Riley Lucente

Feb/12/17
Per 3

Juvenile Justice in America;

Children behind Bars
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The way we treat children in our judicial system is nothing short of

deplorable, and we need a new way to handle the thousands of children who commit

crimes every year, a structured solution, to save children from a life behind bars.

Instead of treating people like Children or Adults we should have a gradient scale

to determine the maximum punishment of the perpetrator, as Children develop in vastly

different ways, and change very often in the years between one and eighteen. Treating

everyone below eighteen as a child then occasionally treating them as adults, has done

nothing but throw away the lives of children who would have otherwise been normal, healthy

adults.

Take the case of Gary Ousley, a fourteen-year-old Indiana boy, charged in 1994 for

the murder of both his parents. Gary, as he describes in his interview with Scott Anderson

of the New York Times, was in a state of almost constant despair, as he lived with his very

distant father, and emotionally abusive mother, both of whom he would get into constant

heated arguments with, just as his two sisters had done before him. The arguments (...)

Between Bonnie (Mother) and her two teenage daughters, squabbles that occasionally

escalated to slapping and hair-pulling

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Since being incarcerated, Greg has come to peace with what has happened, and

done everything he can to seek forgiveness, and redemption for what he has done; As one

of his work supervisors, Cindy Estes, put it in her interview with the Times; This kid has

jumped through every hoop the state has put in front of him, he deserves to come out.

Keeping Children locked up for half their lives does nothing for anyone, if the child has

shown rehabilitation, what does keeping them contained do? Besides throw away a

valuable mind to the gears.

Greg Ousley lived in an emotionally abusive household all his life, and at age

fourteen, ended the situation in the only way he knew how. And twenty-three years later,

hes still paying the price, why are we keeping him locked up for so long? Why do we keep

child criminals locked up for so long? Why do we treat children as adults, only in this

situation? As Gail Garinger puts it in her NY Times article Juveniles DonT Deserve Life

Sentences; The same malleability that makes them vulnerable to peer pressure, also

makes them prime candidates for rehabilitation If we treat some children like adults when

theyre being punished for crimes, why dont we also let them smoke, or drink, or drive

cars? If theyre mature enough to be tried as an adult, they should always be treated as

adults. But they wont, because its not about treating them as adults, its our judicial

systems obsession with being Tough on Crime thats caused this spiral downwards, into

putting kids in prison for life.

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In the late 1980s, as Gail Garinger states, A (...) group of criminologists

predicted a coming wave of violent juvenile crime These criminologists predicted waves

of child Superpredators as young as age eleven, roaming the streets in Wolf Packs.

Actions were taken to preemptively deal with the coming wave of child crime, and the

Tough on Crime rhetoric was created.

The age to trie children as adults was lowered, and laws were written to make it easier to

sentence people to life without parole, all to deal with a wave of criminals that never came.

We need a new system, one that deals with children in a way where they can be helped,

rather than punished. Perhaps, as with most things, the answer lies in a systemized,

structured, solution; a gradient system that caps maximum sentences out for certain age

groups, and defines what treatment they will receive while incarcerated. 1-3, 4-6, 7-9,

10-12, 13-15, 16-17, 18-19. Each of these age groups should be treated differently, as

children experience rapid emotional change during these time frames, the person you were

when you were fourteen is not the same person you are now, we should hope.

In conclusion; as with most things, the best solution is usually the one thats been focus

tested by smart people for years before being implemented. A smart, systematized

solution, is the best answer for the problem of child crime, and we can finally stop locking

children away in cages.

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Citations:

Anderson, S.

Anderson, Scott. "Greg Ousley Is Sorry For Killing His Parents. Is That Enough?".

Nytimes.com . N. p., 2016. Web. 9 Feb. 2017.

Garinger, G.

Garinger, Gail. "Juveniles DonT Deserve Life Sentences". Nytimes.com . N. p., 2014.

Web. 9 Feb. 2017.

Araujo, A., Harrison, M. and profile, V.

Araujo, Ana, Mr. Harrison, and View profile. "Juveniles Don't Deserve Life Sentences"".
Bhs-erwc.blogspot.com . N. p., 2015. Web. 10 Feb. 2017.

Do Juvenile Killers Deserve Life Behind Bars?

"Do Juvenile Killers Deserve Life Behind Bars?". NPR.org. N. p., 2012. Web. 10 Feb.
2017.