Juvenile Justice Reform act of 2018

Juvenile Justice Reform act of 2018

Major Issues with the System

Every year, in the United States, millions of juveniles come into contact with the nation’s juvenile justice system. Once in this system, these juveniles are often treated as adults, a major violation of their fundamental rights and special protections under the law. This is a major limitation in the law, which has seen hundreds of thousands of children tried and prosecuted by the country’s adult justice system.[1] In particular, when children are prosecuted in the adult courts rather than the juvenile justice system, they are denied and deprived of their freedom as well as rights to a fair trial. In a sense, it is without a doubt that this juvenile system appears more hurting than helping the youths. It should be noted that its creation was designed under the premise that children had a better opportunity of changing if given proper rehabilitation. However, it is apparent that this system partly fulfills this role but instead aims at incarcerating juveniles even for mistakes that never warranty confinement. Nevertheless, while some parts of this system could be assisting the youths, it is particularly debatable if the confinement of juveniles really helps to rehabilitate them.

Because its main premise is rehabilitating the youths differently from adults, the juvenile justice system has, over the past, shown several shortcomings in its function, especially by failing to integrate and help children offenders to rehabilitate. Millions of juveniles are especially taken through this system every year, with estimates that there are still millions of children in the United States detention centers, correctional facilities, as well as community-based institutions.[2] It is also projected that more than 70 percent of detained youths are held for nonviolent crimes, including burglary, weapons, substance abuse, and several other petty crimes. It must also be noted that it costs billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money to detain juveniles every year. While there is a general agreement that incarnation could be important for juveniles with serious criminal offenses, one of the concerns that have come up within the juvenile system is its tendency to incarcerate youths for behavioral issues instead of actual crimes.[3] With the level of discretion given to judges, more youths risk being detained for a wide spectrum of behavioral-related crimes.[4] Moreover, once the majority of these youths have been arrested and put under probation, they are often closely examined and also risk being arrested again much easier for even minor crimes.

Another issue that has remained important regarding this system is racial disparity. In particular, significant disparities in the degree of engagement of youths, and particularly the black youths, have emerged over the past. Importantly, the prevalence of inconsistent racial representation seen within the juvenile criminal justice over the decades is alarming. Moreover, such disproportionate representation raises further questions regarding the central equality and fairness of treatment between black and white minors. In this sense, the uneven representation of minors in this system has been cited as a major problem within the juvenile justice system and the federal government. The National Conference of State Legislations presents that the majority of the black youths outnumber their white counterparts at each level of the country’s juvenile system. As such, minors of color usually constitute more than one-third of the young population incarnated in the United States today.[5] According to the National Conference of State Legislation, different accounts have emerged on the racial disparity phenomenon in the U.S juvenile system, mainly ranging from police practices and general crimes in addition to jurisdictional issues.[6] Therefore, questions about equality in treatment by police, courts, as well as other personnel within the juvenile system have particularly driven the country’s policymakers and other concerned stakeholders to find solutions to this problem and other compounding issues. At least, a number of states in the country have made attempts and enacted laws that seek to treat black and white offenders equally.[7]

Thus, judging the above discussion, the disparities in the juvenile system in America are well-documented. Moreover, whereas such disparities in youth arrests and detainment could not be explained by variations in individual delinquent behaviors, there are also several other contextual elements that play a considerable function in the problems seen with the juvenile system. For instance, residential and housing segregation also have for long and largely influenced the current juvenile justice inequalities. In the country’s major cities, black people have historically been barred from staying in areas that have predominantly white residents. It is, therefore, against this backdrop, that the Juvenile Justice Reform Act of 2018 was formed in efforts to address the previous voids and policy issues with the county’s juvenile justice system.

Juvenile Justice Reform act of 2018

In the wake of December 2018, more than 12 months since the Senate had enacted different standalone bills, the Congress approved the Juvenile Justice Reform Act of 2018.  As such, these law firms strengthen and re-affirms important provisions in the country’s constitutions and juvenile system. In particular, this legislation protects the youths that are often exposed to the juvenile system from unfair and disproportionate treatments. This act is also cited as being a bipartisan attempt that works to reauthorize the provisions in the country’s juvenile justice system. According to Naomi Smoot, this act was mainly signed into law as an update of a previous act that had been passed in 1974 to guard against prejudiced treatment in juvenile detention and imprisonment.[8] As for Smoot, the reforms and amendments in this law fundamentally reflect a considerable level of information that has been obtained through research as well as science over the last few decades. For this reason, Smoot believes that the Juvenile Justice Reform Act of 2018 shields minors in the juvenile criminal system.[9] She also notes that this law equally extends on previous acts and further offers more oversight for associated programs in the country.[10]

The Annie Casey Foundation argues that this law is the only federal legislation that ensures four important protections for justice of youths involved in the juvenile system.[11] Firstly, it argues that this legislation prevents minors from being imprisoned for age-associated wrongdoings, including running away, truancy, as well as violating legal restrictions. Secondly, the foundation asserts that this law helps to keep youths who are confined separately from adult prisoners.[12] For the most part, the foundation acknowledges that this particular law demands that states are able to recognize and seek to decrease instances of racial and tribal disparities when rendering justice. Lastly, the foundation equally argues that this legislation plays an important part in requiring all states to remove minors from adult amenities and institutions, especially with limited exceptions.[13]

In the same light, The Annie Casey Foundation also stresses on the need to remove both the racial and ethnic inequalities in the United States’ juvenile courts and instead focus on treating everyone fairly under the law. Furthermore, it also states that the new law asks states across the nation to make the necessary policy as well as practice changes to bridge the diverse disparities that have been witnessed before while realizing the required outcomes in a more measurable manner.[14] As for The Annie Casey Foundation, the new legislation is essentially a central provision into ensuring that minors in the country today, irrespective of their race or originality, are treated equitably and fairly by the nation’s legal mechanisms.[15] Additionally, the foundation also explains that this law occupies a special place in the country’s history as it strives to foster the use of alternatives to youth imprisonment while establishing a funding system for minors and their families to overcome delinquent behaviors. In this way, the foundation presents that the law builds a range of behavior change programs, support, as well as opportunities for young people in the country.[16]

According to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), the recent law reinforced the de-institutionalization of offenders and promised core protections.[17] Furthermore, OJJPD also reveals that under the current legislation, children who commit petty crimes or behavioral-related offenses can only be held under the premise of the Valid Court Order, which is an exception that permits juries to issue arrest orders. This practice has persisted largely because of being detrimental to children. Hence, while the 2018 law does not remove the VCO exception, it instead supports more protections for minors who commit behavioral-related crimes.[18]

Noticeably, from the above discussion, it is clear that research marks significant improvements in the 2018 law on the United States youths and the juvenile system. One of the improvements in the promotion of equity and fairness under the law. Here, the law espouses efforts to ensure and expand minors’ access to the required legal representation and fair trial for the crimes committed. The second improvement regards the addition of more protections for tribal minors. Here, the law also demands that minors be treated equally irrespective of his or her tribe, race, or even ethnicity. The third improvement is that this law eliminates certain limitations related to the detention of youths.

[1] Dean J. C. The juvenile justice system: Delinquency, processing, and the law (2001). He provides a complete assessment of the system while exploring ways in which young offenders are defined, classified, and categorized.

[2] Rolf, L., and Farrington, D. From juvenile delinquency to adult crime: Criminal careers, justice policy, and prevention, (2012).

[3] Ibid

[4] Ibid

[5] The National Conference of State Legislation, racial and ethnic disparities in the juvenile justice system, 2018. Presents decade long issues facing the United States’ juvenile system.

[6] Ibid

[7] Ibid

[8] Naomi, Smoot “The Juvenile Justice Reform Act of 2018. She talks about this legislation in light of its ability to address generational issues in America’s juvenile justice system.

[9] Ibid

[10] Ibid

[11] The Annie Casey Foundation, (2018): Talks about the new legislation and how it helps to protect the young people in the United States.

[12] Ibid

[13] Ibid

[14] Ibid

[15] Ibid

[16] Ibid

[17] Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (2019). Discusses major protections under the 2018 law vis-à-vis the previous issues on the same topic.

[18] Ibid