The Future of American Juvenile Justice System

What will the future have in mind for the juvenile justice system and youth? Some individuals may say that more laws and responsibility are needed to be placed on the parents, and others may say is our society's responsibility to help youth from entering the juvenile justice system. For anyone to understand what the future of juvenile justice will be, there are several aspects that society needs to look at. For example, policy changes, statistics of your offenders, government funding, prevention programs, restorative justice, environmental and society. “Why the U.S juvenile justice system needs serious reform,” an article written by Maris Medina, published by the Diamondback Newspaper at the University of Maryland(2016). Medina brings out the issue and problem of the U.S juvenile justice system not helping the prisoners properly.

The system has been made to help the juvenile, but it seems that it is getting overwhelmed. Medina suggested possible solutions to the problem, for example, supporting and promoting more after-school programs. Also, she recommended to the model the centers as the Missouri Model and focus on Multisystemic therapy. They should not be treated as an adult because they are still young and not mature enough to take full responsibility for their actions, but there are some serious situations where they should be treated as an adult such as them committing a serious crime like murder. These adolescents need more positive direction and influences than the bad that they seem to always copy and follow. All in all, they need is a second chance at life, there is so much more than they haven’t been able to see or explore. They should be given a life outside of prison not life in prison.

In Medina’s text, “Why the United States of America juvenile system needs serious reform,” she has been presented three claims. Her first claim is that the juvenile justice system is inhumane, the second claim is that the system is ineffective, and her last claim is that the system is so expensive. In her first claim, in which she has been mentioned about the inhumanity of the system. She carried reasons to support her claim about the juvenile justice system has been cruel. Medina used the rhetorical device pathos in order to create an emotional connection to bring the audience closer to her claim. Medina pointed out facts that can make the reader emotional, and whenever the readers read this article they will feel an emotion of sadness and will start thinking of the juveniles and will get some sadness about the current situation. She followed by explaining why the juvenile justice system is inhumane by pointing out that detention centers are congested. Youth incarceration should be focused on second chances and rehabilitation because it’s offenders are children.

These children must be able to have the supportive and productive childhoods they deserve. Essentially juvenile delinquents are children as Medina specifies in her article and should be given better options to better their lives to create a wonderful future for everyone. Adding to her emotional strategy Medina continues with “In a report authored by criminal justice researcher Barry Holman and Justice Policy Institute Executive Director Jason Ziedenberg for the Justice Policy Institute, a reported minimum of one-third of the detention centers are overcrowded, ultimately breeding an environment of violence and chaos.” This text provides a reader with a visual of how kids are being treated and make them feel bad and get in sadness because that is not how children should be treated. Medina also uses logical information for example when she gives statistics about how much it cost per youth offender per day. “The justice policy reported in 2009 that an average of about $240 was spent on one youth offender per day.” This sentence provides a logical idea to the reader of what is going on and helps it connect it to the emotional appeal.

These facts not only appeal her primary audience, but it also attracts the attention of a much larger group including everyone that pays taxes in the United States of America since she goes over how much is spent per day on a system that does not work.