The Future of Juvenile Justice

There has been a question plaguing the minds of today’s society for a while now. What does the future have in store for the Juvenile Justice System? Some say that more responsibility needs to be placed on the parents, while others say it is society's responsibility to help control youth from entering the justice system. The fact is, the Juvenile Justice System in the United States is over 100 years old. This age is old for a person and maybe also for a social-legal institution. There are signs it may be time to begin thinking about ways to amend the system, to fix what doesn’t seem to be working to the best of its ability, to reform the system to be more effective.  

 

Juvenile justice is transforming throughout America. Though there is a long road ahead to reform these systems into effective, rehabilitative programs that no longer make children worse, there is great promise in jurisdictions across the country, that are changing how they work with youth. According to David Muhammad;

“California, Texas, Washington, DC, New York, and many other jurisdictions have seen significant juvenile justice reform efforts take root. These reform efforts seek to protect the public safety by providing effective, rehabilitative services and supports to young people who have engaged in delinquent behavior” (Muhammad, 2012).

Investing in successful delinquency-prevention programs can save taxpayers seven to ten dollars for every dollar invested, primarily in the form of reduced spending on prisons. This is a highly beneficial option compared to the billions of dollars that the states spend per year to arrest, prosecute, incarcerate, and treat offenders. As stated in Reform Juvenile Justice Programs Today, “Researchers have identified a dozen "proven" delinquency-prevention programs. Another twenty to thirty "promising" programs are still being tested” (Donahue, 2009). The most effective programs are those that stop youth from engaging in delinquent behaviors in the first place, redirect first-time offenders from future encounters with the justice system, and stress family connections.

Prevention programs are imperative in decreasing juvenile crime. Children need to know how their actions and behaviors can affect the harshness of their punishment even ages as young as seven years old. Dean Champion states that, “The more a child is educated and provided alternatives to crime, the less likely s/he is to commit criminal or deviant acts” (Champion, 2004). Some programs that have proven to be successful in this area include:

• Boys’ and Girls' Clubs of America
• Family support services
• Youth Community Centers
• D.A.R.E.
• Mentoring programs
• Youth Leadership programs
• After-school programs (Issues, 2012).

According to Coalition for Juvenile Justice: Issues and Facts, all these programs offer a positive alternative to crime for children, particularly those who are considered underprivileged and who do not have sufficient parental supervision. Part of taxpayers’ money should be spent on preventing crime rather than incarceration (Issues, 2012).

When it comes to detention and reform programs we have to identify what works and what does not work. According to the article written by Kristina Jones, “Effective detention programs need to be tailored to the type of deviant act being committed. There must be several different programs made readily available that will contribute to the rehabilitation efforts of each juvenile” (Jones, 2006). Some programs that need to be implemented are:

• Drug and alcohol treatment
• Family support services
• Mental Health services (Princeton, 2012).

Jones continues to state that, these programs, mentioned above, should be the primary step in rehabilitating delinquent youth. “When a juvenile fails to respond to these types of intervention, s/he should then be placed under the care of the juvenile courts” (Jones, 2006). Within the juvenile courts, we as a society should see the occurrence of incarceration levels decrease dramatically and focus efforts on community-based rehabilitation programs.

The bottom line remains that not only do the courts, but all of society and youth’s families as well, need to aid in the intervention and rehabilitation of today’s youth in order for the juvenile justice system to produce positive changes. We need to identify areas of opportunity and provide treatment and other supportive services to youth and families in family‐ and community‐based settings. Youth are different from adults. They have different needs, and different capacities for transformation and development. Where necessary, youth need to be held accountable in developmentally and age appropriate ways, in keeping with findings of adolescent brain science that not only seek to correct their present conduct, but also to provide stepping stones for their future.

Reform of the juvenile justice system makes sense no matter what way a person looks at it. Many states are ready to begin this work today, if for no other reason than to save taxpayer money that is being spent on building prisons, when it can go to better use. We need to build a system that lowers the amount of juveniles from becoming delinquent in the first place and prevents those youth who do drift from becoming adult criminals.

 

Works Cited

Champion, Dean J. The Juvenile Justice System: Delinquency, Processing, and the Law. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Prentice-Hall, 2004. Print.

"Coalition for Juvenile Justice: Issues and Facts." Issues. N.p., n.d. Web. Dec. 2012. <http://www.juvjustice.org/media/issues.html#three>.

"A Comprehensive Juvenile Justice System: The Community Role of the Juvenile." Princeton University. N.p., n.d. Web. Dec. 2012. <http://www.futureofchildren.org/information2827/information_show.htm?doc_id=77853>.

Donahue, Elizebeth H. "Reform Juvenile Justice Programs Today." The Future of Children. N.p., 6 Mar. 2009. Web. Dec. 2012. <http://blogs.princeton.edu/futureofchildren/2009/03/reform-juvenile-justice-programs-today.html>.

Jones, Kristina. "The Future of the Juvenile Justice System." Yahoo! Contributor Network. N.p., 30 Dec. 2006. Web. Dec. 2012.

Muhammad, David. "A Roadmap to the Future of Juvenile Justice." New America Media. N.p., 28 Aug. 2012. Web. Dec. 2012. <http://newamericamedia.org/2012/08/a-roadmap-to-the-future-of-juvenile-justice.php>.