One of the most controversial decisions from today's court system is whether or not juveniles should be tried as adults.  With the increasing number of children with adult sentences, questions such as why children are committing such heinous crimes and how it can be stopped are rising.  Another question is what age is too young for minors to be put to adult sentences.  In 1999, a West Palm Beach jury found Nathaniel Brazill guilty of second-degree murder and the 14 year old was sentenced to 28 years in prison without parole, for killing his English teacher, Barry Grunow (McCormick 2006).  In 2001, two 14 years olds from Florida were put on trial as adults for homicides committed when the young offenders were 12 and 13 years old (McCormick 2006).  Some boundaries between minors and adults in these states are that minors are restricted from buying a carton of cigarettes, a six-pack of beer or a ticket to a rated R movie.  Minors are not mature or responsible enough to drive a car without an adult, move out of the house, marry, and serve in the military or vote. But, once a child commits a crime, state and federal lawmakers want to behave as if this child is competent to stand trial as an adult in a capital murder case.  When minors are sentenced to adult prisons, they are subjected into a place that is far more unethical and traumatizing than any of the minor restrictions mentioned above.  Although sentencing young offenders to adult prison at first may seem fit to discipline them but the results from sentencing minors to adult prison is not only a bad decision for the young offender, there are no benefits and it will not help improve future crime rates.  

The juvenile justice system was first established in the United States in 1899 with the first court case being in Illinois. The juvenile court systems were instituted throughout the United States to place greater emphasis on the welfare and rehabilitation of youth (Butts). Prior to that time, children and youth were seen as smaller versions of adults and were punished as adults.  As the justice system developed over time, it became clear that locking up young offender and adult criminals together was self-defeating. But even today, as juvenile criminal rates increase, some states insist of throwing juveniles in adult prison as a way to punish them for their wrongdoings and keep them out of society. In the end, many juveniles who get out of incarceration fall back into the same pattern because all they saw as they were growing up in adult prison were all the other hardened criminals (Beauchamp). By the time young offenders are released from prison, they will not know where and how to start a new life.  Many juveniles who come out of long sentences in prison, do not have much support from people outside of prison either, most do not have money, they now have a felony record in their background and thus make it harder to find a job efficient enough to even support themselves.  Forcing minors into a corner by not educating and preparing them for a new life outside of prison is also an error of the adult justice system.  This can impel children to think that at least in prison, even in the terrible conditions, they have a place to live in, a bed to sleep in, and food to eat.  But, no child should have to think of a morbid place like prison as a place to call home or as a standard of living.  Juvenile delinquents should be given a chance and an opportunity to redeem themselves and make up for their mistakes.  If young offenders are sent to juvenile correction system, they go through counseling and rehabilitation programs that provide meaningful social contact with people and offers behavioral and skill-oriented treatment. The establishment of juvenile courts spread rapidly throughout the states because it offered a new way to handle minors who were often overlooked in the masses and chaos in the adult criminal system.  The flexibility in juvenile court system granted the judges with the freedom to intervene in the lives of young offender; the judges could speak with each minor brought to court to decide what disciplinary action is appropriate for each case (Butts).  

One of the many reasons authority sends juveniles to adult prisons is to protect society; the main intent of adult prison is to punish criminals and once a juvenile delinquent is sent to adult prison, they are out of society's way (Butts).  The courts aim to imprint the punishments and lessons learned in prison into the juveniles' brains to prevent them from repeating the same mistakes again in the future.  Another reason is that some people believe that the troubled youth cannot be saved even from going to prison as punishment.  Kids are often incompetent and do not understand their situation clearly enough to aid their defense and make for a fair trial.  A research by John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Adolescent Development and Juvenile Justice,  gathered a random sample of more than 1,400 people between the ages 11 and 24.  Results showed that one third of the subjects could not understand the legal proceedings or help lawyers defend them (Salant).  The dangerous conditions in adult prison can lead to more juvenile crimes.  A study conducted by Anna Aizer, from Brown University and Joseph Doyle, Jr. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology showed that young offenders who are incarcerated were 67% more likely to commit a crime again.  Also, juveniles that go to prison have 39% less chance of finishing high school; even young offenders who did not go to prison were better off and had a higher chance of finishing high school (Beauchamp 2013).  

The official definition of prison is "an institution for the confinement of persons who have been remanded in custody by a judicial authority or who have been deprived of their liberty following conviction for a crime" (Coyle).  Confinement, the deprivation of one's liberty is a form of punishment for individuals who commit crimes, therefore this is just a method to prevent those individuals from committing those crime in society again by confinement with not much motive to change those criminals and give them a second chance (PBS).  While both correction systems use a form of incarceration as punishment, rehabilitation is a key concept of juvenile corrections with the intent to release those individuals after a period of time so they do not relapse into their former bad behavior (PBS).  The approach of juvenile justice systems can help add and change troubled minors into functioning members of society, whereas adult justice systems just keeps on confining and collecting up criminals.    

