The juvenile system of Georgia
Name
Professor
Course
Date
Crime is an everyday occurrence within any set up of a community; the culprits are not restricted to any gender, race or age. Long time ago the justice system did not recognize if the person who had committed the crime was a child or an adult, as a result the young offenders were jailed together with the adults. The jailing together of the young convicts together with the adults had some effects such as the young convicts’ were molested, some ended up being taught new crimes. As a result of those happenings, the need for a separate system was deemed necessary thus the creation of the juvenile system (Rosenheim, 2002).
Juvenile system history
The first ever juvenile house in the United States of America was formed in the year 1824 in New York. The house was known as the house of refuge, after the success of the house other states soon followed suit and opened juvenile centers. The idea of just having a juvenile house was not enough, guided by research on child development which had taken place in the early 18th century, some reformers pushed for the formation of juvenile courts. The reformers were of the opinion that the juveniles should be rehabilitated rather than being punished. The cook county based in the state of Illinois became the first to establish a juvenile court in the year 1899, within the first 30 years of establishment of the Juvenile court other states followed (Rosenheim, 2002).
The difference between the juveniles courts and the other adult courts was unlike the adult courts where the proceedings was held according to the crime committed, the juvenile courts focused on the offender and thus arriving at the options that would facilitate the rehabilitation of the youth. In simple terms the juvenile courts were “civil” unlike the adults which were “criminal.” The juvenile courts were formed on the basis of “parens patriae” , that enabled the courts to make decisions that would not hurt the juvenile but reform the juvenile just the same way apparent would do to a child (Rosenheim, 2002).
Just like many states within the United States of America, Georgia also has juvenile services to help deal with the cases of crime among the youth. The first juvenile court in Georgia was established in the year 1911 in the Fulton County. The numbers of court has risen to about 92, while the juvenile facilities have risen to about 26, with every county within Georgia having a juvenile facility. All the facilities with about 4,000 employees have the responsibility of ensuring that the youths held at the facilities are taken care of. The juvenile department of Georgia is divided into four regions and eleven districts for easy management of both the secure facilities and the juvenile courts. The juvenile system of Georgia provide short and long term secure services, the centers that provide the short term facilities are known as (RYDCs), while the long term facilities are known as the (YDCs). The Regional Youth Detention Centers (RYDCs) are used to hold the youths awaiting trial and those waiting to be transferred to the Youth Development Campuses (YDCs). The YDCs are used to hold the youths who have been sentenced by the juvenile courts (Rosenheim, 2002).
Objectives of the research
The objective of the research is to find out:
Problems that have been facing the juvenile system in Georgia
Sociopolitical contributions to the problems
Multidisciplinary connection with criminal behavior
Theoretical ways that can solve the contemporary problems within the juvenile justice system
Proposed solution to the problems
Research Methods and design
My research is aimed at the people who work for the juvenile systems, those youths who have gone through the juvenile system. A significant amount of money is spent on the juvenile facilities; more and more youths are being sentenced to the juvenile secure facilities everyday. Research shows that some of the youths who have served time at the secure facilities still commit the offences that they committed (Rosenheim, 2002).
To assist in the research I managed to interview 5 people. Tony a youth who at one time was held at one of the secure facilities for the crime of Carjacking while armed, Dick who was held at one of the facilities for drug trafficking, and Charley who was held for arson. The other people were Vincent, who is a guard at one of the facilities and Connie an employee at the girls’ facility. I chose to work with this group of people as they had the direct connection with the juvenile system, some were employees of the juvenile system, thus enforcers of the law. Others had at one time gone through the juvenile system thus had the experiences of being in such institutions.
I asked the respondents in my research some questions that were able to bring out their thoughts on the juvenile system. For instance I asked a question such as do you know the functions of the juvenile system. The response I was able to get from the respondents enabled me to zero in on the problems facing the juvenile system as a whole. From the interview most people saw the juveniles’ centers as not a good idea, even though they appreciated the juveniles’ court. This will be able to come out in the course of the interview. The questions that I had written were used to conduct the research, as the discussion will show most people view the juvenile system.
