Juveniles Should not be Tried as Adults
Sally Mae Mansfield
First Period
2/6/2015
Today kids are killing cops, and cops are killing kids. This type of violence is hurting
both our youth and the ones who protect and serve us. Kids from ages 7-11 are committing
crimes. Often these kids don’t even know what they are doing it and are influenced by their peers
or other adults, and the prison time they serve doesn’t do any good. It causes them to sometimes
be worst criminals. I believe kids should not be tried as adults.
Often young kids who committed crimes don’t even know what they are doing. Research
says that youths brains are not fully developed and that they can’t think or act with mature
thoughts until they reach their late teen years. Young kids have feeling like adults, but don’t
think like adults. Sometimes the crimes they commit the kids don’t even know it is a crime until
after it is committed. For example, a young boy named Marquel was friends with a gang member
named Roland. He wanted to fit in, and he wanted friends, so he thought joining a gang would
provide this. Marquel began to sell drugs and commit crimes for the gang. His older brother
Tony was worried that something bad would happen to Marquel and tried to help him by getting
him out of the gang. Marquel didn’t know that he could end up in jail or even dead too. Marquel
only wanted friend and to fit in. Marquel did not have the brain maturity or mental thought
process to understand that what he was doing was wrong. This is why juveniles like Marquel
should not be tried as an adult.
Next kids should not be tried as adults because they are more likely to beaten or molested
in an adult prison. In adult prisons you have criminals who have committed all types of crimes
from murder, drugs, stealing, car jacking, arson, and child abuse and molestation. These
criminals should not be housed with minor or juveniles of such a young age. They are bigger
then these kids, stronger than these kids, and bring their criminal actions into the prison system.
A young child does not have a chance in an adult prison they will be beaten or more than likely
molested. Adult prisoners report getting beat all the time, and some even have been raped by
adult men. For example, in the movie “ShawShank Redemption” Andy Dufrane a prisoner was
convicted of murdering his wife. He had never been to jail or committed a crime before. He was
about 35 years old when he had to serve his prison sentence. During the time he served he was
repeated raped by four other men, until finally he reported and the men got punished. He was a
grown man who was beaten and raped, can you image if this was a young kid who was 13-17
years old. They wouldn’t stand a chance being beaten or raped by four adult men. These young
kids in adults prisons will surely die or be hurt severely if sentenced to an adult prison.
The final reason that juveniles should not be tried as adults is because kids do not get a
quality education in jail. Kids who end up in jail are still required if they are under the age of 16
to get an education and attend school. The kids in jail can not go to school, but must have a
teacher come into the prison to teach them Math, Reading, Science and Social Studies or basic
skills. These students usually do not have the opportunity to participate in discussion, or use
technology, or even work with other peers. Almost all of their work is assigned pages of
activities to complete, or reading assignments with questions. It gets graded and scored and the
next set of work is given. How boring can this be? All the work done by the student must be
done alone with little to no support or help. For example, a girl I knew named Heather, stabbed
her little sister 10 times because she was jealous of her. She tried to say a burglar came into the
house and did it, but after an investigation she admitted her guilt. She had to serve 20 years in
jail. At the time Heather was only 11 years old. She still had to go to school while serving her
prison sentence. While at the juvenile prison in Asheville, she had to attend classes everyday.
Each day she was given the assignments and told to complete the activities. She had to read a
novel on her own and do all the activities alone. She did not get to participate in discussions with
peers, or work using a computer, or even get to complete fun projects. All of work was
answering questions, writing papers, and taking tests. Once while visiting her she told me she
wished she could have school the way she use too, it was more fun. She didn’t realize how
school was in prison. She regrets doing a lot of things.
In conclusion there are many reason why kids should not be tried as adults. The reason I
have listed above are the most important in my book. Kids need good role models, good parents,
education and training on right and wrong, and fun activities to keep them occupied so they stay
out of trouble. If more is not done by parents and the community in supporting our youth then
kids will continue to commit heinous crimes.