Better Treatment for Youth Rehabilitation in the Juvenile Justice System
In the past few years, study after study of youth who have been accused of a crime, and/or been convicted of a crime, show that these youth can be turned around and helped to become the responsible adults we all want them to be.
Almost every youth who comes in contact with the juvenile justice system will be on our streets, and so it is to everyone’s benefit that they receive the educational, social, and rehabilitative services that will provide them with the new start they need.
A new report has just been released by the “Campaign for Youth Justice” titled State Trends......” In this and future articles we will explore the report’s findings in several areas:
• Understanding the Consequences of Trying Youth as Adults,
√ Teen Brains Are Not Fully Developed,
√ Issues with Teens in the Adult System
• Removing Youth from Adult Jails and Prisons
• Raising the Age of Juvenile Court Jurisdiction
• Changing Transfer Laws to Keep More Youth in Juvenile Court, and
• Rethinking Sentencing Laws for Youth.
Science has been studying the human brain for a long time, but in the past few years, studies have shown that the human brain is constructed through a process that starts before birth and continues into adulthood. In fact, during adolescence, the brain undergoes a dramatic change in its structure and function, impacting the way youth process and react to information. The part of the brain that is the last to develop is the one that controls many of the abilities that govern goal-oriented, “rational” decision-making, such as long-term planning, impulse control, insight, and judgment.
What this means (ed. note – and anyone with teens knows this) is “that youth are particularly vulnerable to making the kinds of poor decisions that get them involved in the justice system.”
What this also means is that youth are still at a point where their brains are very elastic and malleable to change. In other words, they are open to guidance, and appropriate programs and services to turn them around from being in trouble.
This is why it is so crucial that the Illinois juvenile justice system provide troubled kids with the education and services they need to become responsible adults.
This is why we must work constantly to help our legislators understand that warehousing kids in confinement, especially adult confinement, where they get no services, is absolutely the wrong thing to do.
This is why we must remind our legislators that youth in the juvenile justice system need education, and age-appropriate programs and services, and even punishment that will build positive change into their brains. This must be what we want and need for our youth. Otherwise they will face a future with a permanent criminal record and the increased likelihood of their becoming career criminals.
Information in this article comes from the following report: Arya, Neelum (2011). State Trends: Legislative Changes from 2005 to 2010 Removing Youth from the Adult Criminal Justice System, Washington, DC: Campaign for Youth Justice. The complete report can be accessed at www.cfyj.org. Click on latest research on the home page.
Gretchen McDowell, Illinois PTA Consultant, State Legislation
