Split Sentencing in the Juvenile Justice System

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Another case of a failed split sentencing is about Adam Sipe. He went into a juvenile detention center for putting a bomb in someone’s mailbox and also burning down a Christmas tree farm. Once he turned 18, he had been in trouble for drugs, writing letters that contained gang symbols, attacking someone with a fork, cutting security alarm wires, and stealing cars to escape juvenile detention. Snipe now faces 1 year in an adult prison. “I heard about prison and no way I'm going there,'' said Adam. (Belluck, 1998). Adam should have heeded those words before he continued committing crimes as he will most likely serve a year in an adult prison.

After much research on split sentencing, I do believe it to be quite an effective solution to the juvenile crime problem. Florida conducted a study that found that juveniles that were tried as adults and sent to an adult prison were likely to recidivate more quickly and commit more serious crimes after they were released than those juveniles that were tried as a juvenile and served their sentence in a juvenile detention center. “And youths in adult prisons are more likely to be sexually or physically assaulted by other inmates, and less likely to get education and treatment”. (Belluck, 1998).

I do not believe that split sentencing for juveniles is allowing them to get off too easily. As with the Florida study I referenced above, it clearly shows that juveniles have a greater tendency to be rehabilitated than an adult offender. Also, if the juvenile cannot fulfill his juvenile sentence and treatments correctly or commits another crime then once that juvenile is of age to be imprisoned in an adult correctional facility than he/she will finish out their sentence in the adult prison. That, I do feel, is not letting them get off too easy. They are given a chance at rehabilitation but if they fail they must pay the consequences of their actions. They know from the time they are sentenced what the consequences of their actions will be if they continue their criminal behavior, therefore, it is their choice to make.

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References

Bellock, P. (1998). Fighting youth crime, some states blend adult and juvenile justice. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/1998/02/11/us/fighting-youth-crime-some-states-blend-adult-and-juvenile-justice.html

Bellock, P. (1998). Getting one last chance. Retrieved from http://www.postbulletin.com/getting-one-last-chance-by-pam-belluck/article_45298e4d-64d4-579e-b8f6-6eeb01900b21.html

Crone, K. (1998). Juvenile success stories: How the right to treatment can work. Retrieved from http://www.e-archives.ky.gov/pubs/Public_Adv/july98/success.html

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