...Alternatives to Incarceration For the country to save money, they have adopted other alternatives to deal with juveniles that are found on the wrong side of the law. These methods are meant to ensure that the juveniles are rehabilitated into better members of society while at the same time using a cost effective method (Lankford, 2012). For several years the United States has sought to have other methods that serve the same purpose as incarceration that are just as effective. These are methods that have been used and tested over the years that will work to the advantage of the government. There are different underlying historical and economic reasons behind the quest for alternatives to incarcerating offenders in jails and prisons. The main historical reason that has led to seeking...
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...Juvenile Delinquency Juvenile delinquency has been on the decline in recent years. The study of the variables, and distinction between the adult and juvenile systems, has helped in the decline. Delinquency is a criminal behavior that is committed by a juvenile. Depending on where in the United States the juvenile lives, they will be considered an adult between the ages of 16 to 18. This age has been lowered for serious crimes like murder. In those cases, juveniles have been tried as adults in court. Delinquency refers to conduct that does not conform to legal or moral standards of society; it usually applies only to acts that, if performed by an adult, would be termed criminal (“Encyclopedia Britannica”, 2013). This helps to distinguish delinquency from a status offense. Status offense is a word used in the United States to describe acts that when committed by a juvenile are illegal, but not when an adult does it is legal. These offenses are considered to be a violation because the individual is...
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...summary, the cost of housing an incarcerated inmate does affect the budget of the United States. Whether, the inmate is sentenced to life imprisonment or the death penalty. The facts in this research paper leans heavily in favor of life imprisonment as a cheaper form of punishment verses an inmate being sentenced to death row. The judicial system and politicians have formed several alternatives to assist our country with the ability to lower the cost of housing an inmate in our prison system. For example, the United States detaining systems are concentrating more on issuing a fair sentence to nonviolent offenders, such as, substance abusers and prostitutes. They realize that the majority of the inmates are in need of drug rehabilitation and have a mental illness. Also, the research shows that women offenders are the most affected with drug addiction and substance abuse. They also have the greater risk of recidivism and mental illness, due to, the drug addiction and substance abuse. The judicial system formed an alternative called “sex courts” to address the situation with female prostitutes. The alternative addressed the need of therapeutic rehabilitation (drug treatment and mental health counseling), instead of, incarcerating the...
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...and is detrimental to our communities” (1). For the purpose of this paper the focus will be on the incarceration of children ages 10-18 and how such can be not only detrimental to communities but also to societies and our economy.Something has to change, for some time now a large part of the United States population has bought into the whole concept of placing children who break the law in juvenile correctional facilities. As tax payers we must come to the realization that something needs to change if we want these troubled youth to have a bright future ahead of them and become law-abiding tax payers. As a country we are spending billions of dollars buying into this whole concept of incarcerating young people, while research shows it is ineffective on rehabilitating the lives of juvenile offenders. Richard A. Mendel reports that a number of studies actually show that the incarceration of juveniles, “actually increases recidivism among youth with lower-risk profiles and less-serious offending histories” (6). In order to put an end to this epidemic of just locking kids up and costing taxpayers billions of dollars we must use some alternative methods when dealing with juvenile offenders. If we want to build a stronger economy for the future we must invest less money into locking kids up and more money in building them back up. According to Mendel view on the incarceration of juveniles, “it wastes vast sums of taxpayers’ dollars. And more than not, it harms the...
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...alternatives to incarceration Book REview | Don’t Shoot the Dog! | The New Art of Teaching and Training | | Teresa Fuller | 5/11/2010 | Don’t Shoot the Dog! Provides a wonderful explanation and description of proper methods and laws around shaping undesirable behavior as an alternative to punitive discipline, be whether it is a student, child or animal these methods will apply. I am studying juvenile incarceration and alternatives to detention, this subject has opened my eyes to many red flags in the juvenile justice system, one being incarceration of low level offenders. In this book review I will discuss the importance and significance of this book, its content, meaning, purpose, strengths and weaknesses. I will also show how this book has increased my level of understanding of my target population and regarding the use of reinforcements in society. | The book I chose to review is titled “Don’t Shoot the Dog! The New Art of Teaching and Training”. What this book does is provides a unique and completely rational approach to retraining and reframing of thoughts and actions. In this book the author does a great job at describing and providing alternatives to unpleasing behavior. The population I am choosing to study is the juvenile population. I wonder how we can save our youth instead of introducing them to a life of crime and further destroying their future. Over the last ten to twenty years we have been locking our youth up left and right for lower and...