Just over two million youth under the age of 18 were arrested in 2008, 95 percent of the two million had not been accused of violent crimes, such as murder or rape (Gottesman 2011).  In 2010, the 100,000 young offenders under the age of 18 in juvenile placement facilities, 26 percent had been convicted of property crimes only.  For nonviolent youth involved in the justice system, incarceration in traditional prison often does more harm than good.  Large prison facilities are ineffective at providing the rehabilitation and services that minors need and the lack of his contributes to high re-arrest within a year of release.  Reform effects must place a greater emphasis on improving availability to mental health services, proper treatment for all youth and establishing effective alternatives to traditional prison facilities.  In a 2006 survey, juvenile offenders reported symptoms of mental health illness and trauma.  A majority of juveniles in adult prison had at least one mental illness.  Two thirds of these incarcerated youth reported symptoms associated with high aggression, depression, and anxiety. At 27 percent, the severity of mental health illness among incarcerated juveniles is two to four times higher than the national rate of all youth (Gottesman 2011).  While some facilities offer at least some form of counseling services or therapy, a national representative survey of over 7,000 incarcerated youth showed that the majority of these facilities are inadequate to cater to the needs of youth in their custody.  A lack of any identification system to screen and identify those with mental health needs are apparent in many facilities, which can result in youth going without needed care.  Forty-five percent of youth are incarcerated in facilities that do not screen all new youth in the first 24 hours.  Fifty-three percent of youth in adult prison do not provide mental health evaluations for all.  Among youth with a documented mental health issue that are in prison, forty-seven percent have not even met with a counselor (Gottesman 2011).  

Recent research shows that community-based centers are often more effective than traditional prison/residential facilities for achieving better aftermath for troubled minors, including reducing the chance of repeated offenses.  Data on the incarceration percentages for youth in juvenile justice systems show that in 2005, only 22% were sentenced to placements out of home which includes correctional facilities for youth, while youth that were transferred into the adult criminal justice system were at a 63% rate of likelihood of being re-incarcerated (UCLA).    Many alternative communitive based alternative include centers that juveniles attend in the community each day, home detention, shelter care and small community homes.  Community-based programs can often produce positive social outcomes, such as decrease in the dependency on alcohol and illegal drugs, especially after release in the first six months.  These programs and center of rehabilitation can keep juveniles in their own communities while they receive disciplinary action, which is more likely to be developmentally appropriate.  Unlike traditional adult containment facilities, minors are kept in small groups so they are able to receive the necessary attention and therapy needed.  Most community-based programs focus on therapeutic services.  Not only are community-based centers good for nurturing youth for a better future and outcome, it is less expensive for states to discipline and provide needed treatment in the community than to place juveniles in a large adult facility.  Even with scarce resources due to budget cuts, some states are creating a positive change.  In Missouri, most community based programs are designated for ten to thirty minors with emphasis on therapeutic intervention and counseling.  Only eight percent of the juvenile offenders in Missouri return to any justice system (Gottesman 2011).  Research also demonstrates lower recidivism rates that will save the state money in the long run, despite the upfront costs to create these community-based facilities.  

Violence towards others tends to peak in adolescent years, most often beginning around the age 16, according to psychiatrist Peter Ash from Emory University (Brown).  66 percent to 75 percent of violent young people grow out of their violent phase because they get more self-control.  Trying to send kids into adult prisons is an idea often argued against because it often leads to juveniles committing more crimes upon their release.  As a result of being locked up, children become worse after being exposed to more hardened criminals for a period of time.  Juveniles that have been incarcerated do not receive any kind of rehabilitation, only punishment for their actions.  Whereas being held in a separate detention center for juveniles helps them rehabilitate, and teach them their wrong doings, being surrounded by people who are more positive can affect how the child heals and can result in a better person than before.  Minors being sent to adult prison endangers their safety.  According to law, when children are convicted and sent to adult prisons, they must be kept out of sight of adult prisoners.  But, once they are sent to prison, there are no separate facilities for children.  Even, if there was, the conditions in adult prison can still place psychological harm on kids (Kruh).  

