They Are Still Children

By: Ms. Terry D. Glover

Date: April 28, 2014

Course: ENG:215 Research and Writing

Professor: Robert McKinley

Across the United States, thousands of children have been sentenced as adults and sent to
adult prisons. Nearly 3000 nationwide have been sentenced to life imprisonment without the
possibility of parole. Children as young as 13 years old have been tried as adults and sentenced
to die in prison, typically without any consideration of their age or circumstances of the offense.

The United States Supreme Court declared that death-in-prison sentences imposed on children
are unconstitutional and the Court has now banned death-in-prison sentences for children
convicted of non-homicide crimes and mandatory death-in-prison sentences for all children.
Trial courts must conduct new sentencing hearings where judges will have to consider children's
individual characters and life circumstances, including age, as well as the circumstances of the
crime. (Equal Justice Iniative 2014 [1]).
With all the attention in the news media concerning our children, one would wonder,
what is wrong with our children? According to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention, in 1999 juveniles accounted for 103,900 violent crimes and in 2000 they accounted
for 98,900. Across the board the arrest rate for violent crimes committed by juveniles between
1999 and 2000 dropped 5 percent. Violent crimes include: assaults; homicide; rape; robbery;
arson; auto theft; burglary; larceny/theft; vandalism; and weapons possession. (Einstein Law
2008 [2]).
However, the Bureau of Justice, Juvenile Violent Crime Statistics, describes violent
crimes as murder, forcible rape, robbery and assault. Based on their definition of violent crimes,
their statistics from 1999 show total arrests was 67,916 thru 2008 total arrests was 73,970, there
has been a steady increase. See the chart below for total breakdown of violent crimes:

Year

Murder

Forcible Rape

Robbery

Assault

Total

2008

974

2,505

27,522

42,969

73,970

2007

1,011

2,633

26,324

43,459

73,427

2006

956

2,519

26,092

44,424

73,991

2005

929

2,888

21,515

45,150

70,482

2004

1,065

3,038

18,554

43,611

66,268

2003

783

2,966

17,900

43,150

64,799

2002

806

2,937

18,288

43,879

65,910

2001

957

3,119

18,111

44,815

67,002

2000

806

2,937

18,288

43,879

65,910

1999

919

3,182

18,735

45,080

67,916

This information was last verified on April 28, 2013. (Statistic Brain [3]).
Although the statistics go back to 1999, violent crimes committed by our youths began
before 1999. Our children have been on a slippery slope that has had costly consequences on
their families as well as the families of their victims. How can we help our children turn this
behavior around, we first need to address what the goal of the juvenile justice system is, its goal
is to keep citizens safe and rehabilitate delinquent youth. Unfortunately, due to lack of funding,
policymakers are not always able to establish programs that achieve these goals. While
preventative and rehabilitative measures have been shown to significantly decrease the
occurrence of juvenile offenses, the benefits of such programs can take years to take effect.
Increasing the number of juvenile penitentiaries may help keep citizens safe; however, unless
rehabilitative policies are enacted, delinquents may continue to commit offenses when their
sentences are up.
In 1974, the Juvenile Justice System established the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention Act, called for a "deinstitutionalization" of juvenile delinquents. It required that
states holding youth within adult prisons for status offenses remove them within a span of two
years (this timeframe was adjusted over time). The act also provided program grants to states,
based on their youth populations, and created the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention (OJJDP). Through reauthorization amendments, additional programs have been
added to the original Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act.

The system finds itself irresolute at present, faced with the discouraging prevalence of
crime, a lack of funding for preventative programs, and disagreement over the principles that
define its very foundation. Ideologically, funding, and practically are the three main hindrances
to the juvenile justice system. (Einstein Law 2008 [2]).
Additional problems facing the juvenile justice system include mental health services,
placement options, addiction treatment service, recidivism prevention resources, and educational
programs. The U.S. Justice Department and other experts agree that a significant majority of
juvenile offenders are afflicted with different types of mental health conditions, disorders and
problems. These experts include Robert Agnew, author of the recently published "Juvenile
Delinquency: Causes and Control." A major problem associated with the juvenile justice system
is the lack of appropriate and suitable mental health services. This includes a lack of
community-based services for juvenile offenders who are not in detention. Moreover, detention
facilities in many instances also lack an appropriate level of suitable and sufficient mental health
services for juvenile offenders. (Broemmel, 2009 [4]).
With growing numbers of minors entering the juvenile justice system each and
every month, stretched resources have created problems associated with the proper placement of
offenders. Detention facilities are overcrowded and also understaffed. There are neither enough
beds nor enough supportive and therapeutic resources available to these facilities to address
appropriately the needs of juvenile offenders.
Justice Department research underscores that a significant percentage of juvenile
offenders break the law in the first instance either to obtain illegal drugs or while using these