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...The problem of dealing with juvenile justice has plagued are country for years, since the establishment of the first juvenile court in 1899. Prior to that development, delinquent juveniles had to be processed through the adult justic3e system which gave much harsher penalties. By 1945, separate juvenile courts existed in every single state. Similar to the adult system, all through most of the 20th century, the juvenile justice system was based upon a medical/rehabilitative representation. The new challenges of the juvenile court were to examine, analyze, and recommend treatment for offenders, not to deliver judgment fault or fix responsibility. The court ran under the policy of “parens patriae” that intended that the state would step in and act as a parent on behalf of a disobedient juvenile. Actions were informal and a juvenile court judge had a vast sum of discretion in the nature of juvenile cases, much like the discretion afforded judges in adult unlawful settings until the 1970s. In line with the early juvenile court’s attitude of shielding youth, juvenile offenders’ position was often in reformatories or instruction schools that were intended, in speculation, to keep them away from the terrible influences of society and to encourage self-control through accurate structure and very unsympathetic discipline. Opposing to the fundamental theory, all through the first part of the century, the places that housed juveniles were frequently unsafe and unhealthy places where the state...
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...intermediate sanctions means to hold the youth involved accountable for their actions and through interventions which are much more restrictive, along with being more intensive than the standard probation; yet it falls short of a secure long term incarceration. For the youths whom fall short to respond to informal sanctions by re-offending and for some violent or drug-involved who need constant supervision, plenty of structure in their day, and monitoring but not necessarily meaning being institutionalized either. There are alternatives which can be a bit more restrictive of intermediate sanctions, for example; Training schools and Boot camps they are most often considered to be equivalent to incarceration in the terms of being harsh and severe towards punishment. Meanwhile with being known as conglomerate-care facilities; the training schools and boot camps are very much long term choices for confinement fit for juveniles in a correctional system layout....
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...The Alternative Sentencing Policies and Solutions This comprehensive analysis describes the different possible alternative solutions for women, and juvenile offenders. The Bureau of Justice Grant programs developed incentives for other programs to decrease the overcrowded conditions for most state and federal prisons. These grant programs provided the information and incentives for state governments to expand, build, and adapt closed military bases as extension of the federal penal prison system. This initiative encouraged local and state courts to implement truth-in-sentencing and alternative sentencing concepts to lessen the burden of overcrowded prison systems. The grants divided in half for building prisons to increase the bed space for violent offenders, and the other half for alternative solutions to incarceration. The incentive funds used for more alternative solutions; prison islands, or barges, or closed military bases. Sentencing Drug Statistics The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) reported four to one ratio of prisoners showed under the influence of drugs, or alcohol while committing the current crime, or at the time of the violation (Langan, P, & Levin, D, 2002). The BJS showed detailed statistics report of 400; 000 people arrested for drugs, or drug-related offenses; 70% sent to state prisons, 40% drug-related offenses, 32% alcohol-related offenses, and 20% other violent crimes. The survey researched by the Department of Justice (DOJ) along with the (BJS) report...
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...Final Final As we look at the juvenile justice system today, it is very different from what it once was. Juveniles today have more access to technology and other forms of electronic gadgets that have allowed them to become delinquents. Many more juveniles are committing the same type of crimes as before, but within gangs or with other juveniles. So instead of giving the juvenile some type of a “slap” on the wrist punishment that many have not learned from, the evidence has shown new ways of reinforcement approaches have worked. There are ways of dealing with young offenders that are more effective and less costly than prosecuting them as adults and imposing harsh sentences. With the "get tough" reforms from different states and legislation, many juveniles have spent a historic time in adult prisons. Now, widespread legislations are attempting to change the requirements for transferring young offenders from juvenile courts to adult criminal courts, where mandatory minimum sentences and other factors make incarceration more likely. Although many criminal juvenile courts dismiss and overlook the fact that these are juveniles, regardless of the crime committed, youth are not similar to adults in ways important to determining responsibility, such as having an under-developed ability to understand the consequences of their actions. Many juveniles are overlooked at the disabilities they may have, such as ADHD, slow learning abilities or other mental setbacks. ...
