Certified Teenager

I searched through my classmates blogs until I found a well written article on the blog Love and Tolerance in Texas by Kelly Jura-Myrick on the detention and rehabilitation (or lack thereof) of teenager in the state of Texas, you can check out the full article here. I both agree and disagree on several key points that Kelly makes in her article. The juvenile detention facilities not just state wide but more importantly nationwide are found in studies to be quite atrocious when compared to other countries juvenile facilities. However, I am under the impression that we are doing a lot of things wrong here, I am a firm believer in fair treatment, but also in a firm hand especially with our youth today. These are the kids that are going to be making the big decisions and leading the country when I get older so shouldn't I have a say in the way we interact with them on a state or federal level.

There aren't many kids that grow up in "the system" (I am not talking about strictly foster care here but ANY state run facilities) and come out of it with the experiences of a normal citizen. I agree that the detention of young juveniles with adult offenders is a serious mistake and for the health and safety of our juveniles should be avoided at all costs, but at what point do we stop calling these teenagers "kids" and start calling them adult offenders. I mean, we classify an underage teenager as someone who is under 18 years old, but aren't we making grown up decisions (maybe not the smartest) way before the age of 18? There are some kids, and I say kids as in before the teenage years, that are willing and able to be "rehabilitated" with the help of a firm hand and responsible adult guidance.

This is another point in which I agree with Kelly, the juveniles should be separated by magnitude of crimes and or juvenile history. I can tell you personally that it is possible to get into trouble as a teenager that isn't major but can land you somewhere without your parents and in the hands of the law scared and confused. I brook no arguments for teenagers who commit heinous crimes knowing full well that as teens we are able to make fully conscious decisions knowing the consequences early into our teenage years. I do believe that we need to clean up our juvenile facilities and work on rehabilitation of the less offensive cases. Maybe the older juvenile offenders can be given no other choice but to serve in the military or put to some other good use to society, state, and country. We all know that idle hands are breeding grounds for evil...so why not create a program that would give the juveniles something to do? Just a suggestion, but I digress, back to the main point I believe that the article written by Kelly was very informative and educational, plus it provided for good reading. Main point, do not give up on our juveniles, try to rehabilitate them and educate them while keeping them busy, and if that doesn't work....send them to the Marine Corps :).