Crime must be punished, no matter the age of a person. Many teenagers are getting involved in crimes such as murder, theft, and drug dealing as a way to make money. Juvenile delinquency is the participation in criminal or illegal activities by minors, and when the teenagers are caught, legal systems give specific procedures to punish them. One of the common ways to punish the under-age criminals is through solitary confinement in juvenile centers. However, some minor cases may be forgiven, finned, and the child warned against committing the crime. Once the kids are taken into juvenile solitary confinement, they are not allowed to interact with any of their families and friends for the prescribed period (Lee, n.d.). In isolation, the people you can interact with are the guards, some of whom may be very harsh.
Juvenile centers are useful in rectifying the behaviors of the kids, since when they are in the jail, they are taught the right ways of the community. Some children who may have dropped out of school to involve in crime find themselves back in education while in the centers, and they can accomplish their career goals when set free. In addition, some kids suffer while held in retention and vow not to repeat their nasty behaviors when they are let free.
Solitary juvenile confinement may have some advantages in changing the behavior of a kid, but the after effects may be severe depending on the psychological balance of the person affected. When a child is made to stay away from friends and family member, there is a psychological imbalance that is created because the kid is cut-short from the usual ways of life and this may affect the mental maturity or growth (Haney, 2003). When a juvenile is kept in solitary confinement, they develop a feeling of being alone to a point that when set free it becomes hard to rehabilitate them back to the society to have a normal life. Some of the teenagers who are held in solitary juvenile confinements develop a care-free attitude, and when they are set out of the centers, they readily engage in crime because of the hard life they passed while young. Parental care is essential for all the minors and if it is cut by the confinement, the growth of the child is affected since the care lacks and may be difficult for the kid when it comes to having and raising his or her children in later life. Some of the teenagers may be innocently lured into petty criminal activities and end up suffering in the juvenile, which could have been rectified by receiving advice from their parents (White, Jing Shi, Hirschfield, Eun Young Mun, & Loeber, 2010). Solitary juvenile confinement may have adverse effects on the later life of the troubled kids because while in the centers, some may not access education, which hinders their career development plans (Kavish, Mullins, & Soto, 2014). When the children are set free, they cannot get any employment because they lack education, and some may end up getting back to crime as a way to sustain themselves and their families.
Solitary juvenile confinement has more adverse effects compared to the advantages it gives to the society and the affected person. Most of the teenagers who are held in the centers end up getting psychological problems (Liptak, 2016) that are hard to heal; hence, there is the need to abolish them and get a better way to punish the juvenile that is not damaging.
References
Haney, C. (2003). Mental Health Issues in Long-Term Solitary and “Supermax” Confinement. Crime & Delinquency, 49(1), 124-156. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0011128702239239
Kavish, D., Mullins, C., & Soto, D. (2014). Interactionist Labeling: Formal and Informal Labeling's Effects on Juvenile Delinquency. Crime & Delinquency. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0011128714542504
Lee, J. Lonely Too Long: Redefining and Reforming Juvenile Solitary Confinement. SSRN Electronic Journal. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2715909
Liptak, K. (2016). Obama bans solitary confinement for juveniles. CNN. Retrieved 25 April 2016, from http://edition.cnn.com/2016/01/25/politics/obama-bans-juvenile-solitary- confinement/index.html
White, H., Jing Shi, Hirschfield, P., Eun Young Mun, & Loeber, R. (2010). Effects of Institutional Confinement for Delinquency on Levels of Depression and Anxiety Among Male Adolescents.Youth Violence And Juvenile Justice, 8(4), 295-313. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1541204009358657
