Adult System Worsens Juvenile Recidivism

[flashl]

Youths tried as adults and housed in adult prisons commit more crimes, often more violent ones, than minors who remain in the juvenile justice system, a panel of experts appointed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a new report.

Longer sentences and the transfer of juvenile offenders to the adult system gained traction in the 1980s and 1990s as youth crime increased. The trend raised fears in statehouses and in Congress about young predators, and laws to push more juvenile offenders into the adult system flourished.

Those laws have not deterred other youths from committing crimes, nor have they rehabilitated the youths sentenced under them, said Robert L. Johnson, dean of the New Jersey Medical School, a member of the Task Force on Community Preventive Services, which was assembled by the CDC.

"Not only does it not deter youth crime, it actually makes them more violent," Johnson said. "It may salve our desire to punish. But don't get that confused with rehabilitation. Don't make the mistake of believing that punishment will help anything."

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Duh.

[glowing]

1. When exactly was there a time when prisons actually worked on

rehabilitation?

[flashl]

2. Lockem up. Life without parole. Is now the cry.

Didn't we learn anything from Charles Manson? We should have learned that the juvenile system can produce monster.

[sam sarrha]

3. even witnessing violence physically changes the structure of the brain.. experiencing it really

makes it worse.. you adapt violently to survive it