Define the issue
My social justice issue focuses on mental and health disorders in the juvenile justice system. In many cases, youth offenders suffer from mental health disorders as a result of crucial punishments, solitary confinement and detention centers. I chose this issue as my fire project because the juvenile justice system focuses on punishing juveniles for their deviant behavior, rather than their treatment or rehabilitation. As a result to this issue, juveniles are placed back to the system and filed as a “juvenile delinquent.” I am passionate about this issue because the juvenile justice system shifted away from treatment and rehabilitation of youth and is more structure towards retribution and punishment. This issue matters incarcerated youth have higher rates of mental and health disorders, such as anxiety, post traumatic stress, mood disorder diagnoses, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and suicidal attempts. Therefore, this is our responsibility to help juveniles to receive proper treatment from their disorders because their lives are taken to affect due to the juvenile justice system.
In the end of this project I want to change the foundation of the juvenile justice system by abolishing solitary confinement for disciplinary reasons and by placing psychologist and individual therapies to oversee the issues of many juveniles that suffer from mental and health disorders. This is important to me because I don’t want juveniles to be labeled by society and its injustice for juveniles who suffer from mental health disorders to not have proper treatment. The juvenile justice system places the youth into juvenile detentions or correctional facilities, where as the number of mental disorders in the juvenile justice system increases because of inadequate diagnoses or treatment. My experience relates to this issue because a close family member who was troubled with the law was later incarcerated by the juvenile justice system. The juvenile detention center made this person behavior is worse because he had already suffered from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and the system made his disorder severely worse being more deviant and committing acts for retribution. This issue shows me that many people in the world can have love one’s incarcerated in the juvenile justice system and this holds a critical importance for protection and safety concern for juveniles. Many people may agree that the juvenile justice system focuses on control and de-socializing behavior by using punishment, rather than rehabilitation.
In the end of this project I want to change the foundation of the juvenile justice system by abolishing solitary confinement for disciplinary reasons and by placing psychologist and individual therapies to oversee the issues of many juveniles that suffer from mental and health disorders. This is important to me because I don’t want juveniles to be labeled by society and its injustice for juveniles who suffer from mental health disorders to not have proper treatment. The juvenile justice system places the youth into juvenile detentions or correctional facilities, where as the number of mental disorders in the juvenile justice system increases because of inadequate diagnoses or treatment. My experience relates to this issue because a close family member who was troubled with the law was later incarcerated by the juvenile justice system. The juvenile detention center made this person behavior is worse because he had already suffered from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and the system made his disorder severely worse being more deviant and committing acts for retribution. This issue shows me that many people in the world can have love one’s incarcerated in the juvenile justice system and this holds a critical importance for protection and safety concern for juveniles. Many people may agree that the juvenile justice system focuses on control and de-socializing behavior by using punishment, rather than rehabilitation.
Thesis: In many cases juveniles suffer from mental health disorders and they are not properly being treated, the Juvenile Justice System fails to provide adequate treatment because it focuses on punishment, rather than rehabilitation of adolescents.