illicit substances. Yet another of the primary problems associated with the juvenile justice
system is a lack of sufficient addiction and substance abuse treatment resources.
As is the case with mental health services, the lack of appropriate drug and alcohol abuse
and addiction treatment resources is found both in association with community-based programs
for juvenile offenders and within detention centers. (Broemmel, 2009 [4]).
Perhaps the most significant of all problems associated with the juvenile justice
system is the high recidivism rate. Although the U.S. Justice Department does not maintain
specific statistics in this regard, the agency does note that nearly all states continue to report a
high percentage of juveniles re-offending after serving a term of probation or detention within
the juvenile justice system.
The four primary reasons why recidivism rates are high within the juvenile justice system
are a lack of appropriate placement options, insufficient mental health services, inadequate
substance abuse treatment programs and slim educational opportunity. In the end, the
inadequacies and problems of the juvenile justice system have created a constant cycle in which
minors head in, out and back in to the juvenile justice system. (Broemmel, 2009 [4]).
Research has long shown that locking up young people puts them at greater risk of
dropping out of school, joining the unemployment line and becoming permanently entangled in
the criminal justice system. States and municipalities have thus been sending fewer young
offenders to juvenile institutions and more of them to community-based programs that keep them
connected to their families and reduce the risk that they will engage in further crime. The number

of children held in custody plummeted from about 107,000 in 1995 to less than 71,000 in 2010
and is still falling.
This is all to the good. But the authorities could bring even more juveniles into the
mainstream if they did a significantly better job of educating them. That means paying more
attention to the learning disabilities, emotional problems and substance abuse issues with which
these youngsters are disproportionately afflicted and which often helped land them in trouble in
the first place. It is a mistake to assume that all children held in juvenile facilities represent
hard cases beyond redemption. Indeed, a new study, by the Southern Education Foundation, a
nonprofit group based in Atlanta, shows that nearly two-thirds of the young people who were
confined in 2010 were confined for nonviolent offenses.
Moreover, disproportionate numbers of these young people have special needs. Federal
data from 2010 show that 30 percent had learning disabilities, 45 percent had problems paying
attention, and 30 percent had experienced physical or sexual abuse. It should come as no
surprise that most of the young people entering juvenile residential institutions are behind in
reading and math. These children do not get the attention in school that they need to succeed and
get even less of it in juvenile justice facilities. A federal study showed that in 2009, fewer than
half of students in state juvenile justice programs earned even one course credit and that fewer
than one in 10 earned a high school diploma or a G.E.D. This makes it unlikely that most of
them will succeed at school once they are released and more likely that they will get in trouble
again. (NY Times 2014 [5]).
For children with parole-eligible sentences, unique release and re-entry challenges too
often create insurmountable obstacles to parole and successful re-entry. Young people who have

been in prison since they were adolescents need help learning basic life skills. (Equal Justice
Iniative 2014 [1]).

References:

1
2
3
4
5

Equal Justice Initiative Article, Children in Adult Prisons 2014, retrieved on 04/27/14,
http://www.eji.org/childrenprison
Einstein Law Article, Juvenile Crime 2008, retrieved on 4/28/14,
http://www.lawyershop.com/practice-areas/criminal-law/juvenile-law/crimes
Statistic Brain, Juvenile Crime Statistics, retrieved on 4/28/14,
http://www.statisticbrain.com/youth-violent-crime-statistics
Broemmel, Mike, Article, Problems with Juvenile Justice, 2009, retrieved on 4/27/14,
http://www.ehow.com
New York Times, Article, The Next Juvenile Justice Reform, dated April 20, 2014,
retrieved on 04/29/14, http://www.nytimes.com