Justice System Position - Essay Example

Justice System Position Justice System Position Introduction Rehabilitation of young offenders in the Juvenile justice system entails the process, which aims at restoring a young offender in order to make him or her productive in society. Juvenile rehabilitation system is for young persons who have engaged in crime or whose behavior predisposes them to criminal behaviors in the future. Rehabilitation of juveniles can be through after-school camps, boot camps, as well as detention and incarceration in facilities. Assault, engagement in drug use and abuse, and truancy may be some of the reasons why children may be forced into these programs. The aim of juvenile rehabilitation is not to punish, although the containment of young persons in rehabilitation facilities may seem like punishment. Rehabilitation should be the main focus of juvenile rehabilitation since it plays a significant role in the lives of the young persons (Martin, 2005). Why should Juvenile Justice System Focus on Rehabilitation? There are several reasons, which support why juvenile justice system should adopt the approach of rehabilitating juvenile offenders, as opposed to the use of punishments on them. First, juvenile rehabilitation plays an essential role in correcting the tendencies of children to commit crimes. Rehabilitation ensures that the children under such a system cease to become a threat to the entire society. Rehabilitation also ensures that young offenders learn how to participate in programs and schemes, which will help them to improve their personality. Rehabilitation should be the focus of juvenile justice system since some programs offered in rehabilitation ensure that the parent of the child takes part in the various activities, which have been designed to assist in reforming the child. This helps in inculcating values in the child; parental involvement is also vital in helping the child join his or her community as a responsible member of society (Burfeind & Bartusch, 2011). Through rehabilitation, young offenders have an opportunity to become successful, as well as better adults who will maintain order in society. Rehabilitation of minors who commit crimes prepares them for the future life; juvenile rehabilitation has made immense contributions to the reduction in rates of crime that may be conducted in the future of life of the minors. Research indicates that rehabilitation ensures that juvenile delinquents benefit a lot from rehabilitation since they change their ways and they most likely will not continue committing crimes in the future. Rehabilitation can also be termed as essential since it addresses the reasons why the minor committed the crimes. This, as opposed to punishment, ensures that juvenile delinquents avoid such acts that may land them in trouble (Zalkin & Simon, 2004). The juvenile justice systems should also focus on rehabilitation since some forms of punishment, such as jailing, may have higher financial costs than rehabilitation. In addition, rehabilitation gives juvenile offenders a chance to know the impact of engaging in criminal activities. For example, some rehabilitation programs avail police officers who educate the youth about the negative effects of engaging in crime and other undesirable behaviors such as drug use (Burfeind & Bartusch, 2011). Juvenile rehabilitation has some impacts on law enforcement, court processes, probation, corrections, community services, and intervention programs. The effect of juvenile rehabilitation on law enforcement is that it helps in discouraging rates of crime, which may occur during adulthood. In addition, the police and criminal justice system gets time to shift focus on issues related to crime, as opposed to dealing with matters related to juveniles. Court processes are also affected by juvenile justice systems since they go faster; the courts have few cases because the burden of child cases goes to rehabilitation programs. As a result, courts can focus on other cases than may be of more importance than the juvenile cases (Martin, 2005). Rehabilitation has an impact on probation; additional juvenile offenders mean that there will be extra responsibilities to the probation department as they will have to supervise and evaluate the progress of the juvenile offenders in rehabilitation facilities. Moreover, rehabilitation will ensure that the probation department focuses more on the treatment and rehabilitation of juveniles than supervision. Probation officers will also be more attentive on the success of the rehabilitation; thus, they will be involved in the supervision of the offender during and after the rehabilitation period. Correctional activities also benefit significantly from rehabilitation; it helps in reducing juveniles under incarceration. As a result, there will be ample space in facilities of correction to serve adult offenders under incarceration. Overpopulation in correctional facilities is also reduced through efforts to rehabilitate juvenile offenders (Zalkin & Simon, 2004). Rehabilitation of juvenile offenders has an effect on community services since it creates a chance for juvenile offenders to use community services. Community service departments established in the community also offer treatment and other rehabilitative services to juvenile offenders. The other aspect affected by rehabilitation is intervention programs; these programs play an essential role in ensuring proper rehabilitation of offenders. Intervention programs will also have a part to play in reducing juvenile delinquency (Elrod & Ryder, 2011). Some of the views opposing rehabilitation of juvenile offenders include the belief that a lot of funds will be used in rehabilitation of juvenile offenders. These additional costs emanate from the expenses incurred while caring for the offenders in the rehabilitation facilities. In addition, there will be additional costs since more probation officers will be needed to oversee the success of the programs and make a follow up on the offender. Those who oppose rehabilitation argue that it may not necessarily lead to deterrence. According to them, punishment contributes to deterrence more than rehabilitation (Elrod & Ryder, 2011). These arguments are not as valid as mine owing to a number of reasons. With the use of meta-analysis technique, researchers review programs to evaluate whether rehabilitation contributions to behavior change. In 1985, Garret made a review of 111 residential programs. The researcher came to the conclusion that there were positive results in programs, which focused on approaches of behavior and life skills to rehabilitate offenders. As such, rehabilitation can be said to contribute more to positive behavior than punishment (Lieb, 1994). How the advantages would outweigh the disadvantages if the juvenile justice system were to adopt the focus I have chosen There are numerous advantages derived from the inclusion of rehabilitation instead of the use of punishment on the juvenile offenders. It is evident that rehabilitation enables the Juvenile Justice System to treat, rehabilitate, as well as educate young offenders rather than punish them. In addition, rehabilitation enables offenders to learn skills, get treatment on substance abuse, and become responsible citizens. On the other hand, punishment through incarceration may not be of benefit to the juvenile offender since he or she may not gain the skills gained through rehabilitation (Elrod & Ryder, 2011). While concluding this study, it is worth noting that the justice system dealing with juvenile offenders should emphasize on rehabilitation. There are immense benefits derived from rehabilitation of juvenile offenders. References Burfeind, J. & Bartusch, D. (2011). Juvenile Delinquency: An Integrated Approach. Ontario: Jones & Bartlett Learning. Elrod, P. & Ryder, S. (2011). Juvenile Justice: A Social, Historical and Legal Perspective: A Social, Historical and Legal Perspective. Ontario: Jones & Bartlett Learning. Lieb, R. (1994). Juvenile Offenders: What Works? A Summary of Research Findings. Washington: Washington State Institute for Public Policy. Martin, G. (2005). Juvenile Justice: Process and Systems. London: SAGE. Zalkind, P. & Simon, R. J. (2004). Global Perspectives on Social Issues: Juvenile Justice Systems. Oxford: Lexington Books. Read More