Introduction
The juvenile justice system was developed with the main aim of diverting or correcting young offenders. The system encouraged rehabilitation of the youth depending on their crime and personal needs. The juvenile justice system has been of great help to the entire nation hence its future should be seriously considered. The United States government should realize that the future of the juvenile justice system is extremely important both for the courts and the correction process. It is the responsibility of lawmakers to ensure that the future of the juvenile system is taken care of. The following is a proposal concerning the future of the juvenile justice system and its impact on both the courts and the correction process in the state of New York.
Main body
Juvenile offending or delinquency is a common occurrence not only in the United States of America but also in the world at large. Even though child offenders are usually placed in juvenile detention centers after prosecutions in juvenile courts, they usually end up on the wrong side of the law after being released. To prevent this, there are various aftercare programs with specific objectives to help juvenile offenders.
Aftercare programs are usually community-based and are aimed at giving a supervisory role to the community into which the out-of-home placed child offenders are to be reintegrated. The programs are aimed at using the community to supervise the laid down activities to be performed by the juveniles. This will enable the juveniles to reenter easily the community and the society at large. Moreover, these programs are aimed at ensuring that the juveniles stay out of formal institutions hence avoiding hardened criminals. However, to achieve these objectives there is a need for institutional planning. Institutional planning will ensure that these juveniles can face up their communities without overstaying informal training facilities. Planning will also help in preventing the juveniles from being repeat offenders as it gives out proper guidelines about the transition from training institutions to community-based care centers (Bartollas & Miller 2011). All in all, the juvenile justice system should be efficient and effective enough to ensure that the juveniles smoothly re-integrate into society.
Today, the punishment for children who have broken the law is severe. The juvenile courts should introduce punitive policies which will ensure that children obtain fair trial and judgment. The courts should do away with detention and incarceration of minors since it has negative effects on them. There are higher rates or chances of physical injury, suicidal attempts, mental health problems, and poor education outcomes if juveniles are incarcerated and detained. It has been found that detentions and incarcerations have long-term and severe effects on the future of the juveniles especially when it comes to obtaining employment opportunities. This normally leaves the offenders with no alternative rather than to commit another crime for economical support and survival. This, therefore, means that the courts should do away with the incarceration and detentions of the juveniles. They should instead develop a program with the help of the parents which will ensure that the juveniles are corrected in a better way that does not lead to any problems in the future. Culturally appropriate training facilities should be established which will also involve the community, especially parents and relatives of the children in the correction process (Champion 2004). This would ensure that the juveniles are treated fairly and subjected to appropriate methods of correction.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the juvenile courts and the correction centers should formulate programs that will ensure there is a better future for juvenile justice system which will be beneficial both for the offenders and the government.
References
Bartollas, C. & Miller, S. (2011). Juvenile Justice in America. New York: Prentice Hall.
Champion, D. (2004). The juvenile justice system: delinquency, processing, and the law. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice-Hall, Inc.