by Joe Davis
[note: Joe Davis is an Oshkosh resident and Commentary fan. You can e-mail him at joe54902@yahoo.com]
On Friday, July 27th 2001, 14 year old Nathaniel Brazil of West Palm Beach, Florida was tried as an adult and convicted of second-degree murder for shooting his teacher to death after he was sent home from school early for causing trouble in the classroom. He was sentenced to 28 years in prison.
This very public, very controversial case has forced the legal system to, once again, face the issues of how to sentence juveniles convicted of violent crimes, what to do with them after they have been sentenced, and what to do with them once the leave prison.
Opinions on these issues, and even the issues themselves vary greatly. Here's my take on SOME of the issues.
One of the issues is wether or not the court should sentence a juvenile to death, in the states that utilize the death penalty, when the crime would warrant the death penalty for an adult. Some people say that if a person is going to commit a crime, they should pay the price. Age isn't an issue.
Others say that children should not be sentenced to death. Even if they were tried as adults. These people use the logic that children aren't able to fully understand the difference between right and wrong, and therefore, shouldn't face the ultimate form of punishment. They seem to feel that these children can be rehabilitated and re-integrated into society as productive citizens. However, this brings up the next issue.
If a juvenile, who would otherwise be eligible for the death penalty, isn't executed, they would be spending a long time in prison. Of what benefit will this be?
In the case of Nathaniel Brazil, he will spend the majority of the next 28 years in an adult prison. He has started his incarceration as a boy, and will leave prison as a 41 year old adult. In other words, he will do the rest of his growing up behind bars, among people who have lived lives of crime. He will have the better part of 28 years to learn from these criminals he will be growing up with. And unfortunately, in some circles, the fact that he shot and killed someone might even make him a hero of sorts and/or give him an elevated status among fellow inmates in prison. Pretty scary, don't you think? How can this be conducive to rehabilitation? How can a person feel bad about what they've done when some hail him as a hero or, at the very least, someone to be respected? In my opinion, the idea of rehabilitation doesn't look very promising at this point.
So when a juvenile is sent to prison to grow up behind bars, what should we expect of them when their release date comes due and they are sent back out into society? Personally, I would expect a person who will have a difficult, if not impossible, task of blending back into society. My theory is that most of these juveniles will re-offend and likely spend the majority, or even the rest of their lives in jail and/or prison.
So is the system really working? Sure, the legal system is getting dangerous people off the streets as well as punishing them for their crimes. But when the legal system sends a young person to continue their socialization in a prison setting, isn't the system, in essence, assisting in creating a lifelong criminal and menace to society? It would seem that this is exactly the case if my theories of "socialization behind bars" and recidivism are correct.
So what is the legal system to do? It would seem that judges are "damned if they do, and damed if they don't". A legal "catch-22". In other words, if they send a juvenile to prison, they are POTENTIALLY helping to create a life-long criminal/prisoner, which is counter-productive. Yet, if they don't sentence a juvenile to prison for violent crimes, they are, in essence, reinforcing that persons behavior and telling other young people that this behavior will be accepted in our society. We don't want that to happen for obvious reasons.
At this point, prison seems to be the lesser of the evils. But what can, and should, the legal system do to reduce the risk of these people re-offending once they are released? IS THERE anything the legal system can do? I don't know.
The only thing I know for sure is that, in a time where more and more children are committing what have been historically considered adult crimes, I'm glad I'm not the judge!