Social Justice

 Youth that are able to learn can grow a Community

Courts and Laws with Youth

In the article it started off by talking about courts and laws that affect juveniles. I decided to go do some research to see if I can find out more information about laws that affect juveniles in different states. Some states, like stated in the article, try juveniles as adults as young as 14. One state I found online, tried juveniles as young as 12 years old as adults. This to me is so hard to believe considering we have science  paste evidence that shows children's brains aren't developed till sometimes over the age of 18. How can youth make the right decisions and learn from their mistakes if their brain is not fully developed yet? 

Then when reading some of the laws that were created for juveniles specifically it made me think how that lot even came into effect.  Many of the laws that are written for juveniles have a lot of gray areas. It seemed to me that the judge could weigh in very heavily on which way the verdicts went for the juvenile. The judge is able to make the decision on where the juvenile will be placed or what would be the sentence or punishment for those juveniles.

When reading, some states used restorative justice methods to help implement the law they had to. Other states had stricter laws and did not have any restorative justice methods to help juveniles get back on track or  learn from their mistakes. These “juveniles”  just made a mistake that needs to learn from it. Everyone makes mistakes and learning how it affects them and others around them is so much more important. We know that the Juvenile systems and prisons in the United States are not working for people. Incarceration is not something that stops someone from doing something again. If a juvenile is convicted they are more likely to end up in prison or back in juvie. This shows that it's not fixing anything and knowing what is learning anything. It's just our easy way of putting people behind bars and  showing people how they can be doing community-based projects and service learning projects to help them be better citizens in their own communities.

Service Learning Projects

Service-learning is a great opportunity for you to be able to explore and learn how to do different opportunities. In service learning it gives them an opportunity to use their voice and learn how different things work. Service-learning does take a lot more work in figuring out how to create a lesson in a way that users are able to use the Hands-On skills and go step by step to figure out how to get to their end product. In service learning projects students learn a lot more going through the process of  learning something new. In many court systems this is not a process that courts will go down because it is so time-consuming and does cost more money in that one. Of time that use is in the juvenile system. Over the long-term the service learning project costs less because you start to understand the steps on how to fix something in the community. If you are able to make a positive change to their community and figure out why they might have made the mistake, they won't end up back in the juvenile systems again. Which then in the long-term would save more money. It is much easier to give someone a punitive punishment. When giving punitive punishment, users are unable to walk away learning how or why what they did hurt someone or something. In a service learning project give youth the power and understanding on how to solve different problems that come their way all through life. By youth being able to learn problem solving skills they are life skills . Service learning projects will make it so the youth would be able to give back to the community and help  be a positive influence in the impression that they're having in the community.

Youth's Voice

In the video, I liked hearing how youth are telling us that they need more then school because they are "more then a letter grade".