LA Times, Monday, November 19, 2007 – Henry Weinstein
“U.S. leads in child life sentences, study says
California has sentenced more juveniles to life in prison without possibility of parole than any state in the nation except Pennsylvania, according to a new study by the University of San Francisco’s Center for Law and Global Justice.”
The article goes on to say that the US leads all other nations in children under 18 serving life sentences and that “51% of juveniles sentenced to life without parole were first-time offenders” and that black juveniles were 10 times more likely than white to be given life without parole.
What makes the nation with one of the highest standards of living most likely to incarcerate its children? Is it because our children are worse, more evil than the children in the rest of the world? Is it because we as a nation no longer know how to raise children with moral values intact? Or is it because our legal system is punitive and dysfunctional? What should we do to help the next generation? Continue to try to throw all the ‘bad ones’ in jail? Is there any evidence that this method working?
1 comment:
No easy answers here. Are US children more "evil" or worse than kids in other nations? No. What is the case is that the US is still "stuck on stupid" when it comes to laws and mores catching up with the times. We're still trying to raise and educate our children based on principals and methods applicable over 30 years ago. Times have changed, and the laws and ways in which we raise, guide, and discipline kids has to change to.
In addition, and probably the most influential in the overall ineffectiveness of the legal system where juvenile offenders is concerned, is the fact that the paradigm for the definition of the "traditional" family as we once knew it, has shifted dramatically. With "kids raising kids" the difficulty of instilling appropriate values and measures of discipline have become skewed and in many instances, has simply ceased to exist.
Jail, no matter the length of the term or harshness of the sentence is ineffective for most young offenders--and in many cases, negatively fuels an already lost child, rather than rehabilitates.
Tough call on a solution, but an overhaul of the laws and standards for punishment of young offenders is a start.
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