Lincoln Blacktom
Corrections
Essay
Sentencing children to die in Prison
I don’t believe that children should be sentenced to die in prison. I feel that sentencing a child to die in prison is a cruel and unusual punishment no matter what the crime is. By doing that you are robbing them of their childhood and they are forced to grow up real fast. They have to prepare themselves for an unusual situation at their age. There are better consequences for children.
A study stated that the Equal Justice Initiative has documented 73 cases where children 13 and 14 years of age have been condemned to death in prison. They lacked legal representation and in most of these cases their extreme sentences have never been reviewed. In situations like that I feel that children are being taken advantage of. They are being misrepresented and are not being taken serious.
Some of them were charged with crimes that didn’t involve injury or homicide. The sentence that they were given didn’t match their crime. They were being charged for things that older teenagers and adults did. To me that was wrong. Most of the cases were against children of color which showed racism. A child should not be sentenced because of the color of their skin.
I believe adolescent children should not be sentence to die in prison because of their situation. Adolescent children brains are undeveloped in parts of the cerebrum. As a result, they are vulnerable to stress and peer pressure without adult ability to control themselves. I feel that children of that caliber should be put in an institution for medical reason.
Some children who are sentenced to die in prison come from violent and dysfunctional backgrounds. These children will adapt to the environment in which they grew up in. In certain cases they will act out and get in trouble. These children should be put in group homes or foster care to be placed with families in better environment.
Most juveniles who are sentenced to die in...