Juvenile Delinquency Non-Reformist Reform Approach

From Juvenile Delinquency 2021

Throughout all the content offered during the course, we have learned how adolescents require a more extensive level of care and attention compared to adults. Adolescents have developmental characteristics impacting their judgment and self-control and they aren’t able to cope with dramatic life changes as well as adults. They are easily influenced by environmental factors and at a young age where they can have dire, long-term consequences on their longevity and wellbeing. Despite all of this information that experts and scholars have researched and managed to prove, the juvenile justice system is eerily similar to the process adult offenders experience in the adult justice system in all of its pervasive suffering, maltreatment, neglect, and exclusion, affecting any person’s freedom, independence, and sanity. It is my firm belief that the parallels of the injustices driven by economic benefit stems from the state’s control over incarceration, where the state is rewarded with every individual entering the system. I argue that before we start seeing real, meaningful changes at a structural standpoint, then we must begin the removal of the state’s carceral power which will improve social, economic, and political areas relating to incarceration, subsequently empowering those individuals and communities negatively affected by decades-old systemic oppression. Building off of this, even more impactful for enabling groups and local communities for creating autonomy, strength, and skills, would be the introduction of more locally owned organizations, especially grass-root types, as well as alternative programs, policies and methods that will actually further develop and positively influence youth. These rehabilitative-focused groups will allow children and teens to acquire the knowledge, self-government, and decision-making skills to be emotionally, physically, and spiritually fulfilled and happy in their long-term success. For decades advocates have been protesting for change and urging the reformation of policies and laws to execute more ethical standards that adolescents caught in the juvenile justice system are affected by only to see very few actual results. In this paper I will explain the direct impacts of state interventionism in the juvenile justice system and economic planning associated with such as well as explore alternative non-reformist reforms to elicit radical change at a structural, institutional degree.

State-run juvenile prisons are where the most abuse, distress and isolation occur in adolescents. These institutional sites dedicated to locking up juvenile offenders may vary in size, policies, and procedures but all manage to place adolescents in inhumane, trauma-inducing facilities where they are stripped of their identities, autonomy, and freedom (Bernstein, pg. 22). A 2010 report on abuse shows that 30% of youth were punished using solitary confinement and 38% feared an attack from a fellow inmate or staff member (Bernstein, pg. 83). There were 13,000 abuse claims filed between 2004 and 2007 reported by a 2008 investigation and in all of these abuse reports, “states have been identified not for one or a handful of isolated events, but for a sustained pattern of maltreatment” (Bernstein, pg. 84). The act of locking up adolescents in these state-run facilities or using solitary confinement is often covered up using euphemisms and like “therapeutic” to fool parents and outsiders (Bernstein, pg. 87). The reality is that these places are intrinsically characterized as brutal, violent, and causing victimization and the facilities these kids are held in resemble precisely what an adult prison is like. A survey from Office of Juvenile Justice states that 56% of youth in state custody were victimized, either assault, theft, or violence (Bernstein, pg. 30). Sometimes, juvenile offenders can stay incarcerated in juvenile prison until they’re 21 or even 25, depending on that state’s laws, eliminating years of crucial social and independence development (Bernstein, pg. 187). Sexual abuse is also rampant in these youth detention centers, where a survey found that 12% of juvenile prisoners had been sexually assaulted at least once in the last year and 1 in 10 were abused by staff. The overwhelming number of adolescents who enter the juvenile justice system do so with abusive, traumatic childhood backgrounds living in impoverished communities and neighborhoods (Bernstein, pg. 158). The juvenile recidivism rate is alarming as the majority of youth return to juvenile prison after release or move onto an adult prison later, where multiple studies found that 70-80% of juveniles are rearrested in two to three years (Bernstein, pg. 182). The removal of an adolescent from a community to be sent to a juvenile detention center accomplishes no form of healing or teaching, only fear and defending of oneself, as well as hatred.

