Why do we allow ourselves to live in a world with criminals, why are children that are allowed to corrupt our society over and over again, why do we send them somewhere that doesn’t help them help us? There is a continuous argument about trying children as adults, and that argument could last forever until there are enough concerns over what should be done. For me though, I choose the side to try children as adults, when the crime they committed is awful and horrible. There are teenagers and sometimes little kids that commit torturous acts but get a light sentence for their crime. Minors commit crimes everyday and only get a tiny warning and a light sentence. Sometimes they go to a juvenile rehabilitation center, even though they commit a crime such as rape, murder, and almost putting someone to death. Only sometimes does the minor go to a criminal prison. So just think if you mother, father, brother, sister, or someone close to you just got brutally killed or scared for life. How would you sentence that teenager, after looking in their eyes and seeing that they weren’t serious about what they did, but making fun of it? If it were myself the thought of sending them to a juvenile rehabilitation center wouldn’t even cross my mind.
People like Mark Hendricks believe that you should never try minors as adults, that they deserve a chance to go to a juvenile rehabilitation center. Yes, a little number of the percentages of juveniles want come out a better person and have a better life, but what about the other huge amount? Some don’t have the desire to change and be a better person, so when the minor comes out they go right back to what they were doing and commit another crime. A wise person says, “you can lead the horse to the water but you can’t make it drink,” that is what most of the time that happens in a rehabilitation center. You provide them with the techniques to change as a person, but you can’t make them use those techniques and change, maybe they don’t want to change. So by doing that, they just left another family in despair and that poor defenseless life die not knowing that justice was brought to their killer. They try to say that going to a federal prison instead of a juvenile center will only harm them more, that they will come out in a gang or with some mental damage. But the truth is that some of the minors that commit the crime were already in a gang, and some have mental issues.
The other side says they are just children, but I think that age should not be an excuse for anything. If you take responsibility to commit a crime that is horrendous and have an idea of what you done, then there is no doubt that you should be tried as an adult. You can commit crimes at any age and commit them on a certain level, but whether you are ten, or on your way to being an adult at the age of seventeen doesn’t mean you should commit them. Some comment that, “their brains are wired differently. They do not think things out the way we do” (Hendricks 1). If their minds are able to come up with how to commit that crime and how to get away with it, then how should we try them? Two ten year olds take a two year old child, trying to kill him, they take him beat him and then try to cover it up by getting him ran over by a train on railroad tracks, in the act of humor. Some minors can process certain things better than adults, and some are smatter, so again that excuse can’t be used either. They also say they learn from their mistakes, and be treated for them but “ a lack of human morals cannot be treated or cured in rehabilitation centers” (Wilde 1) our morals are what makes us a self dignifying human, and if you don’t have them then there is no telling what you will do in life.
In the end, if you send that minor to a juvenile center then you might as well send an adult there too for committing the same crime, maybe the adults can get help for what they done, in all fairness right? But No that is not how this government works though, so for the crime that is committed an equal punishment up to par shall be given, and that’s not going to a juvenile center for murder. They need to go to a federal prison where adults that commit the same crime go to. Having minors in our world that cause harm to people can only make it worse. A minor could one day attack you; it is not that hard for them to spot their next victim after coming out a rehabilitation center. You wouldn’t want that to happen to you so why would you want that to be able to happen to someone else? This is why I agree with sending the minors to a federal prison if the crime they committed was awful and horrendous, I think you should agree with the same thing.