Personal Review of The Article Regarding to Raising The Age of Responsibility

“The impact that the current age of criminal responsibility has on 16- and 17-year-olds affects them for the rest of their lives. Whether it’s increasing the chance to advance academically or secure employment, it is clear that raising the age of responsibility will have a great societal benefit. The report issued by the Independent Democratic Conference shows that in addition to this societal benefit the state will see a financial benefit as well. This legislative session we will work with advocates and stakeholders to find a legislative solution to this issue,” Senator Klein.

It alarming to see the high increase of crimes being committed by juveniles in today's society. It is quite obvious some juvenile punishment does not truly match the crime they had committed and can have some negative impact on them. For this reason, the chosen article to be reviewed entitled. ‘New York Just Changed The Way It Prosecutes Kids, But Some Got Left Behind: Under Raise the Age. There are kids similarly situated who are being treated totally differently.' Written by Cassi Feldman and published in The Apea.

This article is one of many articles written by Cassi Feldman. Ms. Feldman is a highly established, decorated and an award-winning public interest journalist. Her journalism background spans over several years. She spent many years as an associate producer at CBS News's 60 Minutes and has also worked as a senior editor at City Limits magazine, a reporter for the San Francisco Bay Guardian, and a stringer for The New York Times. She is currently senior editor of The Appeal, a nonprofit criminal justice news outlet focused on the local drivers of mass incarceration.

This article “New York Just Changed The Way It Prosecutes Kids, But Some Got Left Behind: Under Raise the Age. There are kids similarly situated who are being treated totally differently” explores the New York Justice system and the harsh way in which juveniles case are dealt with. It highlighted and emphasis fact that some juvenile crime does not warrant penalty hand down. It also analyzes and explains the fact that although the law has changed there are many juveniles that will not benefit from this change because the new law does not apply to crime commented before it was past.

This article outline different aspect in which juveniles received severe sentences no matter how insignificant the crime may be. In the introductory paragraph, the author used a non-fictional narrative scenario in which the juvenile’s name was changed. Throughout the article, the author seeks to highlight various cases in which the youngsters were given cruel sentences for a simple thing such as taking food to eat. The main idea of each paragraph was highlighted and restated at the end of each paragraph so as to focus the readers' attention on the key issues.

As the article continues is obviously that it was informative but it was also appealing to our descriptive sense. Along with real-life scenarios Feldman increasingly solicited and used different advocate viewpoints to help her highlight this crucial issue. These persons have first-hand knowledge of this issue and as such the interviews she conducted with them was to help her to effectively bring to the forefront these problems. This also gave the readers an idea of how grave the negative impact jail time might have on a teenager

The writer used her brilliant writing skill to highlight the downfall of the Justice system for juveniles. The writer clearly points out the gaps in the previous and existing justice as it concern juveniles. She suggested “few negative impacts that the law like it was had on teenagers but now that it is changed to the present form it will be more beneficial. However what will happen to those who are in jail or facing jail time? How can they benefit from the current law?

Essentially the writer helps us to analyze this by giving us a better understanding of how jail can negatively impact a teenager but on the other hand if given a chance a high percentage of teenagers may change their ways and this will, in turn, guide them on the right path for success.

Being passionate about this topic the writer wanted us to be more aware of changes in the New York Justice system for juveniles. Nevertheless, this article will help all readers to understand why some juveniles commit different crimes and how best society can help them to turn their life around. Being charged as an adult and spending time in jail does not benefit these teens. Now that the law has changed, it needs to benefit everyone. Those teen that are convicted or about to be convicted before the changing of the law needs to be given a chance too.

Hence, How can society help these teenagers? How can we help teenagers not to fall through the cracks? We need to think about these things so that we can make a positive change in the lives of these teenagers.

This article was expertly written. It is an emotional piece with a lot of vivid sensory details. The content was true to nature and I am sure it will be resonating with many readers. I am in total conjunction with some of the points put forward by the author especially that some crimes committed by juveniles that are trivial needs not to be given jail time. Yes for some minor crime a juvenile reform center would be ideal. Nevertheless, those individuals who have committed these petty crimes before the changing of the law should profit too from this new law. Contrary to popular assumptions the fact is: 'To date, there's no extensive research comparing the lengths of prison sentences received by juveniles convicted in criminal court with those who remained in the juvenile system. What research exists indicates that juveniles convicted in criminal court, particularly serious and violent offenders, are more likely to be incarcerated and receive longer sentences than juveniles retained in the juvenile system. Despite this, however, they often actually serve only a fraction of the sentences imposed, in many cases less time than they would have served in a juvenile facility”. Therefore, if juveniles only serve a fraction of there sentence in jail than if they were in a juvenile facility then, harsh juvenile crime needs to be heard in the criminal court.

To conclude, in light of this evidence, I have to disagree with the writer. It is very naive to think that it is more important to have juveniles cases go to the family court simply because of their age. The truth is although some times these crimes might seems simple and harmless to these offenders the other party is hurting. While I am in agreeance for more leniency I most definitely think this should be solely based on the nature of crime not once age. Think about it a juvenile that committed an armed robbery and leaves someone scraping to get back on his or her feet and living in fear should be a charge and face the full length of the law. It can’t be that because it's a juvenile offender that cases like those will go to the family court. What about the nature of the crime? What about the person living in fear because of this crime? Come on as a society we are letting down our young citizen if we do not hold them accountable for their actions. All actions have reactions and it must be just and fair for all parties involved.

Reference

• Feldman, Cassi. “Cassi Feldman.” Journo Portfolio, 28 May 2019
• Feldman, Cassi. “Cassi Feldman 'NEW YORK JUST CHANGED THE WAY IT PROSECUTES KIDS, BUT SOME GOT LEFT BEHIND.” Muck Rack, 2018,
• “THE PRICE OF JUVENILE JUSTICE: WHY RAISING THE AGE MAKES CENTS FOR NEW YORK.” THE PRICE OF JUVENILE JUSTICE: WHY RAISING THE AGE MAKES CENTS FOR NEW YORK » Raise the Age, 2019