Limitations of the research
The possible limitation of the research is the sample size was vey small and it cannot be able to be used to make a judgment on the juvenile system. During the interview I was able to notice that some of the respondents were giving very brief answers to some of the questions that I asked them as if they were in a hurry. That makes me feel that some of the answers given were not entirely sincere. Some of the questions were very personal that some respondents felt uncomfortable answering them, which meant that I had to skip them altogether or ask them later sometimes I had to rephrase the questions. Such an experience made me doubt some of the answers given in such a situation. Some respondents’ kind of exaggerated the situation in the juvenile system thus making the system look bad than it was actually was. Some of the questions were not answered satisfactorily by the respondents, which forced me to ask the questions all over again. That further made me doubt if the answers given were true. Some of the respondents gave answers they thought I wanted to have; in so doing they thought that they were being helpful.
Findings
My research revealed that most of the youth who ended up in the juvenile secured centers committed the crimes that they did because they were criminals, but some were pushed into crime by adults. Poverty was another factor that made some of the youths venture into crime, per pressure was the most outstanding reason why some of the youths committed crimes. Tony who was charged with armed carjacking and sent to the secured center explained to me that he became involved in carjacking as a result of the situation at home. His father is a drunk who do not care whether they go to school or not, his mother is a bartender and most of the time is not at home. His father is very violent when drunk who means the mother cannot stay at home even when of duty; Tony was forced to abandon his home and went to live with some young men. With no money to buy the latest trends of clothes and no one willing to give it to him, Tony joined the young men in carjacking so as to sustain himself.
Dick the other youth who was put in the secured centers gave her story explaining that it was his father who was using him for drug trafficking. Both of parents are drug users as well as drug drugs sellers, which meant that he had to do as told by the parents or face being thrown out of the home. From the two cases above involving Tony and Charley the youths were forced into crime by the situations back at their homes. Charley was involved in burning down the school library due to pressure from some of his peers who told him that in order to join the group he had to do something brave (Benekos, 2004).
Problems facing the juvenile systems in Georgia
The point that all the three former juveniles agreed to was that for the Juvenile secured centers to have an impact on the youth behavior more funs needs to put into the holding centers. Most of the centers both long term and short term are overcrowded. The reduction of the amount of funds through legislations has really affected the juvenile system in Georgia (Benekos, 2004).
Some of the juvenile are filled up with some youths who are first offenders with no possibility of being a danger to the community or any likely hood of reoffending. That means that some youths who had committed “small offenses”, most of them ends up in the centers for crimes that could have been handled from the outside with more effective and positive results. Another problem that was rampant was molestation especially on the facilities holding the female; some of the female were using sex to get favors from the male guards, some trials took a very long time (Benekos, 2004).
Conclusion
The juvenile system can only be beneficial if it rehabilitates the youths and make them better persons in the community. The facilities are of immense importance in the community but they should not be used as the dumping grounds for the young offenders in the community.
Recommendations
In order to facilitate proper rehabilitation of the youth in the secured centers more funds should be availed that would help in expanding the current centers. The juveniles who present low risk to the society should not be held in the secured institutions but should be left among the other people in the community but under surveillance or probation. Contact between the male custodians and the female juveniles should be minimized to avoid molestation.
Interview Questions
Juvenile system
Question 1: Do you know what the juvenile system is all about? If you do please explain
Question 2: Have you ever been sent to a juvenile institution for any crime? (If yes) what was the crime, and for how long were you held?
Question 3: What do you think about the juvenile system in Georgia?
Question 4: Do you think the juvenile system is achieving its goal of changing the behaviors’ of the youth
Question 5: What do you dislike most about the juvenile system in Georgia?
Reference
Benekos, P. J., & Merlo, A. V. (2004). Controversies in juvenile justice and delinquency. New York: LexisNexis.
Rosenheim, M. K. (2002). A century of juvenile justice. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
(Rosenheim, 2002)
