I work the board of an organization that focuses on teenagers who have been convicted (or as Texas terms it, adjudicated) of crimes. I work with a local branch, but it is part of a national organization called AMIkids (website AMIkids.org). When asked to join, I was a bit skeptical, but they do seem to able to do fairly well at getting teens turned around. Pretty much across the board, the success rate runs 70%-80%. Success is generally measured by how many graduates of the program end up back in the legal system in the three years following. If you know anything about adult incarceration rates, the AMIkids rates are phenomenal.Purplehood wrote:I would have to disagree. I feel that a significant percentage of teenage juvenile-delinquents are indeed, redeemable. If some Police, Parents and Judges hadn't felt that way back in the early '70s, I wouldn't be where I am today.seamusTX wrote:I've come to believe that by the time a man is old enough to be put in prison (age 17 or older) his character is very unlikely to change. Actually, I would put the deadline more about age 7.
Certainly there are exceptions, but they are rare.
Back in the day when thieves were hanged for the theft of a shilling and flogged and pressed into military service for "lesser" crimes, these punishments were no deterrent at all.
- Jim
Please keep in mind that I did not rob, rape or murder anyone. I was just stupid.
I think teens to very young adults (e.g. 18, 19, 20 or so) still have a malleable enough mental state that they can undergo drastic changes -- for good or bad. Join a gang, become a thug. Join Boy Scouts (and stick with it), become a ... well... boy scout.
Teens have not set up solid boundaries about good or bad limits, and think that's why juvenile gang members can be so vicious (most cops I know say they are a lot more afraid of teen criminals than adult). Likewise, I think it is why they can be steered back. I was never a fan of dumping "problems" on the military, but the military does have a decent - not perfect, but decent- track record of taking young people and making adults out of them.
Once a full adult mindset takes hold, tho, I think the chances of serious change are much more remote, and I am happy with locking up adult repeat/serious offender for a long long time. I am not worried about rehabilitating them, I want to make sure they are not out causing more crime. The cost of keeping them locked up is nothing to the cost of letting them continue a criminal career, and the costs of prison can be budgeted for and more fairly assessed. The costs of letting them run around is uncontrolled and the primary victims pay inordinately high immediate costs, while the rest of us pay in yet more in terms of trying to be "secure" with more police, alarms, bars on the windows, worrying about what neighborhood we are driving thru, and all that.