In America, when a child does something wrong the parents usually show the child what they did wrong, punish them accordingly, and explains to the child what the consequences of their actions are so that they do not do it again. If our society grows up raising our children this way, then why do we treat them differently when they commit a crime? Our juveniles within the justice system are still considered children, so our society and justice system should be treating them and punishing them like a child, instead of an adult. In Wagner's article that showed numerous statistics from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, he explained that more than 34,000 juveniles are incarcerated as of 2016, not including the 5,200 juveniles that are incarcerated as adults. He also explained that out of those 34,000 juvenile offenders 7,200 of them are locked up for only status offenses and only 13,600 of them were considered violent crimes. If these numbers are so high and are continuously getting higher, then why is our society not trying to fix this problem when they have already been proposed numerous different solutions? According to many different sources, statistics have already proven in many American states that rehabilitation does lower recidivism rates more than incarceration does. According to the Justice Policy Institute and Petteruti, community-based programs have shown to be more cost efficient and reduce recidivism. Petteruti stated in her report that, "Some of these programs have been shown to reduce recidivism by up to 22 percent, at a cost significantly lower than imprisonment" (Petteruti, 12). Rehabilitation can be much more beneficial for juvenile offenders and our society instead of incarceration, because it does not interfere with juvenile development, it prevents juvenile abuse by separating them from adult offenders, and it lowers incarceration rates and costs by providing many different rehabilitative programs. In return, these beneficial factors eventually lower recidivism rates which is what our criminal justice system has been attempting to do for decades and has continuously failed to do so.  

If we incarcerate these juvenile offenders, especially juveniles that can be helped by rehabilitation, then we put them in a more hostile and negative environment that they do not deserve to be in. Juveniles are more likely to be abused by other inmates if they are incarcerated, so why would we raise the possibility of that happening if there are other alternatives. These juveniles will be more likely to go through sexual abuse, emotional abuse, or physical abuse by other inmates whether they are incarcerated with adult offenders or juvenile offenders. In Novacic's article, she explains how youth do not belong in adult facilities because juveniles are put at higher risks when they are incarcerated. Novacic stated in her article that “Youth in adult facilities are…five time more likely to be sexually assaulted than in youth facilities” (“They’re Not Adults”). If these juveniles are abused while they are incarcerated, then they become more at risks of delaying their brain and body development which is the last thing our society should want. If we delay a juvenile’s development, we are just making it more likely for the juvenile to commit a criminal act again once they are released, because if we delay their development they end up not learning from the mistakes that they have made. Therefore, by incarcerating these juvenile offenders, we are just automatically increasing recidivism rates by delaying their development so that they do not learn from their criminal actions. Juveniles are still young enough to rehabilitate, especially if they have not committed multiple crimes or adapted to the criminal lifestyle yet. There are multiple accounts of evidence showing how juvenile brain development is different compared to adult brain development. The brain is not considered fully developed until at least the age of 25 and a juvenile is considered age 17 and under, therefore even people that are considered adults to the justice system do not have a fully developed brain if they are under the age of 25. Even though the brain is considered fully developed around this age, does not mean that there are other factors that can affect the development so that the development ends up being delayed. When juveniles are incarcerated, they lack positive social interactions, they are not treated as juveniles, their living conditions are not as they should be, and many juveniles experience abuse while they are incarcerated. These factors have a huge impact that can cause a delay in their human development, so we should be attempting to use an alternative source of punishment for these juveniles so that their development is not negatively affected. By rehabilitating juvenile offenders, we offer them the chance to get help and not be incarcerated so that their development is not negatively affected. If juvenile development is completely different compared to adult development, then why does our justice system treat them like they are adults? We should be rehabilitating them and doing everything possible not to negatively affect their development by incarcerating them. By rehabilitating juvenile offenders, we give them a higher chance of learning from their mistakes and not committing criminal acts again when they are released back into society. 

