I have a brother named Jorge who will turn twenty-one in January. He will not celebrate his twenty-first birthday out on a night with friends. He will be in prison, where he currently is. My brother Jorge is an example of how the juvenile courts fail to rehabilitate repeated offenders. A drastic change in Jorge's behavior became noticeable around the age of eleven. He was always into trouble and domineered those around him with episodes of uncontrollable anger. Each time he appeared in juvenile court he walked away to repeat the process. Once he stole a car and the system punished him with a twenty-one dollar fine. By his laughter it was obvious this lesson taught him nothing. Because of his rage and threats, his family lived in constant fear for their safety. Jorge never paid any real consequences until he turned eighteen-when juvenile court no longer had any control. My sixteen-year old sister is following the same pattern as Jorge. Families across America are experiencing this same scenario because of the leniency of juvenile court. The cycle must be broken to prevent more youth from falling through the cracks.
In 37 States and the District of Columbia, those persons under age 18 charged with a law violation are considered juveniles (Office of Justice Programs). How do teens view the juvenile system? They are under the impression that as long as they are under the age of eighteen, they can get away with almost anything. In a high school classroom today it is not unusual to hear about the latest trouble maker bragging about what he has got away with in juvenile court. Rita Kramer states in her article Juvenile Justice Is Delinquent, that ".the juvenile system focuses on the minutiae of procedure technicalities at the expense of fact-finding, in order to achieve the goal of "getting the kid off" (Kramer). The juvenile justice system needs a new goal. When a youth does something wrong and faces no consequences of their wrongdoing, the youth is more likely to continue with their wrongdoings, and after all, there are no real consequences to their actions.
