Juvenile Justice in the Twenty- First Century

Juvenile Justice in the Twenty- First Century

Introduction

The Fourth Wave: Juvenile Justice Reforms for the Twenty-First Century Cover

Overview of the Juvenile Justice Reforms

The 21^st century has seen various changes in the Juvenile justice systems. Initially the focus was on the ways to be tough on crime, rather than being smart-on-crime. The principles of the justice systems followed a tough on crime approach; there by generating a series of unwanted outcomes. The transformation from a nominally rehabilitative institution to a lenient offender-centered justice seeks to address their socio-psychological behavior. However, there is still need to ensure that the systems in place comprehensively address the prevalent issues that exist within society. Social research statistics paint a different picture on the part of the Juvenile systems. There is need to engage the stakeholders and the community based welfare organization to come up with a way that addresses the existing challenges facing the 21^st century justice systems. Key among them is the issue of repeat offenders, unequal treatment of child offenders, personal accountability problems for the offenders and advancing public safety into the future.  The framework proposed by this presentation follows a holistic approach in the Juvenile justice systems that integrate the conventional rehabilitation programs such as the inclusion of therapy session for the offenders. The approach is in line with the new goals of reducing repeat offenders into the Juvenile systems. Further the inclusion of apprentice programs that equips the offenders in the justice system with valuable skills that help them acquire formal employment once they are through with rehabilitation programs. The current empowerment programs are more of exploitative of the offenders labor resources rather than educative. On this note, it is imperative that the Juvenile rehabilitation systems will improve the current educative programs offered to the offenders in the systems. In a nutshell, by 2040, the Juvenile system will adopt revolutionary principles that combines mental health care programs, education-based empowerment programs and personal development approaches within the Juvenile judicial systems.

Understanding Juvenile Criminology

Research into the judicial systems reveals that the approach in application is more focused on using punishment based systems for the offenders rather than a rehabilitation-focused system. To explain, the current concept of Juvenile systems is rehabilitation through punishment. In contrast, this presentation applies a different approach. That is, rehabilitation through an integrated approach of socio-psychological treatment and education-based programs.  The youth deserve a system that shows them the way things should be despite their mistakes. However, this is not to mean that the current criminal-based approaches should be eliminated in their entirety. It means that the current systems should apply a more cohesive approach that improves the social welfare and criminal aspects that the current Juvenile systems have put in place. As a result of this new approach, the sentences will significantly reduce, the rehabilitation outcome will improve and the cost factors of the Juvenile systems will critically improve. Studies of social behavior indicate that the causal agents of adolescent criminal behavior at this stage are mainly external. It can easily be remedied in an effort to prevent the re-occurrence of the criminal behavior in their adult life. In fact, the effects of adopting this new approach will be triple with the Offenders, the Criminal justice systems and Society benefiting from transformed Juvenile systems.

Health-based Juvenile Intervention Programs

Integration of health-based programs in the Juvenile judicial systems is a crucial way towards revolutionary Juvenile justice. The assessment of the convicted adolescents will critically improve the way that the courts determine the best rehabilitation programs. The current systems overlook any way that the courts in the justice systems render sentences to minors found guilty of certain offenses.  Adolescent crime is in a way linked to the mental health issues. In this regard, most of the youth who exhibit violent behavior have at some point been diagnosed with a mental health condition. Therefore, going towards the future, it is impossible for any ignore the integration of mental assessment and behavioral therapy in the Juvenile justice systems. Psychological research indicates that the relationship between mental health and criminal behavior exist in the same dimension. Therefore, it is important to ensure that the Juvenile systems explore integrating various aspects of mental health care in every phase of the judicial systems. It is important to note that prior to any convictions or sentencing of minors, it is essential to ensure that they are subjected to a comprehensive mental health assessment program to ensure that the state of their mind is taken into consideration prior to sentencing. The judges can then evaluate the various ways through which they can include mandatory mental therapy sessions for the convicted individuals as they serve their respective sentences. The future of Juvenile rehabilitation programs depends on the way that the mental health assessment and treatment programs are integrated into the systems as effective intervention programs.

In brief, by 2040, the following interventions are necessary to ensure that the activities of the whole judicial systems are integrated at every point in the delivery of justice. :

• Mandatory mental health evaluation of  minor charged with serious crimes
• Changes in the legal frameworks of Juvenile judicial systems and laws to ensure that the law acknowledges the dimension of mental health as an influential factor in human behavior.
• The establishment of mental health programs and therapy section in as an important rehabilitation program in the juvenile system
• The application of mandatory evaluation and assessment of the convicted minor serving long terms in the systems.
• The use of follow up programs for all rehabilitated minors up to a maximum duration of six months.

Education based empowerment programs

• Introduction of fulltime education program mandatory for all the convicted children in the system.
• The use of mandatory education initiatives for all the employees in a way that helps to build essential job-relevant skills such as masonry, carpentry.
• Training and development programs for all convicts in modern technology in a way that improves their capacity to match their skills in the job market. Technology forms a core aspect in almost all modern jobs and hence initiating technology training and development will help to improve their ability to deliver results.