I am not a big TV fan but this morning watched Trish Godard.
The subject was raised about 16 year olds being sent to prison.
There was a man on there that in the 80’s had been sent to prison for burglary aged 16
He discussed how at that age he was angry with life and then sent into a hostile environment amongst adults.
He said he came out after being abused even more angry, than went he went in, feeling let down by society and nobody caring.
This got me thinking, as now as an adult this guy was able to turn his life around and make good of it, but there are others that don’t ever get the help to understand at such an impressionable age.
I feel a lot are looking for self worth, without which we feel worthless. No wonder a lot feel nobody cares.
This saddened me!
Are we as a society letting our children down?
Is sending 16 year old to prison the answer?
if you dont want to do the time.. .dont do the crime!!! simple as.
i think.. we as a socity have be come too soft.. and too busy protecting the criminals, instead of looking after the victims.
ive been on the bus before, and heard kids boasting about being arrested. as if its a status thing..... when i was young (and thats not too long ago).. my dad would of killed me if i he was to get a phone call from the police about me.. that alone was my excuss for staying well away from trouble.
I think the message to send to young people is that if you are caught doing the crime then expect to do the time...
Saying that he was "angry with life" is not a suitable defence in court...
In the area we live there are plenty of youths that have been shown all the sympathy in the world and given all the listening ears they need after getting into trouble and they still go on to re-offend...
Equally there are those that go to prison/young offenders institutes that go on to re-offend as well but there has to be some sort of boundry beyond which punishment is expected(I know what I'm trying to say but am having trouble finding the right words).....
He was punished for committing a crime. At 16, regardless of how 'angry at life' he was, he knew what was right and what was wrong. So yes, sending him to prison was the right thing to do. He let himself down, it was nothing to do with society.
I do agree with punishment being the answer.
But a few years ago I watched a documentary about a woman in America that was on death row that subsequently was put to death.
The documentary was based on her life story.
She lived with her father, brothers, and grandfather who all sexually abused her from a very early age, at 12 she ran away and lived in the woods until she was 16 and fended for herself. As an adult she has such a hatred of men that went on a killing spree.
While I am not condoning her actions it did leave me with a feeling that I could understand how her mind was programmed into think all men were worthless.
I myself don’t think this way as I have had a different upbringing.
I do think we are not always aware of why some children are angry in life, and I am not suggesting that they have experienced such extremes of abuse.
But then I do think some can be misunderstood as just being trouble.
Hope this makes sence!
am against kids being put behind bars,but there are some exception cases where its the only death sentence in America has never stopped capital crimes so we shouldnt expect prisons to deter this knuckle heads,lack of the cane and discipline in school contribute to alot of this juvenille crimes...this kids are crying for help the system is against them at all odds!
I don't in most cases think prison is a good thing for either the 16 years old or society and that everything possible should be done to avoid it. Imprisonment should be an absolute last resort. 16 is too young. Any age is too young really
In a few cases prison maybe the answer but in most I think its detrimental to the person and to society. I am not advocating weak liberal answers i am advocating different soulutions. This maybe things such as hard work or making some sort of recompense to those affected immediately by the crime. We need to think about things differently and in other ways than locking them up. All that ends up doing is giving these kids a worse attitude and after a short spell in prison they come out harder and better equipped to do worse things. Thats recognised as fact is it not?
One thing neglected is that a lot of the generations problems are there through our and our parents allowing it to happen. We must shoulder a lot of the blame and come up with better mnore effective solutions.
This isn't me being a bit do gooder-ish - i would like to see far more electronic tagging done with the proviso that if they break curfew every ten minutes they get a REALLY hefty electric shock by remote control possibly.
Staple the little fuckers to the wall they just defaced then let the local dogs and vagrants piss up their legs. :twisted:
Maybe we should also sort out in this country what defines a "child" and an "adult". It is legal to have sex, get married and have children at 16 and yet 18 seems to be the generally held conception of coming of age. So those who choose to become parents at 16 can't legally drive a car, buy an alcoholic drink in a pub or vote. At 16 they can legally gamble (buy lottery tickets) and smoke. They can also be killed serving their country in the armed forces.
So are 16 year olds adults or children still? If they are children then they should be punished as children. Or maybe we could have a teen punishment system,like borstal or youth offenders but not as they exist at the moment. Then again some people will say that if they commit adult crimes then they should accept adult punishments.
My view? Bring back capital punishment :twisted: