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Quote by: Chase  Thanks for the input guys.
Chaos, your opinion and mine are the exact same in the real world, but I have to be against it for now, do you have any ideas or tips for reasons one could be against this topic?
My solution, however, to this case is that I think children that commit criminal acts worthy of an adult court, they should be sent and tried to an adult court, but if they are found guilty they stay in the juvenile detention center until they turn eighteen when they will be transfered to a higher security prison. |
The problem with that is that then they are kept alongside the other juveniles who are in there for lesser crimes... ie vandalism, fighting (thank you zero tolerance), drug possession, minor in possession of alcohol, and my favorite "Behavior injurious to a minor".
Which is left vague enough that they can arrest children for as little as walking in the street. Since that could potentially cause severe injury to the minor even if it's to the individual themselves. It's essentially a loophole to arrest children without a real reason other than to get them off the street. Particularly if they start getting an attitude.
Point is, do we really want these kids who have done something wrong, but are legitimately juvenile offenders and not adult offenders to be housed with the same offenders who have done things worthy of adult imprisonment.
Furthermore, the adult crimes would be inherently longer so these hardened offenders would be around longer to have a much greater affect on our lesser offenders who are in and out. Never mind the whole safety aspect of it.
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The only argument I can see against it is merely the same arguments going toward any person entering the correctional system. Over-representation of minorities, overpopulation for lesser offenses etc.
Perhaps an argument on the legal parental responsibility for their children? Something about how parents are more and more being held responsible for say... if their children have a party with alcohol involved and the police show up, the parents are fined heavily and in a few cases even arrested? ...regardless of whether or not they were at home at the time.