Reply to Guess the Outcome of Fairfax County's Repeat Car Thief Nearing 18

Forum Index » Metropolitan DC Local Politics

Reply to "Guess the Outcome of Fairfax County's Repeat Car Thief Nearing 18 – Justice or Failure?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]He should remain in juvenile court so that we don’t destroy his life. Maybe he could go to a youth camp or something. He definitely needs some sort of heavy intervention. The fact that he was riding around with other younger kids is a sign that he is not a full on adult criminal. It’s cheaper in the long run if we can rehabilitate this young man rather than break him in adult prison.[/quote]

It must be nice living in La La Land. [/quote]

Most criminals don't get better. Rehabilitation, wrap around services, and therapy don't work well to reduce crime. The most effective way to reduce crime is by throwing people who commit crime in jail to prevent them from harming other people. Most kids are not antisocial criminals that steal cars or act out violently.  The people that do this should be locked up to protect the rights of everyone else. [/quote]

Not true. A more significant number of these criminals stop by the time they hit their mid to late 20s. [/quote]

Because they finally get put in jail? [/quote]

I suggest reading Dwayne Betts book titled a Question of Freedom. Betts at 16 committed an armed carjacking at age 16 in Virginia and was sentenced as an adult to 8 years as an adult in state prison. He was no ordinary prisoner - not because of his age but rather because he is extraordinarily bright. He used his writing skills and intelligence in prison to assist others, and it was his own method of survival. Before his felony, the kid was looking at Georgia Tech. His reason for committing the crime is not clear although he admitted to it being absolutely senseless in terms of risk and reward.  He seemed to ascribe the crime to racial isolation in PG County (not entirely clear).

Ironically given his skills (Yale law later on) he did straighten up by his mid 20’s. So he is atypical. His description of his fellow prisoners however, makes me doubt that they by and large they straighten out in their mid 20’s. So many of them lead lives with an incredibly narrow worldview-,learning how to make sound decisions and to have an awareness of consequences is really difficult for a number of these guys (and they are mostly men).

If you are 16 or older and stick a gun in people’s faces, being tried as an adult seems to make sense in terms of discouraging such crimes.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics