-violent crimes, and some states have adopted mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines for juveniles (Swain 27).But if the state officials would examine the statistics they would see that criminal activity is still sky rocketing. Many states look at sending children to prison as an answer to the crime issue. Despite sending kids who do not deserve to be in adult prison there anyway. Florida is just such a state. Even though Florida’s prosecutors have been sending large numbers of kids to the adult prison system since 1981, Florida has the second highest overall violent crime rate in the country (Florida 10). State officials should realize that sending a kid who commits an act of nonviolence has a higher chance than before he was sent to adult prison of becoming a more aggressive and dangerous person. Marr 5To some, prison may seem like the only way to stop juvenile crime. But in reality prison is somewhat like a criminal college for the young offenders who are sent there. “When you lock up a 13-year-old with a hardened adult criminal, he gets more than a cellmate, he gets a role model, some kids need to be attained to keep the public safe. But I know from my own youth, when I was a ward of the court, and from the workings of my own juvenile justice system, that sending kids to adult court unnecessarily destroys them” (Beamon 33). Since trying children as adults does not deter crime, a better solution must be found. Programs that will show children the other road in life, road that does not lead to criminal activity. On such place is the Brown Schools Behavioral Health System. The Brown schools has an over fifty-five year history in treating children and adolescents with severe emotional behavior problems from all areas of the United States and twenty-two foreign countries. They believe that the adolescents of today are in some ways psychologically different from the adolescents of just a few years ago. T...
