Rehabilitation: Not Just for Chemical Dependency

In today’s world of ever changing family dynamics, peer pressure, the stress and pressure to perform their very best, and to have the latest and greatest electronic gadget on the market, our youth can become very perplexed about life.   Blended families, single parent homes, financial instability, poor family environment, and a community that is not conducive to promoting positive contributions to society, all factors that contribute to the delinquency of a young and yet developing mind and can weigh heavily on a child’s psyche causing him or her to do some unimaginable things.   Unfortunately, sometimes those unimaginable things can land them right into court headed for the correctional system.   The problem is that depending on the crime committed, the state in which the crime was committed, and the court in which they are tried could very well be in an adult court and not in juvenile court.   In the 1800’s (during the progressive era), the “early reformers were interested in rehabilitating rather than punishing children” (Lawyershop.com).   Having children tried as adults is wrong and it goes against the very fabric of our judicial system.   We must maintain the principals and standards that were established 100 years ago by the “early reformers,” when the juvenile justice system was first being established.
Setting up a judicial system that is separate from the adult judicial system affords the troubled youth an opportunity to correct their behavior, to learn how to deviate from their disparaging path and be reintegrated back into society as a productive citizen.   “The U.S. juvenile justice system was founded over 100 years ago as a separate court system designed to look at the ways to reintegrate children in conflict with the law back into society” (Wiegand).   If a child is tried as an adult, it would appear that the court has no intention of reintegrating or rehabilitating that child back into society.   In Terrance Graham v. Florida, Graham was tried as an adult,...