The American Penal Code and Judicial Process on Children

Juveniles Tried as Adults
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Juveniles Tried as Adults
Introduction
Nelson Mandela famously said, ‘there can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than how it treats its children.’ While children can also commit heinous crimes, there should be a system to give them a fair chance at reforming and becoming part of society. In most cases, they suffer from childhood, characterized by diminished thinking and impulsive decision-making. Therefore, designing a system that punishes children without a fair chance at reformation like the United States is not only wrong but casts a long shadow on how society treats its children. It should focus on the rehabilitation of children rather than punishment.
Why are children tried as adults?
The United States law framework does not protect children from being tried as adults. 13 states have no minimum age for adult prosecution as adults. Together with other factors, this has made the United States is the only western country with a very high prison population which comes with a hefty bill on taxpayers amongst other social and economic effects. The reasons or conditions that lead to children being tried as adults are varied. For some states, minors between 15-17 years can be tried as adults for violent crimes such as rape, murder, and armed robbery. In some cases, a minor can be tried as an adult if he/she has previously been tried as an adult for a past crime. There lacks a federal system that protects the children in such states. Secondly, a judge can waive the right of a child to be tried in a juvenile course especially considering the severity of the crime. Thirdly, in some states, prosecutors can file the case in the court they consider appropriate irrespective of the offender’s age. For example, they can file a shoplifting case with an adult criminal court rather than handing over the child to juvenile correction officers trained on rehabilitating children. Fourthly, some statutory exclusions classify certain categories of offenders to appear in a criminal court irrespective of their age. These factors have cumulatively led to many children being arraigned in adult courts, often without legal representation.
The problem with trying children as adults
The main problem is that it is a violation of children’s rights. Children are not small adults, and in most cases, they lack the judgment, maturity, and knowledge to make the right decisions. Trying a child as an adult presupposes that the child understood the gravity of their decisions. Some children indeed commit heinous crimes, but it is worth considering their mental development stage before trying them as adults. Children have diminished culpability and heightened capacity for change which should be considered in how they are handled by the criminal justice system CITATION Equ \l 1033 (Equal Justice Initiative, n.d.). Children can be rehabilitated to be productive and important members of society. While some children are deemed impossible to rehabilitate, they are a very small fraction of the population, and the juvenile justice system should not be built around them.
Secondly, if the children tried as adults are sentenced, they are put into adult prisons. The primary objectives of adult and juvenile systems are very different. Juveniles are not charged with crimes, but rather with delinquencies; they are not found guilty, but rather are adjudicated delinquent; they are not sent to prison, but a training school or reformatory CITATION Nat01 \l 1033 (National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, 2001). A well-functioning juvenile rehabilitation system aims to rehabilitate individuals and give them a second chance at life. On the other hand, adult correctional facilities are aimed at punishing offenders. The juvenile system emphasizes that the programs are designed to rehabilitate, while the adult system is more punitive and focuses less on rehabilitation. Children who enter the adult correctional system have a higher recidivism rate because the system is more likely to turn them into hardened criminals.
Children are abused in adult correctional facilities. Take the case of Joe Sullivan, who was incarcerated at age 13 in Florida. He had severe intellectual disabilities at the time he committed the crime. Despite the crime not involving a killing, he was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. While incarcerated in an adult correctional facility, he was sexually abused by older inmates and developed sclerosis. He uses a wheelchair but is still in prison CITATION Jef16 \l 1033 (Toobin, 2016). These are some of the problems minors face in adult correctional facilities. They suffer at the hands of older and more hardened criminals. They are abused, and rather than rehabilitated; they turn to become criminals, hence the higher recidivism rate. Putting children in a system not designed to protect them is a violation of their rights, and trying them as adults sets them on the course to more suffering.
How to fix the system
Secondly, through its leg...