Children | storiesofthebroken

Children In Prison

By Manuel Badillo

Imagine you are 15-year-old teenager who for the past 8 years was abused and neglected by the very people that are supposed to support you through tough adolescent times. With the influence from the only people who demonstrate the slightest amount of attention, you engage in a robbery in which shots are fired, but no one is injured. Subsequently, you are tried in court and find yourself with a life sentence without the possibility of parole. This is too often the case for teenagers who are tried as adults without consideration of their daunting past experiences. Walking into a courtroom mentally exhausted and depressed, too many juveniles are sent away to prison rather than being treated for their conditions. By failing to provide juveniles with the medication necessary, mental conditions are only exacerbated and possibilities of recidivating increase (1).

Numerous states have turned a blind eye to this predicament sentencing roughly 10,000 children to adult prisons. 73 of the children sentenced where sent to die in prison, 7 of who were sentenced for crimes in which no one was killed. Most of these kids derive from dysfunctional families where they have been abused, neglected, or abandoned during a critical time for brain

development. Adolescent’s brain lack the maturity needed to have proper judgment regarding impulse reactions, risk assessment, and moral reasoning (2). This factor plays a pivotal role in how often we see youth engage in illegal behaviors.

It is evident that the years of adolescence are critical to the development of a responsible young adult. However, what will be of the youth who are exposed to hostile environments and are not granted opportunities to flourish? These young teens are eventually hindered by conditions like depression or mental instability. Demonstrating an obvious lack of mental control and maturity, adolescents carry out crimes in without prior thinking of the risks they are taking (2). With preexisting mental conditions and without consideration of their past or mental stability, these children are tried in court, not just as litigants with sound mind conditions, but also as adults.

The court system’s reasoning seems slightly flawed. Adolescents are tried as adults for non-deathly crimes with pre-existing mental condition with hopes that they will somehow regain mental stability; this does not seem logical. The National Center for Biotechnology ran a study on children who where sentenced to adult prisons and then publicized the effects that children developed during prison. Children sentenced to adult prisons rather than juvenile detention centers face greater sensory deprivation and are far more likely to develop or worsen their depression, which often times leads to suicide (3, 2). Additionally, children sent to adult prison are up to five times more likely to be sexually assaulted (2). At this point in the juvenile’s life, they have dealt with hostile living environments, neglect, depression, and abuse that only brings upon greater mental disorders.

Despite the numerous conditions a juvenile has when their time in prison begins, is quite commons for them to develop additional psychological disorders. Research conducted by Elizabeth Oddone Paolucci on Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) found that the development of psychological disorders among children who are incarcerated and abused is pervasive. The most common were depression and PTSD (4). PTSD, however, does not have to be the cause of CSA. PTSD requires exposure to a traumatic experience like witnessing a death or receiving death threats, having intense fear, and feeling helpless (5). Just shy of 70% of adolescents studied demonstrated trauma severe enough to require medical attention, while 67% claimed to have witnessed a traumatic event (5). If the court system expects sentenced adolescents to mature into well-rounded young Americans, they should begin to look for alternative solutions (5).

Finding an end to this issue is something that has been taken into consideration and progress has slowly been made. On May 17, the Grahm vs. Florida court case ruled that life sentences for children convicted of nonhomicide offenses would no longer be a considerable option for the courts (6). Life-without-parole sentences were not eradicated, but only made uncommon for children (6). This should only be the first step of many more that need to be taken to prevent children from being abused or from having their mental condition worsened. Countless children are forever scarred in circumstances that could be prevented. Suicide, depression, or PTSD are conditions children experience in environments they should not be exposed to for any reason, no mater how serious the crime may be.

Citation

1. “The Dangers of Expansion.” Science 289.5485 (200): 1649m-649.Justice Policy Institute. JPI. Web. 24 July 2015

2. Johnson, R., and S. Tabriz. “Sentencing Children to Death by Incarceration: A Deadly Denial of Social Responsibility.” The Prison Journal2 (2011): 198-206. Equal Justice Initiative. EJI. Web. 24 July 2015.

3. Ng, Irene Y.H., Xiaoyi Shen, Helen Sim, Rosemary C. Sarri, Elizabeth Stoffregen, and Jeffrey J. Shook. “Incarcerating Juveniles in Adult Prisons as a Factor in Depression.” Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health : CBMH. U.S. National Library of Medicine, Feb. 2011. Web. 27 July 2015.

4. Oddone, Elizabeth. “A Meta-Analysis of the Published Research on the Effects of Child Sexual Abuse.” Taylor & Francis. Journal of Psychology, 2001. Web. 27 July 2015.

5. Daniel Coleman PhD, MSW (2005) Trauma and Incarcerated Youth, Journal of Evidence-Based Social Work, 2:3-4, 113-124, DOI: 10.1300/J394v02n03_08 e: http://dx.doi.org/10.1300/J394v02n03_08

6. “Death in Prison Sentences for Children.” EJI. Equal Justice Initiative, n.d. Web. 27 July 2015.