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...Alternatives to Incarceration Nicole Kimble Professor White CRJ 180 December 4, 2015 In examining the underlying historical and economic reasons behind the quest for alternatives to incarcerating offenders in jails and prisons, “between 1972 and 2010, the United States prison population increased exponentially from fewer than 200,000 prisoners to more than 1.6 million. Including, jails, the United States now incarcerates approximately 2.3 million people on any given day. By 2012, one in 108 American adults had been incarcerated. During these decades, the contours of American exceptionalism expanded as the United States acquired the distinction of leading incarcerator of the world.” (Eaglin, J pp.1845) I would also like to add that the “Model Penal Code takes an important stride toward fundamental thinking as it refocuses economic sanctions around the goal of successful reintegration into society. There is reason to believe that the broader public and political has not similarly reoriented itself around this framework, despite the apparent shift towards rehabilitative reforms. Neorehabilitaive reforms maintain the dame framework of exclusion that created policies that increased prison populations even though the rhetoric of reform has changed. So to speak, “unless and until the public politicians develop the will to fund a reintegrative system, economic sanctions may be another alternative to incarceration implemented in the wrong way despite the ally’s efforts to the...
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...maintain the juvenile justice system as a separate entity from the adult court systems. It must stay separate in both the way cases are disposed and in the way sentence is carried out. Namely, punishment as in the adult system must be avoided and continued to be replaced by rehabilitation. In recent years, there has been intensive debate about whether the juvenile justice system should focus its limited resources on rehabilitation or punishment to curtail the rising statistics in juvenile delinquency. It is my belief that the juvenile justice system should primarily focus on the process of juvenile rehabilitation as opposed to strictly punishment. This paper will include an assessment of law enforcement, court processes, probation corrections, and community services as well as the intervention programs currently available to increase the incidents of juvenile delinquency. In this paper the subject to examine is both sides of the spectrum and try to show that the process of rehabilitation, rather than just straight punishment will provide a more effective solution to the problem of juvenile delinquency. I will be examining some of the arguments that oppose the views of rehabilitation over punishment and attempt to prove that the arguments for punishment are not as valid as those for rehabilitation. This paper will also provide evidence to support the claims that rehabilitation is a more effective way to resolve some of the issues which that are apparent in the juvenile justice system...
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...Miranda Armenta 1.12.17 Per. 3 Rehabilitation works better than incarceration The juvenile criminal system has changed a lot throughout the years. The system then went from trying to help inmates and probationers get their life back on track now to an alarming punitive system. Rehabilitation increases the chances of turning a juvenile's life around rather than punishing them with jail time. Studies have even proven that rehabilitation services for young juveniles have a bigger impact than punishment. This system lacks the nurturing aspect of rehabilitation to help truly good people out of a bad place. It's gotten harder and harder to keep rehabilitation in and out of jails. Most jails don't even have enough professional mental evaluation...
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...The Alternative Sentencing Policies and Solutions This comprehensive analysis describes the different possible alternative solutions for women, and juvenile offenders. The Bureau of Justice Grant programs developed incentives for other programs to decrease the overcrowded conditions for most state and federal prisons. These grant programs provided the information and incentives for state governments to expand, build, and adapt closed military bases as extension of the federal penal prison system. This initiative encouraged local and state courts to implement truth-in-sentencing and alternative sentencing concepts to lessen the burden of overcrowded prison systems. The grants divided in half for building prisons to increase the bed space for violent offenders, and the other half for alternative solutions to incarceration. The incentive funds used for more alternative solutions; prison islands, or barges, or closed military bases. Sentencing Drug Statistics The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) reported four to one ratio of prisoners showed under the influence of drugs, or alcohol while committing the current crime, or at the time of the violation (Langan, P, & Levin, D, 2002). The BJS showed detailed statistics report of 400; 000 people arrested for drugs, or drug-related offenses; 70% sent to state prisons, 40% drug-related offenses, 32% alcohol-related offenses, and 20% other violent crimes. The survey researched by the Department of Justice (DOJ) along with the (BJS) report...
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...Introduction The Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) is the principal federal program through which the federal government sets standards for juvenile justice systems at the state and local levels. It provides direct funding for states, research, training, and technical assistance, and evaluation. The JJDPA was originally enacted in 1974 and even though the JJDPA has been revised several times over the past 30 years, its basic composition has remained the same. Since the act was passed in 1974, the JJDPA focused solitary on preventing juvenile delinquency and on rehabilitating juvenile offenders. Since the original enactment of the JJDPA in 1974, the periodic reauthorizations have been controversial, as the Act's opponents have sought to weaken its protections for youth, reduce prevention resources, and encourage the transfer of youth to the adult criminal justice system. The Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act follow a series of federal protections, known as the "core protections," on the care and treatment of youth in the justice system. The four "core protections" of the act are, the Deinstitutionalization of Status Offenders (DSO), Sight and Sound separation, Jail Removal, and Disproportionate Minority Confinement (DMC). The "DSO" and "Sight and Sound" protections were part of the original law in 1974. The "Jail Removal" provision was added in 1980 in response to finding youth incarcerated in adult facilities resulted in "a high suicide...
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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...
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