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Maybe.
This is a hard situation. I think 13 is possibly still redeemable. I have heard of many hardcore gang bangers who grow up in prison and change. They grow a heart and develop their souls. With nothing more than years behind them and few piddly programs in prison.
But our current system doesn't offer much and then these people are released onto our streets with no education, no psychological assistance or life training and a criminal record. And then we get to deal with them.
I would definitely be in favor of this kid doing 16 to life with the possibility of parole but in a place that is ore than a warehouse. A place with real rehabilitation efforts.
If he went through something like that, at 29, he may be mature enough to handle life on the outside. Ages 15 to 30 are usually the worst for criminally minded males, when their testosterone is the highest, so I have no problem keeping offenders like this in that long.
I guess my biggest problem is that we really don't have many programs of true rehabilitation.
I had a professor (conservative) who said the following to me and it really impacted me. She said either keep them in a prison that is a horrible place, so horrible, that no one can fathom going there, so that no one will ever want to, or, put them in a prison that offers real rehabilitation. Because the situation we have now is in between. Prison is not that hard for most but
it is a place that offers no hope. It's just a holding pen.
I would like to see pretty much all serious juvenile offenders kept in prison until they are 30. But it must be a real rehabilitative facility with the chance at a real education and counseling and life skills training, etc. If, at the age of 30 they have shown that none of that has worked for them, send them to Sheriff Arpaio.
Here's the thing. Most kids who go to jail/prison, well, they get out some day. They have already proven to be criminals. Once they are released, if we haven't spent any money on them, we get to deal with something much worse than went in.
I don't have to worry about the kid who wants to be a page, shooting me or my children in the street. And the reason they are where they are at in life, doing well in school and having ambition, is likely because they didn't have this kid's life. They had a parent or guardian who already had the resources and emotional capacity to give a damn.
Maybe.
This is a hard situation. I think 13 is possibly still redeemable. I have heard of many hardcore gang bangers who grow up in prison and change. They grow a heart and develop their souls. With nothing more than years behind them and few piddly programs in prison.
But our current system doesn't offer much and then these people are released onto our streets with no education, no psychological assistance or life training and a criminal record. And then we get to deal with them.
I would definitely be in favor of this kid doing 16 to life with the possibility of parole but in a place that is ore than a warehouse. A place with real rehabilitation efforts.
If he went through something like that, at 29, he may be mature enough to handle life on the outside. Ages 15 to 30 are usually the worst for criminally minded males, when their testosterone is the highest, so I have no problem keeping offenders like this in that long.
I guess my biggest problem is that we really don't have many programs of true rehabilitation.
I had a professor (conservative) who said the following to me and it really impacted me. She said either keep them in a prison that is a horrible place, so horrible, that no one can fathom going there, so that no one will ever want to, or, put them in a prison that offers real rehabilitation. Because the situation we have now is in between. Prison is not that hard for most but
it is a place that offers no hope. It's just a holding pen.
I would like to see pretty much all serious juvenile offenders kept in prison until they are 30. But it must be a real rehabilitative facility with the chance at a real education and counseling and life skills training, etc. If, at the age of 30 they have shown that none of that has worked for them, send them to Sheriff Arpaio.
Yeah, but -- if this "juvie" facility is like many about which I have read, the only difference would be the age and sophistication of his abusers. Charlie Manson and so many other hardcore murderers/rapists/predators, etc. etc., started his criminal imprisonment in juvie -- and yes, that was many, many years ago, and approaches and types of treatments & counseling have improved, certainly, but people -- their urges, egos, and male testosterone levels -- do not. A tuff way to grow into young adulthood and to be turned back out into society.
There is just not enuff money, personnel, and caring to really make a lasting difference with these young criminals. And who deserves the most tax dollars & attention?? The good young citizens/students who want to make a difference and go to Governor's School or be a junior page in the State House or the young criminals who are at the brink of becoming criminally sophisticated and nearly soul-less?? That's why so many folks who start out in prison at a young age just keep returning. What is the answer? And this kid may have already turned that corner. :waitasec:
Impossible and seemingly no solution...
Here's the thing. Most kids who go to jail/prison, well, they get out some day. They have already proven to be criminals. Once they are released, if we haven't spent any money on them, we get to deal with something much worse than went in.
I don't have to worry about the kid who wants to be a page, shooting me or my children in the street. And the reason they are where they are at in life, doing well in school and having ambition, is likely because they didn't have this kid's life. They had a parent or guardian who already had the resources and emotional capacity to give a damn.