Over a century ago, America decided to separate our juvenile offenders from our adult offenders in the criminal justice system. It took many years for our justice system to finally separate our juveniles from our adults regarding to courts, sentencing guidelines, and other factors that are different for juvenile offenders. So, if our society did all that work to separate our juveniles from our adult offenders, then why are we continuing to treat them and punish them like adult offenders? What is the point of having separate justice systems, if not many characteristics of the two systems are even different? Also, the juveniles in America can still be tried as an adult and be sentenced to an adult prison. If the justice system is just going to continue treating and punishing juvenile offenders, then there is no point to spend the extra money on a separate justice system. By using a rehabilitative alternative to justice for our juvenile offenders, our justice system would be separating the juveniles from the adult offenders which was the whole idea of creating a separate justice system in the first place. Rehabilitation would be helping these juvenile offenders and giving them a second chance to return to society, instead of incarcerating them and just teaching them better ways to commit worse crimes. The American justice system should also make sure that our juvenile offenders are not being incarcerated with the adult offenders, because they are an easier target for the adult offenders in prison. If we rehabilitated the juvenile offenders, instead of incarcerating them in adult prisons, then we would be taking out the risks of juvenile offenders being abused and learning from these adult offenders. There are many different situations that happen every day in adult facilities that involve juveniles being mistreated, neglected, or abuse. New York Times released an article written by Gary Scott explaining what he went through while he was incarcerated in an adult prison at the age of 15. Scott stated that, “Because a juvenile’s identity is still developing, he or she can potentially adopt negative behaviors that are the norm in hostile prison environment” (Scott). He is not the only person that was incarcerated as a juvenile and believes that adult prisons are too harsh on juvenile offenders. Since rehabilitation prevents these juveniles from being further harmed or learning more about criminal acts from more experienced adult offenders, then we should be taking rehabilitation and using it as an alternative to incarceration. The whole point of America’s justice system is to deter crime and lower recidivism rates, so by preventing these juveniles from learning more criminal acts we would be preventing them from committing worse crimes when they are released from prison. If we rehabilitated the juveniles that could be rehabilitated and then separate the juveniles that have to be incarcerated based on the crime that they committed, then we would be preventing these low risks juveniles from learning from high risks juveniles.  

Rehabilitation has already been proven in many other countries and some states in the United States to be more beneficial regarding lowering costs, incarceration rates, and recidivism rates. Wilson uses reports from the Justice Policy Institute to explain how many other states have already begun reforming their juvenile justice system by using rehabilitation. Wilson stated in his article, “The number of juveniles incarcerated in Texas has dropped so much the state has been able to close nine correctional facilities, re-arrest rates are significantly lower, and the state has saved hundreds of millions more in its corrections budget” (Wilson). If Texas and some other states are seeing positive effects of rehabilitation by spending a small amount upfront, then why have all of America’s states not followed and done the same? Texas spent a small amount, “$45 million for what it called a Commitment Reduction Program, aimed at cutting recidivism rates" (Wilson) and in return earned back hundreds of millions, lowered recidivism rates, and closed correctional facilities. If our justice has the evidence that shows rehabilitation being a better alternative regarding costs and incarceration rates of juvenile offenders, then why are there over 34,000 juveniles incarcerated in state and federal prisons? If you asked an American taxpayer if they would rather spend more money to continue to raise crime rates or spend less money to lower crime rates, they would want to pay less money to lower crime rates. If our justice system asked the American people whether to rehabilitate juveniles or incarcerate juveniles, most Americans would want to rehabilitate these juvenile offenders, lower incarceration rates, costs, and recidivism rate. According to a report from the World Prison Population, "Prison rates in the US are the world's highest, at 724 people per 100,000...At 145 per 100,000, the imprisonment rate of England and Wales is at about the midpoint worldwide" ("World Prison Populations"). Even though these numbers represent juveniles and adults that are incarcerated, if America would begin lowering recidivism rates while offenders are young then it would ultimately lower the recidivism rates of adult offenders. If we rehabilitate these juvenile offenders and deter them from committing other crimes, then we will not be arresting these people again once they become adults and this would ultimately lower recidivism rates for juveniles and adults. In return, by lowering recidivism rates we could also lower incarceration rates and over time America would not have the highest incarceration rates worldwide. By rehabilitating juvenile offenders, America lowers recidivism rates, so crime rates eventually decrease, and fewer people are incarcerated which means lower incarceration rates. By doing this, America ultimately lowers cost in the long run because rehabilitating is cheaper then incarcerating and fewer people are being incarcerated. Gottesman states in his article that, “Research shows lower recidivism rates will save the state money in the long run, despite upfront costs involved in establishing these community-based facilities” (Gottesman). Although it would take some time and money to begin rehabilitating juvenile offenders and fund more rehabilitation programs, eventually America’s juvenile justice system and society would benefit financially because it saves money in the future. The criminal justice system is an endless flow of repeat offenses and increasing recidivism rates, so if we begin at the root cause of criminal acts with our juveniles by rehabilitating them then we would accomplish the goal of the criminal justice system by lowering crime rates.  

