‘They’re Just Kids: The Case Against Adult Sentencing for Juvenile Offenders’

Nathaniel Brazill, when 13, fatally shot one of his schoolteachers. Brazill was tried as an adult and sentenced to 28 years in prison without the possibility of parole. Such harsh sentences for such young offenders seem drastic and unfair, therefore I argue that the juvenile justice system should take not a punitive but a rehabilitative approach to minors. I first discuss different theories of why society punishes and whether they apply to the way juveniles are punished today. Drawing on research in psychology, I detail key cognitive differences between minors and adults to argue that juveniles have no place in adult correctional facilities as they are not designed to cater to the special needs of growing adolescents and expose them to harsher conditions than are found in juvenile facilities. Finally, I propose an alternative strategy that focuses more on prevention or the rehabilitation of convicted juveniles rather than punishing them.