In order to solve a problem, you must first recognize the problem. The problem of juvenile violence has become one of the most overwhelming problems of our time for Texas and for the United States. The problem is spread throughout the United States. The serious crimes are usually thought to be problems of the urban city, but this is no longer a problem just for the inner city. The problem has spread through the suburban areas of the city in cases just like the first example. Citizens are spending tons of money trying to fight the problem on their own. They purchase everything they can to combat crime. Women have mace, cars have alarms, houses have burglar bars and alarms, and many schools have metal detectors to try to control the overwhelming effects of violence (Defending 93). However, these efforts are not enough to overcome the effects of violence, such as man pictured below with an automatic weapon in the streets of his neighborhood (Gest p.29). All jail and court information leads to the outcome that there is a wide diversity of criminals in jail. There is no longer a predictable profile for a juvenile criminal. However, most of the criminals still come from the inner city. Due to a 21% estimated rise in the number of 15 to 19 year olds by the year 2005, the problem will get worse without a better plan. The American juvenile justice system is supposed to be the system that prevents juveniles form committing crimes, but the system was designed over 100 years ago to prevent minor crimes from occurring (LaCoya 12/2/94). The current system in Texas and throughout most of the United States allows juveniles to receive a less severe penalty than an adult who is convicted of the same crime. The current Texas system does not allow juveniles to be prosecuted as an adult until they are eighteen unless a separate hearing is held to prove the juvenile should be prosecuted as an adult (Swantkowski 12/1/94). The overwhelming juvenile violence taking place in society today has made it impossible to continue with the same system of justice.
The first area of improvement is education. This is a basic argument with very little objection. The facts back it up. A kid with a quality level of education is less likely to commit a crime than a juvenile without the education. In 1989, 53.8% of would consist of a large drug education program that is imperative to the treatment. It is imperative because nearly one of every four inmates are in jail for a drug offense (Dillingham 6). Serious programs need to be initiated while the children are in elementary school, because the high-risk kids are dropping out of school by the time they are in high school, when most of the serious drug classes are required. There needs to be more money allocated to the poorer school districts to give their children a better opportunity. adolescents in high-risk settings deserve more money because " adolescents from low-income families and neighborhoods are at much higher risk of educational failure than their more affluent suburban counterparts" (National 7). After the kids are apprehended, we need to educate them in prison. A part of my proposal would call for every juvenile convicted of a violent crime to pass their G.E.D. test, which is the high school equivalency exam, before they can return to society. For these reasons, we need to upgrade our education, especially in lower income areas, to help educate the kids against crime.
The second part of my plan comes in the form of apprehension. City leaders should consider hiring more police officers. We need this extra police protection because violence is the number one concern of most Texans. In fact, 73% of all Harris County residents believe that crime is the single biggest problem facing Houstonians (Swartz 90). We need to place the officers in the urban areas. This is because crime is most likely to take place in the urban areas, which are largely populated by minorities. In fact, blacks are five times more likely to be victims of crimes than whites (Swartz 89). My basic belief in hiring more police officers to fight juvenile crime is "if there are less criminals on the street, then the better society can function."
The third part of my proposal would have to do with the judicial process. In my proposal, I would drop the age a juvenile can be tried as an adult for a violent crime to fourteen. This would eliminate the large amount of cases that determine if a juvenile is fit to be tried as an adult, which would help the court operate quicker and cheaper. By sentencing these juveniles as adults, they would receive the same harsh sentences that an adult would receive for the same crime. Also, I would give the judges the authority to execute the harshest of the juveniles to send a message to other juveniles. These judicial changes should help the court system move quicker with more authority.
The final part of my proposal would be to construct a large juvenile prison to hold the juveniles from the age of fourteen to eighteen. The separate prison would be used to separate the young juveniles from the older criminals. This would attempt to keep them away from some of the bad influences in an adult prison, in order to give the juveniles a better chance to rehabilitate themselves. The prison would be run by the Department of Corrections, not the Department of Juvenile Justice. The department of juvenile justice simply does not work. It is too lenient on the criminals. Gil Garcetti, the district attorney of Los Angeles, says the following on the subject of juvenile justice system:
"We should replace it (juvenile justice system) with one that protects society from violent juvenile criminals and efficiently rehabilitates youths who can saved and the system must be able to differentiate between the two" (Lacayo 12/2/94).
The prison would basically be a two-part prison. The first part would be the actual cells and prison area. This would be used to give the juveniles a good look at life on the inside. The prison would treat the juveniles just like adult prisoners, which would teach the juveniles the harsh reality of prison life. The second and equally important part of the prison would be a rehabilitation center. These criminals are kids and still have hope fro a brighter future. The center would be used to try to educate the criminals on alternative ways of life. It would educate them on many of the issues that the criminals are in the prison for such as drugs, murder, and rape. The center would also serve as a high school for the inmates. They would be forced to attend a normal amount of classes and pass the G.E.D., before the criminals would be eligible to leave the prison. This prison system would give the inmates the best chance to survive on the outside because they would be educated on the proper way to function in society, while still fearing life in prison.
