Can you imagine? There, a fifteen-year-old boy standing in the middle of a courtroom scared and angry. Adults in an adult court are trying him. He knows that chances are futile. BANG goes the gavel! He is sentenced to ten years in adult prison. Around America, kids have been being tried as adults in adult courts for crimes they have committed. All kids who lose their trial are sent to dangerous adult prisons. My conflict begins with this. I believe the exact opposite. I strongly believe that kids should be tried as minors in child courts.
A kid is a kid no matter what they do. Kids are not considered adults until the age of eighteen. That is the age at which they are eligible to drive, vote, and serve in a jury. I agree with Mike Hendricks, an advocate for not trying kids in adult courts, in “that age fourteen is too young to be considered an adult” (1). Why people think that this is okay, I don’t know? In Kansas, Kearie Brown, was accused of homicide when she was thirteen years old. She, a fourteen-year-old girl was tried in an adult court as an adult. When a kid commits a crime, sure they know what they are doing, but they do not consider the severity of the crime they are committing or the consequences they could receive. I remember when I was a young kid that I would do things that I knew I wasn’t supposed to do and did them. I didn’t consider that breaking all of my mom’s chinaware would make her upset or cause me to stay home instead of going to my friend’s house. You see, a kid knows that what they are doing is bad, but sometimes they don’t. I didn’t think that breaking my mom’s Chinaware was a bad thing. The kids that tied that hopeless child to the railroad tracks most likely didn’t think that what they were doing was a bad thing. Hendricks states that “kids brains are wired differently” (1). They are not fully developed yet. I know that for a fact, I myself am a kid. When a kid is bribed or pulled into committing a crime, the kid does not consider how it could affect others. A possible example would be when a couple of boys decided to kill a helpless child and tie him to railroad tracks to make it look like it was an accident. The kids knew what they were doing, but they didn’t know that it was necessarily bad. The boys considered it a “game”.
If a kid is tried in an adult court and is put in jail, the kid has a high chance of becoming more violent or damaged. Adult prisons are filled with rough and tough men and women who have committed horrible crimes. If a kid was to be stuck in a cell with an adult criminal, he would have a chance of becoming more damaged and violent than when he went into prison. I highly disagree with this because if a kid was already dangerous when he was put into prison, why would someone want him to be more dangerous and angry, and more likely to kill someone when he got out? I don’t think that court officials quite think things through like they should. Also, the kid wouldn’t even have a “jury of his own peers” (Hendricks 1). The minor would be putting his life in the hands of strangers, therefore boosting his chances of being put into prison. A kid should not have to go to jail for a crime he/she has committed, when he/she could go to rehabilitation to turn his/her life around. Through observations, I have discovered that opponents to my argument say that prison is better for child criminals than rehabilitation is. I think that this is wrong because childhood is the time in life in which you learn what is right and wrong. Showing the kid that what he/she had committed was wrong would help them. They would realize the severity and possible consequences that they could receive. Kids should be given a second chance, because I definitely believe that with help, they could be changed into decent kids who don’t murder or steal.
I conclude myself in that kids should not be tried as adults in adult courts. Kids are not adults. Hopefully, our society will not tolerate this any longer and change this despicable act upon the kids of our society. I believe that if this continues, many issues, like riots, might appear in the future. With help, this could stop now. Are you willing to help the kids of America?