of neglect in prisons: “About one-third of all incarcerated teens need ongoing mental health care, according to the JPI report. Most prisons are not equipped to provide mental or behavioral health care, and overcrowded, chaotic or violent conditions can …show more content…
It will cause prison rates to rise rapidly. Paul Butler, a former federal prosecutor, associate dean, and research professor, declares, “We don’t need any new criminal laws. We have more than enough right now—4,000 federal crimes, and many times that number of state crimes.” He is implying that creating excessive laws will increase the amount of prisons in the states, when we have the highest prison population in the world. As an alternative to imprisoning a child, Butler proposes, “A national conversation about civility would be more effective tribute to Tyler Clementi [bullycide victim] than creating more criminal laws.” Butler believes bullies, victims, and parents receiving professional counseling is the right place to start. Also, a USA Today article stated: “In the past 13 years, states have enacted nearly 130 anti-bullying measures, half of which came since 2008” (Toppo). This tells us that bullying is being taken care of without the incarceration of children, by different methods, such as counseling and providing emotional and mental support for both the victim and the bully. The act of speaking to someone about personal problems seems trivial and insignificant, when in actuality it can resolve most issues. No new laws are necessary for bullying because there are already surplus laws for it and numerous alternatives
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