Juvenile Justice doesn’t apply around here

In the past few weeks we’ve seen justice served to teen boys who beat up a kid in the school library and teen girls who beat up a lady in the street. In both cases, there was no doubt that the correct villains were sentenced because they broadcasted their crime on social media for all to see their vile acts of violence. 

I still have a problem with all the teens being tried as adults.

When a teen commits any crime, they should be served through the juvenile justice system. It should have to be decided in court if the nature of the crime and the maturity of the teen warrants the more severe charges as an adult, not the other way around. 

Why did all these teens have to be held as adults in adult facilities for months while the courts argue if they should be charged as juveniles?

I saw a ruling this month where the judge said that the teen would not have enough time in the juvenile system for it to have any benefit to him because of his age. Yet, the kid sat in an adult jail for a year before that decision was made. Why couldn’t the teen have spent that year in juvenile detention receiving whatever services teens receive instead of rotting as an adult?

What’s the point of having a juvenile justice system when the judges and attorneys get to use their unchallengable discretion deciding who gets to participate in it or not when they are initially charged?

No one wants to see criminals get away with committing a crime. However, it appears to me that young black and hispanic teens routinely and automatically bypass the juvenile justice system, enter pleas, and are branded with felonies without ever having the opportunity to receive the services other kids their age receive from the juvenile justice system.