Should we really let cold-blooded murderers run the streets or should we put them in the slammer and make sure they don’t do touch another person ever again? After all the people who are convicting them are grown adults many over 40 or 50, that means that they won’t have any effect on their generation. It isn’t their generation so they should leave the decision up to younger people, because we’re the ones that will have to live with people running around murdering everyone. Some say that juveniles that commit real adult crime should be tried as adults and should receive the full punishment of the law. They say that if they could commit the adult crime then they should be sent to an adult prison. Yes, the prisons are harsh, but so is the crime that they did, “A lack of human morals cannot be treated by rehabilitation centers,”(Wilde 1). Others say that they are not developed enough to make the right decision and should be tried as a juveniles, “The fact is, kids are not adults,”(Hendricks 1). If you aren’t over the age of 18 then you are not able to make the right decision and this is what many people are saying to get kids to not be tried as an adult. Rehabilitation is not for everything and some kids are just to crazy to go to these detention centers and get let out early.


Some people think that there should be deranged killers on the street just because they are under the age of 18. I think that teenagers should be tried as adults, because they are old enough to think and they do know it is wrong, so why do they do it? That is the question I have to them and to all the people out there that think it is unfair for them to be tried as adults then I have something to tell you. Most teenagers know the difference between right and wrong and you can’t play the I’m a teenager card and don’t know right from wrong for this one. Teenagers know what is right and wrong even if they were brought up in a bad part of town. They have chosen to commit a real crime that is very bad so why shouldn’t they have to do the time? Jails are a little harsh but they should have thought about that before they did the crime. It just doesn’t make sense why fourteen or fifteen year-old that has killed someone should be sent to juvenile prison, take rehabilitation, and get out of jail early for good behavior. They should feel the pain of prison and suffering for the horrible crime that they did. They need to feel the pain that they inflicted to the person and his or her family.
A lot of people who think that teenagers should not be sent to adult prison say that their brain isn’t fully developed and, “They don’t think things out”(Hendricks 1). However that is not 100% true, they do have free will and if they are doing this on free will then they have something wrong in there head and rehabilitation can’t fix something this serious. There are some things that you just can’t fix and this is one, and if you put them in rehabilitation it would do no good and we would have wasted taxpayers money on nothing. They say the U.S. is in debt
so why are nut cases sending kids to rehabilitation when it doesn’t work! The one thing that I don’t get is they say that, “they’re abused and come out more dangerous and damaged than when they went in”(2). Well ya! They should be abused so they can learn a lesson. True some come out worse then they went in but you are focusing on less than a quarter of the kids that go to jail. Most of them learn their lesson and go about their regular life that they had before. Of course there abused, but your probably looking at less than 5% of them that come out more damaged. Most see what they have done and try never to commit a crime again. That tiny 5% are the people that need to go to rehabilitation in a mental hospital should go there and get help. With the help of the hospital they could put that person back on the right track in life. But rehabilitation is not for everyone because they are to light and fluffy, where is the hardness of prison will shape and build the character of a young criminal.
I think that you can have rehabilitation for some crimes but not all. Like if a 14 year old was to steal or sexually assault then they would be able to go to rehabilitation, but there is a point where it crosses the line and you need to make the consequences tougher for their action. In some cases yes, “their brains are wired differently” but not all (1). I think the jails aren’t really harsh enough to make them even worse than when they went in, and if they are harsh enough to make people damaged then why wouldn’t it be able to damage an adult too? I feel there are some risks in sending teenagers to jail, but I see more positive things about it. I do think that jail is not for everyone, but it is for some people.
If you do the crime then why shouldn’t you do the time? This has been a heated debate for years, where or not to send teenagers to prison. There are many pros and cons, but the fact is that they are still committing crimes and we have to stop them. It is our country and we need to protect and uphold it for as long as possible, and if some people think it is ok for us to put these sick, deranged people back on the street then they need to rethink things through. Obviously rehabilitation isn’t working so we need to find an alternative to the problem, and until we find that alternative we should send them to prison, because rehabilitation is too light of a punishment. So whether we get better rehabilitation or send them to jail that fact is that we need to take them off the streets.