Juveniles Don T Deserve Life Sentences

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Everyone deserves a second chance, or at least this is what we believe when it comes to small mistakes, but how about when a teen or child commits a heinous crime? Do they deserve a second chance at life? Or do we simply look the other way and punish them the same as we do adults. In 2012 Supreme Court Justices ruled that juveniles that commit heinous crimes, such as murder, are not to be tried as adults and have a right to persuade a judge to permit their release into society, as long as they are under the age of eighteen. Juveniles are just kid. Kids whose brains have not fully developed, do not understand their sentences. If sent to prisons they can not change for the better, or possibly be released to become active members of society in years to come. These juveniles have no opportunity to better themselves if they are not provided with the necessary tools to succeed. In Juveniles Don’t Deserve Life Sentences, by Gail Garinger, she talks about how juveniles that have been sentenced to life in prison without parole are left without hope, denied an education and rehabilitations programs. In a way we have given these kids a slow death penalty. They will no longer get to communicate with others, …show more content…

In the article Startling Finds on Teenage Brains, the author Paul Thompson, describes research that himself and colleagues came across on the teenage brain. They used children from ages three through twenty to show the brin changing in each of the stages. They found most of the changes to be normal, except for one, the massive loss in brain tissue. The parts of the brain that were being lost were the areas that control impulse, risk-taking, and self control. He also described a loss in the front lobes, the areas that control our violent and rash actions, as well a our emotions. These studies show what may have possibly led to the crimes that these juveniles

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