Southern Poverty Law Center conducted a research that children prosecuted into adult criminal justice system are more likely to reoffend than those held in the juvenile justice system.  A boy named Patrick entered Alabama prison at the age of 16.  In a little over a year, he has witnessed more than 30 stabbings.  "He is always on guard to fight for his survival; he learned some lessons: failing to turn over his property when another prisoner demands it or refusing a sexual overture puts him at risk to being stabbed. This thought hangs over him constantly" (Children Tried as Adults).  In the adult system, they just want the delinquents locked up, in the juvenile system, they want to help the children make better choices and rehabilitate them.  In adult prisons, children could very possibly be traumatized after being there for a period of time.  A young boy called Derrick, has been fending off sexual advances and assaults since he was 16.  Many young inmates will simply submit to older inmates because they know the guards will not help them.  

Studies have examined the conditions of confinement issues and risk that juveniles face in adult facilities.  Research has shown juveniles in adult prison are at a greater risk of harm than minors in juvenile facilities.  The suicide rate for juveniles held in adult prison is five times higher than the rate of the general youth population and eight times the rate of adolescents in juvenile correction facilities (Austin).  Although young offenders in adult and juvenile facilities are equally likely to be victims of property crime, juveniles in adult facilities are more likely to be violently victimized.  In a recent report on prison suicides completed by the British Prison Trust, it found that while people age 15 to 21 made up only 13 percent of the prison population, they comprised 22 percent of all suicide deaths (Schiraldi).   In 1988, 47 percent of juveniles in adult prison, compared to the 37 percent in juvenile facilities, suffered violent assault, including violence from the hands of staff.  Sexual assault was five times more likely in prison, beatings by staff nearly twice as likely, and harm with weapons were almost 50 percent more common in adult facilities (Austin).  In a 1989 study by a team of researchers compared how youth reported being treated at various juvenile training facilities with those serving sentences in adult prisons, close to ten percent of the youth in the adult prisons reported a sexual assault or a rape attempt, while only one percent reported the same in the juvenile institutions.  Even surveys in other countries found similar results. A survey conducted in Australia shows that 183 inmates aged 18 to 25 in a New South Wales prison, one quarter reported being raped or sexually assaulted. A Canadian survey showed that among 117 inmates surveyed in federal prison, 65 incidents associated with sexual assault were reported (Schiraldi).  Rather than putting children into these kind of environment, authorities should put more focus into rehabilitating troubled young offenders to create a safer future in society. While groups like the American Jail Association and American Civil Liberties Association have promoted to keep kids out of contact of adult prisoners, the bills that Congress pass that allow for minors to be tried as an adult inevitably result in more young offenders being incarcerated with adult prisoners.  

While there is some data on how juveniles fare in adult prisons, there is still a lack of data of rape, suicide and assault rates among the 4,000 juveniles that are sentenced to adult facilities, or the 65,000 children who pass through the jail justice system every year.  Some states put suicide deaths under the category of "unspecified cause" in reports, concealing the problem.  Other states also list rape in with "inmate assaults," also making the problem.  People who study this field warn that statistics and data on rape are "very conservative at best, since discovery and documentation of this behavior are compromised by the nature of prison conditions, inmate codes and subculture and staff attitudes" (Coulter).  Many statistics found online on the welfare of juveniles in the adult justice system are from many years back when official proceedings were more lenient; now there is too much controversy and political cautiousness that many issues end up being buried thus ending with a dearth of data.  There are also obvious incentives, such as monetary values or job benefits, for prison authorities to not publicize incidents of rape and suicide as it can give the prison system a bad reputation and could also be used as evidence for law suit.  

Research has shown that children have a particular propensity for rehabilitation (Kruh).  The human brain does not fully develop until around the age 25.  Brain studies indicate that children and adolescents process emotionally composed information in the part of the brain that is responsible for instinct and gut reaction, while adults, with a normal developed brain, will process this in the more "rational" pre- frontal cortex of the brain.  Although other research shows that strong emotions can cloud judgement for both adults and children, teens experience more frequent and unstable mood swings (McCormick 2006).   Since minors' brains are not fully developed, they find it more difficult to remember or recall events in a coherent manner, facilitating the police and judges to easily discredit their defense.  All of this suggests that juveniles lack the cognitive maturity found in adults and are less capable of thinking rationally when faced with pressured decisions and should therefore be held less accountable for their choices.  

A child, if young enough, might not even know the difference between what is morally right or wrong; also, if they are grown up in a poor or violent family or background, they will not have the proper care and development to realize what is ethically wrong.  A young child whose brain is not fully developed may engage in risky situations without realizing the consequences of their actions and the affect it has on himself and others.  Often times, children do things on an impulse and once they are out of prison, it is hard to turn their life around with a felony record in their background.  What juvenile offenders did when they're young could follow them for a long time from just one mistake.  Although, people must be punished for their wrongdoings, one mistake should not have to follow a person for their entire life.  Not only is sending juveniles to adult prison harmful, it does not benefit society in any way.  It does not solve any problems, but hide and lock the problem up and ignore it until it creates more issues later on.