A proven solution to America's juvenile incarceration problems would be rehabilitation because there are so many different programs that are offered that could help these juveniles and deter them from committing future crimes. By realizing what the root cause of why the certain juvenile committed the crime that they did, our justice system can take that juvenile and require them to go through an individualized program that deals with the specific problem. A lot of offenders continue to commit crimes when they are released from prison because they have a criminal record, lost their job, their homes, or their family, and they do not know where to start to get readjusted when they come back into society. Teaching a criminal how to reenter society is very important because if they are not given any help or resources when being released from prison, they end up relying on a criminal lifestyle again to live in our American society. Throughout his article, Min explains “The importance of re-integrating the juvenile offender with his family and the community is because juvenile offenders are often not ready for independence at the expiry of their dispositional orders” (Min). Some juveniles are not given the option to rehabilitate outside of prison, so one of the many programs offered with rehabilitation is helping juveniles reenter society. There are also multiple other types of programs that are offered with rehabilitation because we are trying to help the juvenile offenders with the root cause of why they committed the crime in the first place so that we can prevent them from committing crimes again. Instead of incarcerating our juvenile offenders, America should focus on rehabilitating juveniles by requiring them to go through certain therapeutic programs instead of incarcerating them. A juvenile is young enough to learn from their mistakes and change how they want their life to be. America should offer these programs to them, so they can have help dealing with their issues instead of being locked up and having to deal with them in such a negative environment. There are multiple types of programs that specialize in drug treatment, alcohol treatment, therapy, mental illnesses, abuse, and many other factors that lead to juveniles committing crimes. Instead of punishing the juvenile offender with incarceration, the judge could sentence the juvenile to a rehabilitation program that could be more beneficial than incarceration. For example, if a juvenile committed multiple accounts of theft because they were addicted to drugs and needed the money to buy those drugs. The judge should sentence them to a drug rehabilitation facility instead of prison. If our justice system would take the time to figure out the cause of the criminal act, we could help so many juvenile individuals by putting them through rehabilitation instead of incarcerating them for a few months just so they can be released to commit the same criminal acts again. Most people if they saw a child dealing with substance abuse, physical abuse, or mental illnesses that individual would try and find a way to help them deal with the issues that they are dealing with. If this is the case, then our juvenile justice system should also do this even if it means helping a child that has committed a crime. In many different American states these rehabilitative programs have been proven to be very beneficial to juveniles, so our juvenile justice system should be striving to try and help these juveniles and lower recidivism rates by requiring them to go through these rehabilitative programs. According to Petteruti, "Researchers examining the effects of institutional versus community-based interventions have found positive outcomes for youth treated outside secure facilities. In one study, researchers’ meta-analysis found that while “appropriate treatment” works in both institutional and community settings, the rate of success was higher in the community-based treatment models" (Petteruti). If we already have states in America using rehabilitation as an alternative to juvenile incarceration, then we should work to spread this proven alternative to every state in America so that we can lower costs and recidivism rates. 

Many countries have already begun using rehabilitation as an alternative to incarcerating offenders, and so have some states in America. If our criminal justice system wants to achieve the main goal of creating the juvenile justice system by separating them from adults and treating them as children, then they should start with the simple step of not incarcerating them and instead rehabilitating them. The criminal justice system needs to focus on rehabilitation instead of incarceration so that they can separate juveniles from adults, treat the juveniles root problems, help with juvenile development, and all these factors would ultimately lower recidivism rates, cost, and incarceration rates in America. As Wilson continues to explain in his article, “Over the last 15 years; Connecticut, Rhode Island, Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia, Louisiana, Arizona, South Carolina, North Carolina, and California have all cut their juvenile incarceration rates by more than 60 percent” (Wilson). If there is physical evidence of rehabilitation being more beneficial than incarceration, then every state in America should begin rehabilitating juvenile offenders instead of locking them up in a prison just so they can continue to commit crime when they are released. If our country would at least attempt to rehabilitate our juvenile offenders instead of taking the easy route, then these juveniles would be given a second chance and many of them would not grow up to become adult offenders. By rehabilitating juvenile offenders, we deter future crime, lower recidivism rates, and end up not having as many adult criminals in the future. 
