School-to-Prison Pipeline: Juvenile Justice & Student Rights - Essay Sample

Introduction

Juvenile justice involves the school resource officers who are responsible for the safety and preventing crimes in schools. They work closely with administrators to create a safe environment for the students and also the staff (Caudill et al., 2013). Another element of juvenile justice is the school-to-prison pipeline that refers to the process of criminalizing youths by using disciplinary policies to put students into contact with law enforcement.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

Juveniles have constitutional rights that include noticing the charges against them, the right to have an attorney and a public defender (Caudill et al., 2013). Juvenile justice also includes status offenses that are noncriminal acts that are considered a part of law violation because of the youth's status, and they include cases of truancy, running away from home, violating curfew and usage of alcohol while underage.

Explain how your topic—the juvenile justice system —relates to the court's branch of the criminal justice system. Include information from one of the main bullets below.

Juvenile Justice:

• Restorative justice
• The court process for juveniles

Diversion/alternatives to arrest

The juvenile justice system relates to the court branch in that the case of the minor is determined within the court premises as the judges decide on the sentencing guidelines. There is an intake officer who recommends that a prosecutor can dismiss the process informally or advance the case (Geis, 2013). The court also has a prosecuting attorney to represent the agency focusing on the safety and accountability of the community and thus prioritize such concerns over the interests of the minor.

The juvenile justice system aims at restorative justice such that they focus on rehabilitating the offenders through reconciling with the victims of the community at large. The founding principle of restorative justice is that crime tends to cause harm and justice should focus on repairing the harm (Geis, 2013). The people affected by the crime should participate in the resolution.

The court process for juveniles includes the offender arraignment hearing, pre-trial hearing, and then the trial in the county where the crime was committed. During the process for the arraignment hearing, the juvenile is expected to appear at the court where they are asked to either admit or deny the offense (Geis, 2013). Other alternatives to arrest for juveniles include being in supervised release programs like home detention, electronic monitoring, and other local treatment programs.

Explain how your topic— the juvenile justice system —relates to the corrections branch of the criminal justice system. Include information from one of the main bullets below.

Juvenile Justice:

Juvenile parole/probation officers

Separation from adults

The juvenile justice system seeks to correct the offenders by including correctional facilities and programs necessary for the youth's integration into the community. The young people suffering from substance use or disorders on their mental health are better off at the correctional facilities where they have a higher chance of receiving adequate assessment and appropriate treatment (Patterson, 2018). The juvenile correction systems use behavior modification strategies that tie the rewards to compliance and link the punishment to forms of misbehavior. The correctional facilities are designed to teach inmates to have better behavior.

Juvenile justice uses the parole officers that perform the task of helping juvenile offenders transition from an institutional setting back into the community. They develop a plan to consult with the juvenile, the parents, and counselors to ensure that they have a healthy shift back to civilian life (Patterson, 2018). They also ensure ongoing contact and monitor the juvenile to ensure they comply with the plan and conditions for release. The probation officers are responsible for supervising youths who are on probation or parole so that they stick to better behavior, and they do not relapse to committing crimes.

Juvenile justice involves the separation of minors from adults because it seeks to focus on the child as an individual in need of assistance and not concentrate on the act that placed them before the court (Patterson, 2018). The judge thus needs to act in the best interest of the child.

Explain how social media relates to communication skills that are important in your topic.

Who uses social media?

For what purposes do people use social media

The youth widely use social media because of the networking sites that offer an extensive platform for discussion on problems in the emerging world. The purpose of using social media is to be a source of entertainment and communication. However, in the long run, it kills the communication skills that the youth need in their daily life. In the era of technology, social media interactions have dominated offline conversations (Taxman et al., 2014). Social media makes the youth prone to behaviors such as poor social skills, confrontation attitude, spreading rumors, and they have a low tolerance to frustration because the media shows them that it is alright to be influenced.

Communication skills are necessary for juveniles since they need to speak out their side of the story, thus can understand and be understood. Social media kills the development of such skills towards improvement by making the youth unable to properly communicate and present their point of view (Taxman et al., 2014). This way, one can end up in jail without having committed the crime only because they could not communicate.

Explain how active listening is a communication skill important in your topic.

Who should use active listening?

Why should active listening be used?

In the case of juveniles, active listening should be used by counselors or parents. As a teenager, the youth may be wanting to feel understood by someone who is capable of resisting the temptation to interject and does not assume that they know more about the youth's mind compared to how they know themselves. In active listening, a counselor empathizes with the juvenile even when he or she does not agree with the behavior (Taxman et al., 2014). The counselor is then expected to give feedback where it is appropriate, validate the feelings of the juvenile, and non-judgmentally provide information.

Active listening should be used as a way to ensure that the youth feels that they are heard and understood during the process. It helps to reduce cases of misunderstandings, improve trust, and encourage honest sharing of thoughts and feelings. In the end, the youth feels more confident and can resist the demands of peer pressure.

Explain how cultural awareness is an important communication skill in your topic.

Why is cultural awareness important?

Cultural awareness is an essential skill in juvenile justice because there is a need for cultural competence to make the process of law enforcement easier. The system adapts the values and principles that embrace policies, practices, and service deliveries to communicate effectively with the youth while considering cultural knowledge. The juvenile system takes into account the importance of cultural awareness to ensure that they are conscious of the dynamics present when cultures interact (Taxman et al., 2014). In the event of an individual caught and has to go through the stages of the system, cultural awareness will make it easy to perform the arrest, notify the family, and any other procedures for detention and supervision.

References

Caudill, J. W., Morris, R. G., Sayed, S. E., Yun, M., & DeLisi, M. (2013). Pathways through the juvenile justice system: Predictors of formal disposition. Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, 11(3), 183-195. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Matt_Delisi/publication/258200919_Pathways_Through_the_Juvenile_Justice_System_Predictors_of_Formal_Disposition/links/02e7e5276e3af17829000000.pdf

Geis, L. M. (2013). An IEP for the juvenile justice system: Incorporating special education law throughout the delinquency process. U. Mem. L. Rev., 44, 869. http://www.njjn.org/uploads/digital-library/IEP-for-JJ-System_IncorporatingSpecial-Ed-Law-Throughout-Delinquency-Process_2014.pdf

Patterson, T. G. (2018). Introduction to evidence-based practices and principles in the criminal justice system. Clinical Interventions in Criminal Justice Settings. ScienceDirect. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/psychology/juvenile-justice-system

Taxman, F. S., Henderson, C., Young, D., & Farrell, J. (2014). The impact of training interventions on organizational readiness to support innovations in juvenile justice offices. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, 41(2), 177-188. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3644370/