Kelly Kinney

Mrs. Di somma

ERWC

7 March 2017

Life in Prison

People say that teens should not get life in prison if they murder someone. If they are

committing an adult crime, like murder then they should get what they deserve. I disagree with

the 2012 supreme court decision to not sentence kids to life when committing murder.

Their are some cases that do show that kids don't know what they are doing and

deserve a second chance. The amount of kids this happens to is extremely small. An example

of a kid that changed in jail is Greg. Greg killed both his parents at the age of 14 and got life

sentence to life in prison (Anderson). He had to deal with the guilt of that everyday but never

lost hope. Greg was doing so much good around the jail he had a chance to maybe get out

early and do something with his life, I want to use my life as an example of what can go wrong,

of how important it is when youre that age age to get help if you feel things closing in on you

(Anderson). Greg has a great story and everyone could learn something from it. With that being

said there are very few Gregs in the world, kids charged as an adult generally have higher rates

of recidivism after being released than kids tried in juvenile court (Calamari, 18:54). Youths that

are tried as an adult tend to have a harder time living in the real world after doing time in jail, or

they go back to their old ways. In 2015, juvenile tried in adult court, 88% were convicted and

got sentence life in prison (Harris, iii). Even though some kids come back from jail a better

person, more than half struggle to get their life in order.

I disagree with the 2012 supreme court decision to not sentence kids to life when

committing murder because I think it is biological not moral. In a movie, called Young Kids,
Hard Times, they talk about a kid who enjoyed hurting people at the age of 5 (Calamari, 35:40).

At the age of 5 you should not be hurting people for fun, at that point it is just how is brain

works. It doesn't matter where you came from, if a teenage boy who planned and carried out a

crime so unthinkable that to most people it is not just a moral transgression but almost a

biological one (Anderson). If someone could go through with killing someone, then they should

be in jail for life. People who try and defend teens often times say their brains are

underdeveloped (Jenkins). If development was the real reasoning for all the high murder rates,

the rates should roughly be the same all around the world, not just America ( Jenkins). Teens

that are getting tried for murder should get sentenced life in prison.

I disagree with the 2012 supreme court decision to not sentence kids to life when

committing murder because more than half of them fall back to their old ways. A teen was tried

for murder at his trial he testified himself and called his crime the thrill kill because he wanted to

see what it would feel like to kill someone (Jenkins). Someone with that type of mindset has a

high chance of doing something like that again when he gets out of jail. Another thing that

people talk about is that it has to do with where they come from but a serial killer who come

from a privileged home, when he got out of jail he wasted no time to find something wrong todo

again (Jenkins). People like this should not be able to live a normal life. Many of the arrest

coming in are for murder, 54.1% of them were 17 years of age (Harris, 48). A 17 year old knows

better from right to wrong and should get punished for their crime. If a teen murders someone

they should have life in prison because they will mostly fall back if let out of jail.

I disagree with the decision of 2012 Supreme Court to not sentence kids to life when

committing murder because it is a biological thing and would keep the streets safer. When a kid

goes to jail it would be hard for them to start their life up again and would more than likely end

up back where they started.

 Work Cited

Anderson, Scott. Greg Ousley Is Sorry for Killing His Parents. Is That Enough?
WWW.Nyti.ms.com The new York Times Magazine, July 19, 2012. Print. 1-21.

Calamari Productions. Young kids, Hard Times. WWW.Youtube.com. Calamari Productions.

2017. Web. 29 February 2017.

Harris, Kamala. CA J.J Article. Criminal Justice. Attorney General, 2015. Print

Jenkins, Jennifer. On Punishment and Teen Killers. Juvenile Justice Information. 2 August,
2011. Print. 91