Maggie MarrMarr 2 Stout20 February 2001Incarcerating Kids Destroys American SocietyHumans all make mistakes, it is a part of life that no one can avoid. However, young adults are more likely than the older generations to make bad decisions and take part in things that they may someday regret. Some people say that making mistakes is just a part of growing up. But what if just one wrong decision could mean the difference between a normal childhood and spending the rest of adolesence behind cold steel bars with cruel and vicious adult criminals? Unfortunately for a growing number of young teenagers, their reality is never being given a second chance to change or correct their mistakes. Why? Some may ask, because instead of attending school, learning the difference between right and wrong, and finding out about themselves and life, they are struggling to hold their own to prove how tough and grown up they are to the only role models within their reach. Murders, rapists and drug dealers are the kind of people young kids who found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time are forced to live behind bars with everyday. Sending kids to adult prisons is wrong and uneccesarily destroys their futures. Juvenile offenders who commit nonviolent crimes should be rehabilitated in the juvenile justice system where they could continue their education and better learn from their mistakes.Marr 3Florida is one such state that should reconsider how to handle the matter of sending juveniles to adult prisons. According to Florida’s state incarceration statistics, in May 1996, there were 104 youths (under 18 years) mixed in with the adult population in the Florida prison system, and 457 youths under the jurisdiction of Florida’s adult correctional system (Florida 7). Congress is continually passing new laws to keep first time juvenile offenders from ever getting a second chance in life. The irony of the problem of sending thousand...
