Sentencing Policies Analysis Paper

Sentencing Policies Analysis Paper

AJS/582

Public Policy Issues













Sentencing Policies Analysis Paper
If a child or adolescent is handing out with his or her friends, someone might suggest robbing a passer-by to get money for beer. The adolescent might choose to go along by default, despite mixed feelings, because of a strong need to fit in with peers at his/her age. The need to maintain status with the group may trump the opposite choice because of the inability to project effectively the outcomes in the future; these and more immediate rewards weigh more heavily than the negative abstract concepts of getting involved with the police, as well as the feeling of being ‘ten feet tall and bulletproof’ and cockiness that often comes with adolescence and juvenile punishment has become increasingly punitive (Redding, Richard, Fuller, and Elizabeth, 2004).  
For many years in our society; minorities and the youth have had an disadvantage when they run against the laws of our nation and with this message passed on to them today from the system that they are not worth the effort of being helped to turn around so that they can have a decent future.   Many are in essence told that they are hopeless cases that not only cannot be fixed, but that they have nothing positive to contribute to society ever and are expendable.   It is sad and inappropriate in a country in which a large percentage of individuals declare themselves to be Christian and strongly support the right to life of even unborn fetuses, these same individuals are often at the forefront of efforts to mete out the harshest of penalties to those who could potentially get the most benefit from mercy and rehabilitation (Redding, Richard, Fuller, and Elizabeth, 2004).
The focuses on punishment rather than rehabilitation, family support and other community resources. The courts were used unnecessarily with youth cases because it relied on court and custody based responses for...