The overwhelming power of the state on adolescent’s lives does not end there. Additionally, to all these hindrances adolescents face, which is driven by the state, the effects of such are seen in schools as well where there was an introduction of state laws establishing zero-tolerance policies, causing the line between school and prison to be even less distinguishable. Further, in response to street and gang violence, states implicated numerous legal responses to the war on drugs, such as three strikes laws and mandatory minimum sentencing (Kaba, par. 9). These facilities emphasize submission and control causing frustration, violence, and a feeling of purposelessness among the incarcerated adolescents. Ensuring the defunding of the state’s involvement with incarceration would decrease or eradicate these innumerable instances showing that the current juvenile justice system has never worked well, achieving quite the opposite of what they are “intended” to do.

Take the case of Wille Bosket for example where he was an ordinary boy who grew up in Harlem, NYC. His father murdered two people when Willie was young and then shot his own girlfriend and himself to avoid prison. His grandfather raped him multiple times while he witnessed his mother experience abuse from many different men. All this happened before the age of ten. His mother then placed him in a children’s center and from there on he was placed in many different juvenile correctional detention facilities for years until age 21. Governor Hugh Carey made New York state legislation change its laws, passing the Juvenile Offender Act of 1978, to allow the trying of juveniles in adult court, which eventually all states soon followed, reversing decades of judicial progress (Hager, par. 4). This means that a juvenile can be charged for assault or robbery in adult criminal court and receive harsher, longer sentences designed to punish, defeating all intended purposes of the juvenile justice system. This is just one example of the power of the state on juvenile delinquency. Willie Bosket was deprived of all psychological and emotional human needs from a young age and its evident that this impacted his ability to make sensible decisions. He felt alone with no feeling of belonging anywhere. He never truly had a home and to this day, is locked up in solitary confinement for the remainder of his life sentence for two murders and one attempted (Hager, par. 22). Instead of the state’s response to the troublesome teenage boy, the local community should have had the control to aid him using grassroots organizations where he can receive the help, love and resources he has needed since his life began, then he would have had a chance at a normal life in society.

Grassroots activism is about mobilizing a group of people who share a passion for a cause, whether it be personal or an interest, where they collaboratively harness enough power together to advocate for a different outcome. These types of groups can directly influence a local area or community and transfer this grasped power to its members. Non-profit organizations are another method for providing the resources and services that hold youth accountable for their actions and meet the underlying needs that likely cause the behavioral problems in youth. Another option would be higher amounts of state-funding for organizations, programs, and neighborhoods that truly help youth rather than the “$54 billion America now spends on prisons” (Bernstein, pg. 311). If the government and the state could invest in these types of alternatives as well as push for philanthropic donation funding, these methods would focus on bettering families, relationships with school and learning, as well as opportunities for leisure activities, jobs, higher education and an interest in civic engagement, meaning more agency over their lives.

It is clear that the existing juvenile justice system is completely failing at rehabilitating and the only way to spark positive change in adolescent’s lives’ who have been or will be placed into the juvenile justice system is to construct and enact a radical non-reformist reform approach. The more non-profit organizations and grassroot community involvements that are available to members of society, the more people will participate, collectively causing swifter fundamental change. Empowering communities across the country to advocate against unjust, unequal practices after the removal of the state’s dominion of the justice system is the one guaranteed way of witnessing authentic, long-lasting transformations. Every local region requires different needs relating to financial and social conditions so why should the state have such a large influence on justice structure? Social movements bring about social reform, which should be demanded using the growth and prosperity of various groups throughout the country. These two transformations of the juvenile justice system are key to reducing the scale of the system and the devastating widespread affects in adolescent’s lives, providing the tools and skills necessary to pave a path toward a fully developed, thriving, loving human being.

What is Juvenile Delinquency to Me?

