Should Juveniles be tried as adults? Honestly, before reading True Notebooks written by Mark Salzmann, I have a perception that juveniles should be tried as adults. The reason I have this thought is that juveniles have committed crimes and it is no different than the crime committed by adults. Furthermore, it seems to be unfair to the adults if the juveniles are not tried as adults. Yet after reading True Notebooks, in which Mark record the writings of numerous inmates in his writing class, I realized that I was wrong. Through their writings, they express their difficulties before and after entering Juvenile hall, their worries about their family and they are remorseful, regret for what they have done in the past. I felt guilty for labeling them as “criminals”, since I have been judging them from my point of view. However, the truth is that most of them have complex backgrounds which contributed them to commit crime. And I think that during the process of deciding whether juveniles should be try as adults or not, the court should make their decisions depending on each case and put the factors that contribute them to commit crime into consideration.
Undoubtedly, family is an important element to children growth. As an illustration, family provides shelter for their children and teaches them what is right and wrong leading them to the right direction. Conversely, the lack of attention and care from parents or complicated family background can certainly have adverse impact on children. According to the book, Jimmy Wu, one of the students of the writing class at Juvenile Hall has an extremely complex background. He wrote: “Then something terrible happened. It caught my surprise. It hurt me like a hurt I never knew. When my brother was three, my parents divorced, they said it was for the best” (67). Furthermore, Victor, another inmates also complained about his family. “They don’t know what it’s like when you come from a family that didn’t have a father there to guide you in the right path” (290). Both Jimmy and Victor were greatly influenced by their families. They certainly did not have role modeling that led them to the right path nor had any support from their parents whenever they were in need. Children started to feel that they were being neglected by their parents, so they would try to seek for substitutes to replace the attention and the love that were lacked by their family. Consequently, they joined gangs for which they could seek for identity and recognition resulting them to commit crime.
In my point of view, juveniles should not be the only one who is responsible for their crime but their family as well. Imagine if they have a normal family where their parents can provide them with love and care, the outcome would be entirely different. They would not need to seek for substitutes of their parents by joining gangs. However, with proper attention and care of parents, they would be guided properly and shape them to the right way of what the society would accept them. This would definitely reduce the possibility for them to commit crime. I am not saying that all juveniles should refrain from trying as adults; the point I am trying to make is that we should always carry serious considerations on juvenile’s family background. If we try them as adults, it is unfair to the juveniles with complicated family background or broken families. Certainly, their family background is the most important factor for them committing crimes. Therefore, instead of trying them as adults, they should have an opportunity for rehabilitation so that they have a chance to change.
When people commit crime and are put into jail, the society would treat them differently. Our society tends to label them as “criminal” or “convict, resulting in a preconception that they are “bad” people disregard of whether they are juveniles or adults. In this way, the society refuses to give a chance for the juvenile criminals to rehabilitate and abandons them instead. According to True Notebook, the inmates expressed their disappointment of being abandoned by the society. For instance, in Jimmy’s first writing, he wrote: “Who cares if we change now? Nobody, that’s who”. In addition, Kelvin Jackson, another student of the writing class taught by Mark, had the same feeling as Jimmy did. He wrote: “I don’t know who I am. Somebody lost”. Inmates such as Jimmy and Kelvin became lost and felt being abandoned and discriminated by the society.
The upshot of all these are that we should give a chance for juveniles to correct their mistakes. Juveniles are just adolescents and most of them have already regretted for what they have done in the past. For instance, Patrick regretted of joining the gang in his writing. “Sure, I thought it was cool three years ago, but I didn’t know it could put me in jail. If I had the chance to go back to that day and not join, I would. And maybe I wouldn’t be in a place like where I am today” (94). Patrick was immature at that time and he thought it was fun joining the gang. Yet he regretted afterwards. It is obvious that no one is a saint and everyone makes mistakes. The most important thing about punishment is that we learn from mistakes. These juveniles have already regretted in their writings. They always want to change but the discrimination of the society has forbidden them to do so. They have already been in the juvenile hall and they have already suffered. They have learnt their lessons. The society should forgive and accept the juveniles so that they can go back to the right track.
Last but not the least, trying juveniles as adults is not a suitable way and it is way too harsh for juveniles. Obviously, placing juveniles to adult prison can encourage them to commit more crime. This is because adult prison is the place where the worst criminals are placed and Juveniles might easily imitate their behavior through observing them. Accordingly, juveniles might internalize the norms in adult prison and develop more criminal behavior. In addition, according to the article “Numbers of Juveniles Charged as Adults Up” written by Michelle Durand, it reveals another drawback of putting juveniles into adult prison. “If you just punish people, whether they are juveniles or adults, it increases recidivism by 7 percent.” The statistics has revealed that punishing people would just enhance recidivism, but not enabling criminals to learn from their mistakes. Therefore, as Francisco says to Patrick, “Negative leads to more negative, and positive leads to more positive. That’s how I changed.” (94) Thus, instead of placing them with the convicts in adult prison, we should give a chance for the juveniles to undergo rehabilitation, so that they can learn from their mistakes.
Primary socialization has contributed to juvenile’s behavior and I consider family is the most influential agent. This is because the lack of parent’s attention or having complex family background have made juveniles suffered and they try to seek for substitutes. As a result, they might go off the track and commit crime. The second reason I think they should not be tried as adults is that juvenile hall is already a place where they can carry rehabilitation. Hence it is unreasonable to send them to prison. The most essential issue after making mistakes is to learn from it and to make changes. Undoubtedly, juveniles should have already learnt their lessons in juvenile hall so there is no point trying them as adults. On the contrary, placing juveniles to adult prison might even encourage juveniles to commit more crime. While we are judging whether juveniles should be tried as adults or not, we should not simply focus on the crime itself but consider all the factors that could possibly lead them to commit crime and to ponder whether adult prison is suitable for juveniles.
Reflection:
Two paragraph Reflection of the essay:
Honestly, before reading this book, I thought that juveniles should be tried as adults. The reason I have is preconception is due to the fact that they have committed crime and there is no excuse for not putting them in jail. However, after reading True Notebook written by Mark Salzman, I have an entirely different concept of juveniles. The fact is that juveniles have undergone series of socialization and it has shaped their identity. For example, many juveniles committed crime as a result of their family background or so. And it is not only their responsibility but their family as well.
Throughout the process of writing the essay, I need to think deeply what actually causes juveniles to commit crime and whether they deserve rehabilitation or punishment. In this way, I am able to think critically in order to fulfill the goal of this essay. Undoubtedly, it has enable me to learn how to ponder and how to better sum up the points. In addition, through writing this essay, it also improves my sentence flow and my grammar.
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