Justice System Position Paper assistance

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Please allow some of my notes and research links to guide you as you write your own paper. After drafting it, please send to us as a new posting for feedback and editing tips:

First of all, please try to hook your readers by offering an interesting story about juvenile crime and the need for rehabilitation, the use of a statistics, or some powerful opener to introduce the topic. You might use a case study from Louisiana that finds that the current system is broken, "in which young offenders convicted of minor offenses such as shoplifting are imprisoned with kids who've committed serious crimes such as murder or rape" (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4822115).

Next, as you select a position and state your thesis, I maintain that the juvenile justice system should focus more on rehabilitation for future models. Do you?

Because teens naturally make some poor choices as they mature and develop, I think that rehabilitation is more developmentally and ethically appropriate in order to deter problems and prevalence of juvenile crime. Psychological research confirms "what every parent knows: children, including teenagers, act more irrationally and immaturely than adults. Studies further confirm that stressful situations only heighten the risk that emotion, rather than rational thought, will guide the choices children make" (http://www.teenadvocatesusa.org/InnocenceBetrayed_ReformingJuvenileJustice.html).

One critic further suggests the need for reform as he insists, ""A century ago, reformers proved that prisons don't help wayward children. Now America is learning that lesson all over again" http://www.teenadvocatesusa.org/InnocenceBetrayed_ReformingJuvenileJustice.html). What do you think?

As you then explain why should the juvenile justice system adopt the focus you have chosen, you might state that the original mission and purpose of the system is actually doing the opposite since "Sixty-three percent of Americans believe that all youth, regardless of the crime committed, are capable of recovery and redemption. Yet, on any given day, approximately one out of 10 incarcerated youth are confined in adult facilities" (http://www.teenadvocatesusa.org/InnocenceBetrayed_ReformingJuvenileJustice.html).

You might also argue that we desperately also need reform because the current system is broken, ineffective, and hypocritical. Research finds that "Over time, the juvenile-justice system in many states reverted to the punitive approach it was designed to replace" ...