On the delinquent activities sheet I scored an eight which I imagine is relatively low. I believe I participated in an activity similar to this in my criminal justice class with Professor Michelle Brown and the students who chose to share their scores had scores that were decently higher than my own. Naturally I grew up in a family free of crime, aggression, drugs, and all the negative home life possibilities. I did have my own family struggles in other ways, but thankfully my background has not affected me or caused me to want to participate in delinquent behavior. I was surprised when I read the activities which had threatening another person’s life on it such as the “pointed a gun, or a pistol, either loaded or unloaded, at another person.” I did not expect to see one that upfront which could lead violence but I suppose youth with dangerous, chaotic family and home situations can be influenced or choose harmful paths as ways of coping.

If I am being honest I didn’t have many friends in school, likely considered a loner for the most part, only a few students that I would chit chat with occasionally. I hung around the quieter, nerdy folks as opposed to the troublesome, rude kids with bad attitudes, poor grades, and those who received negative attention and punishment from teachers. My school would send them to detention or I.S.S. or they would have to sit separately at lunch, work on an extra assignment, or if they participated in a particularly offensive or dangerous activity then they would be transferred to another disciplinary school and stay for a few months or a few years, depending on how well they behaved there.

If you think on a deeper, cognitive level about this issue, and especially with me having a small background and fascination with psychology and human behavior, then you will understand why certain folks make the decisions they do with types of childhood experiences, memories, and emotions. Along with psychology, sociology and the structure of our society and the way our world works, certain types of individuals will experience a tougher life with more difficult challenges to overcome to make it to the same place as another type of individual. For example, a young Hispanic boy whose family moved from Mexico a year ago for better opportunities is in elementary school. The only thing is, is that he left the only home he has ever known including his other family members, friends, and comforting surroundings, and plus his home life isn’t the best. His parents constantly argue, his dad can sometimes grow aggressive and angry and his parents are busy working two jobs each to support him and his five other siblings. A few ways in which he may cope with all of these changes and stressors is to act out in school to either distract himself from his situation at home or to even gain more attention from his parents. He may even push another kid who angers him just like he sees his father get sometimes. Humans are run on implicit motivations whether we believe it or not. Many times, especially young children, make irrational decisions and they really don’t know why. They just know how they were feeling and going through at the time. We as a society need to focus on better education, therapy, and quality of life for families and children, otherwise generations are only going to be a repeating cycle of what their parents were. We all know that times have changed, well so has our attitudes and forgiveness around people’s mistakes. People don’t just want to ruin their lives for the fun of it, but not everyone is as fortunate as someone else. When we punish a young child, they’ll feel like a criminal before they’re even criminalized.

My motivations for taking this course are to in general learn more about the criminal justice system and it’s fundamental innerworkings, but to also specifically learn about adolescents in terms of before and after entering the system. Reasons for why, and how to prevent these problems from arising in the first place. I wish to help others someday and my goal is to guide others to thrive and to keep them out of the system completely. If we lived in a more peaceful, decriminalized, less stressful, and less violent nation that focused on love, growth, acceptance, rehabilitation, and positive thinking, especially among families and beginnings since that’s where it all starts, then we would have a healthier, happier population in general with very few criminal offenders. Children are fragile and should be cherished and nudged down the correct paths of their choosing, just with some healthy encouragement for them to be themselves and explore. If a child is stuck in a trashy, abusive, bleak home with parents who don’t even know or love themselves, how would one expect them to not just survive, but thrive in this society with the structure we have in place to accomplish goals and dreams of their own and prosper? We cannot.

I do not know a whole lot about the juvenile delinquency system, just that it is flawed and can improve in nurturing our youth into productive, complete, loving people that contribute to society rather than being a wasted life in the prison system until the day they die where taxpayers just waste their money on lives that could have been worthy of so much more than a tiny cell room. It’s a devastating topic. I am so very fortunate to have the life I do have. I, myself, could have just as easily been born into a life which could have led me to make very wrong decisions down a path of no love or light, or even worse, only death.