Troubled Young People Deserve Compassion, Not Punishment
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By Lizzie BuchenCenter on Juvenile & Criminal Justice
At the turn of the 20th Century, Lucy Flower, my grandmother’s great grandmother, established the world’s first juvenile court inside the Cook County courthouse in central Chicago.
Flower, who had been orphaned, was horrified by the misery and bleak futures of the city’s poorest children, and believed their criminal behaviors should be handled differently than that of adults. She and the other early “child-savers” viewed children and young teenagers as victims, neglected by their parents and by society, who still had the potential to get their lives on track. After finding success in Chicago, separate courts for young people, which focused on rehabilitation rather than punishment, were soon established nationwide.
But more than 100 years later, punishment has prevailed. Across the criminal justice system, punishment, in the form of severe prison sentences, has become more important than rehabilitating offenders, protecting the public, helping crime victims, and supporting children with traumatic and abusive upbringings.
More than 2,500 Californians are serving life sentences in prison for crimes they committed when they were younger than 18. At San Quentin, it is all too common to come across