Incarcerate Teens To Life In Prison

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Everybody deserves a second chance in life. For the 2500 teens serving life sentences in prison, that's not the case. Many committed a crime, had no criminal past, yet they got life sentences. Some can't get paroled either. Teens getting life sentences is really cruel and they shouldn't be locked up for life. If an adult commits a crime similar to what the teen did, they likely won't get life, which is unfair. How would you feel if you were a teen, did your first crime, and suddenly they sentence you to life in prison? Since the United States spends millions of dollars on prisoners, and since life sentences ruins a teens' futures, the US shouldn't incarcerate teens for life. If you sentence teens to life in prison, their future is ruined. …show more content…
Some claim that it keeps them off the streets. As stated in a CNN article called Teens locked up for life without a second chance(Chen, article 1), people who favor teen life sentencing said, "Proponents of the strict sentencing laws said public safety should be top priority. They argued that judges give certain criminals, regardless of their age, life sentences because the crimes are so abhorrent." Abhorrent means, inspiring disgust and loathing; repugnant. It's true that people's safety is important. However, that's may not be the case. According to a www.takepart.com , they said, "Nearly half of the youth sentenced to life without parole did not actually commit the murder." You're framing the wrong people that did not commit the crime. They were innocent and they didn't deserve a life sentence. Others claim that Many imprisoned teens get involved in gang activity. As stated in an article by Gary Ridley, Juwan Wickware, received a life sentence for killing a pizza delivery driver, by the name of Michael Nettles. It was the first of its kind sentence hearing in Detroit. In the article it said, "Wickware admitted to joining the Merrill hood gang and began carrying a gun at 15 after dropping out of school."(Ridley, article 2) There are people who think that that's true but, if you read the article closer it also said something else. The article also said that he struggled adjusting to life after being abandoned by his father, and his mother struggled to provide for him and his three other siblings. It also said in the article that, "He's not responsible for the circumstances of his childhood." "officials said that Wickware struggled academically, has an IQ of 71 and is functionally Illiterate."(Both by Ridley, article 2) That meant that he could be classified as a special Ed student, due to his
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