At 15 years old, most teens are in their second year of high school and dealing with the struggles of learning algebraic expressions or who they’re bringing to the homecoming dance. The most important people in our life during that time include our family, school friends, and teachers who we see nearly every day. This was the same for 15-year-old Jaquin Thomas whose closest friend at the time of his death was his uncle Tyrance Chancellor, who was 35 years old. Jaquin attended high school in Evangeline Parish, but he was spending the summer with his uncle in St. Bernard Parish. His mother was in prison. According to court documents, ‘Mr. Chancellor took it upon himself to drive Jaquin Thomas, a young impressionable juvenile … in the middle of the night for an illicit interaction.” In 2016 Jaquin and Chancellor broke into an apartment in New Orleans, La to confront two women they had relationships with. While at the scene an altercation took place and Jaquin shot the fatal shot which resulted in the death of a 25-year-old New Orleans man. Prosecutors had not yet brought the case to a grand jury when Jaquin, who was suffering from depression, hanged himself on the Orleans Justice Center’s youth tier. This case took place in 2016 and sparked a political debate on whether youths should be incarcerated in New Orleans city jail. Many people questioned whether Jaquin’s juvenile unit was being monitored every hour because his suicide could’ve been prevented. This case also discusses impressionable kids who are influenced by family members who aren’t necessarily on the right path.
When a child between 10 and 16 is arrested, he or she is brought into the juvenile justice system. A smart juvenile justice system actively tries to eliminate unnecessary arrests, which waste police resources and actually increase recidivism. I think it’s important to remember these juveniles are still normal children. A lot of issues do not have to result in the arrest of a child; rather, if the officer can effectively communicate and find out the issue then I think fewer children would be arrested. According to data collected from the Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights, 96% of the arrest made in Louisiana during 2016 were Black youth. To put this into perspective, in 2016 761 juveniles were arrested and 730 of them were black children which indicate the number of arrests in New Orleans Louisiana for juveniles is almost exclusively black. This intricacy is something our current justice system decides to disregard despite the statistics that demonstrate the criminalization of black youth has plagued this country for decades. While just 14% of all youth under 18 in the U.S. are Black, 43% of boys and 34% of girls in juvenile facilities are Black.
Numerous people think that youth today are taking advantage of our justice system and are committing violent crimes because they believe they will get off easy. In order to provide justice to victims and their families and to prevent more and more juveniles from committing violent crimes, the United States must hold criminals accountable regardless of their age by imposing a tough punishment system. To that end, juveniles should sometimes be tried as adults. In all 50 states, youth under age 18 can be tried in adult criminal court through different types of juvenile transfer laws. When young people are transferred out of the juvenile system, they are more likely to be convicted and typically receive harsher sentences than youth who remain in juvenile court charged with similar crimes. This practice undermines the purpose of the juvenile court system, pursuing punishment rather than rehabilitation. Research shows that “tough on crime” policy shifts during the 1980s and 1990s have negatively impacted youth, families, and communities of color. These laws were fueled by high-profile criminal cases involving youth, sensationalized coverage of system-involved youth by the media, and crusading politicians who warned that juvenile “super-predators” posed a significant threat to public safety. Laws that allow youth to be tried as adults reflect and reinforce the racial inequities that characterize the justice system in the United States.
The Campaign for Youth Justice report, “Jailing Juveniles: The Dangers of Incarcerating Youth in Adult Jails in America,” released in November 2007, describes the difficulties of keeping children secure in adult jails. The report explains that children and teens should not be held to the same standard of responsibility for their actions as adults, citing research that tells the developmental differences between adolescents and adults. These conclusions indicate that the prefrontal cortex, which governs the “executive functions” of reasoning, advanced thinking, and impulse control, is one of the last sections of the brain to develop. In numerous cases, there are no public safety grounds for locking up these young people in adult prisons. Juveniles may be held in adult jails for years, although most of them are not charged with a violent crime, and many will not be convicted of any crime. Nevertheless, they sit behind bars with dangerous criminals and are at great risk of being raped and beaten. Many are pushed to attempt suicide. Which is what happened for 15-year-old Jaquin Thomas. We need more people to advocate for youth in the justice system so that way children aren’t resorting to taking their own lives. Our system has changed a lot in the last decade however, more work needs to be done.
