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Justice System Position Paper

Justice System Position Paper The purpose of this paper is to convince you through information and evidence my belief of what needs to happen in the juvenile justice system in order to make a difference in our children’s lives. My belief’s is that we need to make comprehensive plans for the juvenile offenders including both rehabilitation and punishment efforts. I do not believe rehabilitation nor punishment will work on their own and need to be used together to ensure the correct message is being sent to our youth. In my opinion there has to be education at a young age, rehabilitation and punishment in each individual’s plan.
Juvenile Court Juvenile courts were first introduced into the United States court system in 1899. In 1899, the first juvenile court was finally established in Cook County, Illinois, and by 1925, all but two states had followed (Center On Juvenile & Criminal Justice, n.d.). The main purpose of juvenile courts was to make sure that adolescents were not treated and punished like adults and rehabilitation was thought to be the main way helping the youth.
Why is juvenile court so important? The juvenile court system is very important to the youth of our country. This court not only ensures there will be consequences for illegal activity done by minors, but also helps to protect adolescents from being treated like adults. These courts take into consideration that minors do not have the same thought processes that adults do, and is able to take other factors such as their living environment, mental state, and past history into consideration before handing down a sentence. Kids in juvenile court, whether they are offenders or foster kids, are usually struggling emotionally, academically, behaviorally, and with their family relationships and/or mental health. Intervention and assistance to these

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