Issues with Juvenile Detainees

[Name of the Institute]

Issues with Juvenile Detainees

Introduction

The American Juvenile Justice system is experiencing several critical changes in the fundamental dynamics. Realizing the ineffectiveness of the current legal system; in which majority of the cases have produced ineffective results, in positively changing the lifestyles of the released teenage criminals, the courts have proceeded to give harsher punishments to the juvenile delinquents. Many States in America now have the option to amalgamate the juvenile and criminal sentences, so that the individual can serve the criminal sentence once he has served the juvenile sentence, and becomes eligible to be considered as an adult. In the past the juveniles stayed a very short amount of time in the relevant juvenile facilities, where the majority of the punishments were for a time period for 9 to 12 months. The juveniles who are awaiting their respective court hearings in reference to the transfer to criminal courts; can be detained for a longer time as compared to the other juveniles. Such actions have been taken to stamp out the rising trend of crimes by juvenile, and the ineffectiveness of the system to deal with the situation. These changes are especially designed to focus on the group of teenagers who are very close to adulthood. The majority of the judges in the country hold the view that the teens that are close to beings adults have the relevant cognitive capacity to make responsible decisions and their punishments for crime should also be harsher as compared to the younger juveniles.

The general ineffectiveness of the juvenile justice system can also be attributed to the state of the relevant facilities (Bickel, 2010). The majority of the individuals that end up in the juvenile facilities are there because of a momentary lack of better judgment. Excluding the exceptions, majority ...