Juvenile Justice Reform: Rehabilitation Over Incarceration
This paper examines the American juvenile justice system's practice of trying minors as adults, using the PBS Frontline documentary When Kids Get Life as a primary lens. Drawing on psychological and sociological research, the paper argues that adolescent offenders are better served by rehabilitation and mental health services than by incarceration. It highlights the high prevalence of mental illness and child abuse histories among youth in custody, reviews the historical evolution of juvenile justice, and cites the landmark Supreme Court case Kent v. United States (1966) to demonstrate that the system has long failed young offenders. The paper concludes that a rehabilitative approach is both more humane and more effective than life sentences for juvenile offenders.
- Introduction: Trying Juveniles as Adults: Documentary and research frame the rehabilitation thesis
- Historical Background of Juvenile Justice: History and legal precedent of juvenile courts
- Mental Health, Child Abuse, and Root Causes of Adolescent Crime: Mental illness and abuse as drivers of juvenile crime
- Conclusion: The Case for Rehabilitation: Rehabilitation argued as superior to life incarceration
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What makes this paper effective
- Integrates a documentary film as a primary source alongside peer-reviewed research and legal precedent, creating a multi-layered argument.
- Uses specific case profiles (Nathan Ybanez, Trevor Jones) to humanize statistical data and make abstract policy arguments concrete.
- Grounds the reform argument in quantitative evidence — citing that 87% of juveniles in custody have a diagnosed mental illness — lending credibility to the policy claim.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates effective synthesis of sources across disciplines — documentary media, legal case law (Kent v. United States), and empirical health research (Indig et al., 2009) — to support a unified thesis. Rather than treating each source in isolation, the writer weaves them together so that the film's narrative cases illustrate the statistics, and the court ruling provides historical and legal legitimacy to the reform argument.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a thesis statement rooted in statistical evidence and documentary context. The second section provides historical perspective on the juvenile justice system and legal precedent. The third section — the analytical core — links mental health data, child abuse histories, and individual case studies to argue for a rehabilitative model. A brief but focused conclusion restates the central claim and calls for systemic change. The structure is linear and argumentative, moving from problem identification to evidence to conclusion.
Introduction: Trying Juveniles as Adults
Despite ongoing public debate about juvenile crime, the United States continues to promote policies that channel adolescent offenders into the adult justice system ("Juvenile Justice," 2014). The PBS production When Kids Get Life examines the ramifications of trying minors as adults for serious crimes, leading to their entire lives being spent in prison with no opportunity for rehabilitation. While the crimes in these cases are severe and do warrant punishment, there are clearly other options that should be made available for juvenile offenders. The majority — 87% — of adolescents in custody have been diagnosed with a mental illness, and a full 73% of youth in custody are diagnosed with more than one mental illness (Indig et al., 2009, p. 21). Based on the evidence presented in When Kids Get Life and the vast body of literature on adolescent criminality, the juvenile justice system should be oriented more toward rehabilitation and mental health services than toward incarceration.
Historical Background of Juvenile Justice
The whole concept of adolescence is actually relatively new, with little to no distinction between teenagers and adults made until fairly recently in American history ("Juvenile Justice," 2014). In fact, several hundred years ago, "little distinction was made in the criminal culpability of children vs. adults" ("Juvenile Justice," 2014). This means that the current state of affairs illustrated in When Kids Get Life is, in one sense, nothing new — but that fact does not excuse the criminal justice system from taking a giant step backward.
Advancements in psychology and sociology have led to a greater appreciation for the unique physiological, sociological, and psychological variables at play during adolescence ("Juvenile Justice," 2014). These advancements in the social sciences led to the creation of a separate juvenile court system. However, trying juveniles in a separate system is not in itself a solution to delinquency. In Kent v. United States (1966), the Supreme Court found that "the child receives the worst of both worlds: that he gets neither the protections accorded to adults nor the solicitous care and regenerative treatment postulated for children" (p. 1). Little has changed since 1966; children are still receiving the worst of both worlds, even if they are able to take advantage of due process and other constitutional rights.
Conclusion: The Case for Rehabilitation
When Kids Get Life reveals the problems inherent in the American criminal justice system. Adolescents are not being treated for their mental illnesses, leaving prisons to function as a kind of default psychiatric institution. Likewise, the system has no room for flexibility or compassion for adolescents who make mistakes or whose life circumstances led them to commit a terrible crime. While all crimes must be addressed seriously, rehabilitation would be a far better solution than a sentence of life in prison for juvenile offenders.
References
Bikel, O. (Director). (2007). When kids get life [Documentary]. United States: WGBH Educational Foundation: FRONTLINE.
Indig, D. et al. (2009). 2009 NSW young people in custody health survey: Full report. Retrieved from http://www.juvenile.justice.nsw.gov.au/Documents/JH_YPICHSRep2009_D10b_00_opening.pdf
"Juvenile Justice." (2014). PBS Frontline. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/juvenile/stats/
Kent v. United States (1966). Retrieved from https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/383/541
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