Alternative and reform to the juvenile justice system in America
Introduction.
I want to propose a community approach where the youth will give a chance to change outside the justice system; this aids in reducing the rate of their incarceration, (Hatcher et al. 2018). The idea here is to enable the youth to change by introducing them to recreational activities like games, woodwork, and civil work without making them go through the justice system. Where some kid needs therapy, treatments and other special programs, then the community would provide the services (Rothman, 2017). The community-based approach ensures that the parents and other relatives take a full part in the change process of the youth. The community will bring early interventions in the life of a young person immediately changes are noticed in the person that might lead to incarceration.
Research has shown that over 70% of the arrests of the youth result from substance abuse hence it is essential that we control the use of substances among the young people to reduce these arrests, (Berg, 2018).
The truth is that all parents are not willing to see their children incarcerated. However, sometimes it forces them to accept that which cannot be avoided. The community-based approach gives the parents a chance to work on the behavioural change of their children. The community approach also gives the young person a chance to change.
Implementation
Implementing this has been done in different states like in Florida where the youth have been put under the community-based program. This has proven of great benefit as the number of the child taken to juvenile detentions has reduced significantly (Kopak, & Kulick, 2017).
The community-based program brings different people together, the parents, the age mates, the reform system and the justice system all are integrated to ensure that the youth get all the support needed.
The jury system in the community-based approach, which involve the youth who form part of the jury together with the parents and the other community stakeholders has helped in controlling the number of children into crime.
Individual professionals are engaged to ensure that all the basic needs for correctional measures are adopted. Sociologists, psychiatrists, teachers, religious leaders and counsellors are all involved in this process to ensure that all people take part in the correctional measures to help the youth (Berg, 2018).
There need to be probationary measures where the youth who commit any form of crime are put on probation under observation to see if they can change. Punishment gives room for the person to change (Berg 2018). Parents are taking a more significant role in ensuring that the youth are in line with the correctional measures. Communication between parents and the children must improve for the correctional measures to be in force.
This approach has helped in removing the youth in substance abuse that is the primary reason for all crimes.
Importance.
This is very important as it reduces the number of youth people being incarcerated and put in juvenile detention centres where the government uses many resources to sustain the youth leading to wastage of such support (Martin, 2017). It also makes the parents and all the stakeholders to be concerned with the well-being of the youth in society. By engaging the fellow youth in the jury made from the community, the child who is on the board will be like the ambassadors of justice as they are part of the justice system.
Enhanced communication between the parents and the youth is a significant boost in controlling crime in society (Berg 2018). Failure in communication between parents and their children has always resulted in a disconnect between with parents and the children.
Engaging other people in the society apart from the parents make the youth feel that everybody in the community is concerned them, (Seth, Raiford, & DiClemente, 2016).
This reduces the clog in the judicial system hence increasing the efficiency in the legal system as the cases are severely reduced.
Other
The likes of the world health organization have taken initiatives to ensure that the youth who are prone to substance abuse are taken care of in ways that do not reduce them into animals, (Kopak, & Kulick, 2017). Provision of therapy, counselling, and spiritual guidance, all have been made by the world health organization to reduce the rate of crime associated with substance abuse.
In the journal of ethnicity in criminal justice, it is clear that most of the illegal activities result from substance abuse that also leads to mental disorder and other ills in the society, (Hadley, D. 2017). The proposal to bring family engagement in the behaviour change among the youth is an essential aspect of the war against the youth detention.
Suicidal tendencies can also be reduced when society takes full responsibility in the life of the children as they grow in the organization. Responsible citizen means responsibility that is involving everybody in the community-based program.
References
Berg, L. J. (2018). Reformative Changes: A Comparative Analysis of the Implementation of the Detention Risk Assessment Instrument.
Hadley, D. (2017). Implementing School-Based Health Programs to Deter Undiagnosed African-American Youth from Juvenile Detention. SJ Pol’y & Just., 11, 140.
Hatcher, S. S., King, D. M., Nordberg, A., Bryant, D., & Woolen, C. C. (2018). Suicidality and other health risk behaviours among female youth in juvenile detention. Social work in public health, 33(2), 114-124.
Kopak, A. M., & Kulick, K. (2017). Mental health, substance use, and offending patterns among Native American youth in juvenile detention. Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice, 15(3), 251-269.
Logan-Greene, P., Kim, B. E., Quinn, C. R., DiClemente, R., & Voisin, D. (2018). Ecologies of risk among African American girls in juvenile detention. Children and Youth Services Review, 85, 245-252.
Martin, V. S. (2017). Voices Unheard: How African American Males at a Juvenile Justice School Narrate Their Experience.
Rothman, D. J. (2017). Conscience and convenience: The asylum and its alternatives in progressive America. Routledge.
Seth, P., Raiford, J., & DiClemente, R. J. (2016). Factors associated with HIV testing among African American female adolescents in juvenile detention centres. AIDS and Behavior, 20(9), 2010-2013.