In order to justify such an expensive proposal, Texas needs to talk to their citizens. Almost three out of every four Houstonians think that crime is the number one problem facing their city (Swartz 90). The plans that I have proposed are drastic, but they are necessary. Adolescents are in the most dangerous class of citizens. Murder rates have been going down in the age range of 25 and older, but their is still an increasing number of homicides taking place in the age group of 14-24 (National 4). In order to improve our education, I think we need to allocate money from the richer school districts and transfer it to the less prosperous districts. I think the citizens would be willing to spend more, in terms of city taxes, for better protection. This would create the addition of many new police officers that should be trained extensively in juvenile crime. The judicial reform would be the hardest to implement. However, one of the biggest reasons for Governor-Elect George W. Bush's success in defeating Ann Richards turned out to be his strong views on crime in Texas. The Governor-Elect has already proposed ideas of punishing fourteen year olds as adults (Hollandsworth 112). In order to justify the judicial proposes, Texas needs to amend new legislation to put an end to the enormous amounts of appeals of the court. The court would then be allowed to operate smoother and quicker. In terms of the death penalty, it would be implemented because juveniles do care about being killed. When interviewing a child on the subject of murders, Los Angeles District Attorney Gil Garcetti was asked if he (the child) could be killed for murdering one person. Garcetti replied, "No." The child asked, "How about two?" Garcetti replied "No." "Three?" "No." (LaCayo 12/2/94). Juveniles obviously fear the death penalty, and implementing it could help prevent senseless murders from occurring (LaCayo 12/2/94). No one ever hears about juveniles being executed in the United States. Texas should make a statement by executing some of the harshest juvenile offenders in the State. This is not an unreasonable proposal. Texas leads the nation in recent executions by executing seventeen individuals last year, nearly half of the total number executed in the United States last year (Woodberry 24). Also, in order to help fund the proposed prison, Texas would need to generate some more money. However, the new crime bill , which has been passed through Congress allocates money for a large number of programs including the prison system (Crime Bill sec. 20101). This would help fund this enormous prison, but it would not be enough. Furthermore, Governor-Elect George W. Bush is already prepared to construct new prisons. He has said, "The first priority is building more prisons and getting these criminals off the streets" (Hollandsworth...p.112). He has also proposed cutting $25 million from drug treatment programs in adult prisons, so he can allocate more money to help prevent juvenile crime (Hollandworth 113). Some of this money could be used to fund the new prison. There would also be other alternative ways of raising money. My proposal would call for all working citizens on probation to pay a monthly fine for their crime. If the fine was $30 a month, then Texans could generate $450 million annually (Finn 17). Bush has also vowed to change the infamous Ruiz ruling, which makes the cost of operating prisons excessively high (Hollandsworth 113). The program is justified because there are many creative ways of easing the financial burden that my proposal would present to Texas' economy.
The proposal would definitely be hard to implement. It would take millions and millions of dollars to start the programs, but Texas needs the program. Parts of the proposal would take years to begin, but many experts believe there is no short term solution to the problem. For example, Harvard public-health professor Stephen Buka said, "Single-shot inoculations are not going to be successful." (Gest 28). The prison needs to be constructed as soon as possible. The prison would take time to construct, because it would have to contain both the rehabilitation center and the actual cells.
There are many people who would oppose my views. Some can say there are alternative ways of helping the problem. For example, people might think the current status is all right. In fact, the Governor Ann Richards reported the lowest crime rate in Texas since 1985 last year (Burke 88). Another example is to use boot camps, which are already in place today. (see picture). Also, it is true that Ann Richards has built more prisons than any other governor (Burke 88). Some people might claim that we do not need more prisons, but then how can someone explain why Texas has thousands of prisoners serving time in a county jail waiting for their bed to open up in a state prison (Record 1). Another possible theory would be to let the federal crime system start handling some our problems. For example, 95% of all crimes are prosecuted at the state and local level (Wallace 7). The federal crime bill does include some penalties to be enforced by the federal government, but I believe that local problems can be solved by local agencies (Wallace 7).
In conclusion, We need to cut down on the violence at almost any cost. My planned proposal will take millions of dollars and a long time to implement. However, Texans need the program because society cannot function with the overwhelming amount of violence in today's world. The programs call for drastic changes in education, apprehension of criminals, the judicial system, and the prison system. It is unreasonable to expect to be financially able to hold a juvenile prisoner for a long period of time. However, with this program, the prisoners would be released on an incentive program. They would have to serve a reasonable amount of time in a strict prison, but they would be eligilble to be released at the earliest possible time, if they completed their programs. By improving these areas, we would still not be able to solve the problem, but I think it would be the best program that could realistically be implemented.