Think back to when you were a kid, could you imagine yourself in a prison with scary, bad adults? Some people want kids in those prisons. But honestly, how will they learn their lesson if they stay there? Others think that kids deserve a second chance. Kids are kids, sometimes they want to act like adults, but they aren’t. Kids should not be tried as adults. No kid deserves to be placed in a prison with a bunch of bad people like adult murders or rapists. First of all, they aren’t adults yet. Kids brains are not fully developed, and they need serious help. They shouldn’t just be thrown into a prison with adults. They could come out more damaged and feeling misunderstood then before. They need rehab and help. They shouldn’t be treated like adults if they aren’t acting like them.

Children need rehabilitation and help to become better people. Kids become more trouble after “sending them to adult prisons where they’re abused and come out more dangerous then when they went in” (Hendricks 2). If the kids don’t receive the rehabilitation they need, then they turn out even worse causing more harm to society. They need their second chance. Kids need to learn from their mistakes. Children who cause crimes should be sent to rehabilitation to learn that what they did was wrong, and that they have a life ahead of them and not to waste it.

Kids haven’t even been able to live their full childhood yet and they haven’t understood what life is about. Hendricks shares his thoughts about a kid’s life when he says, “14 is too young to be considered an adult — much less have your life declared irredeemable” (1). Kids don’t understand the cause and effect of situations. Kids are different than adults, “the fact is, kids are not adults. Their brains are wired differently. They don’t think things out the way we do” (Hendricks 1). Kids shouldn’t be treated the same. They haven’t learned to think everything out yet. Growing up, I have made plenty of mistakes. One time, I somehow happened to be on the roof of an elementary school, and the cops came assuming we were doing bad things. We honestly weren’t doing anything. We were lucky, and they let us go. I haven’t done anything like that since, and I definitely learned my lesson. The kids deserve a second chance of rehabilitation for life. They can learn from their mistakes, like I did. If they aren’t taught, we could have more and more criminals every day.

Those who want kids tried as adults believe, “rehabilitation will not fix these young criminals. It is simply not important if the children can be rehabilitated and fixed into not being repeat offenders… morals are inherent from birth” (Wilde 1). Morals are taught and not automatically learned. If kids aren’t rehabilitated, what will wind up happening to them? Will they just continue to commit crime their whole life? Kids need help and guidance to make the right choices. Rehabilitation can teach them about the life long consequences of their actions. They need to know they could have a whole life ahead of them if they make the right choices.

Wilde also believe that “some may argue that minors do not understand the significance of their actions, that they don’t understand the enormity if what they have done or how it has hurt others” (2). Kids are honestly just kids and don’t understand the huge effects of their actions. They could do one thing that causes huge consequences, and not understand how big the effects could be. Growing up, everyone learns life lessons. That is what growing up is for, to learn from everything you do.

Kids do not belong in prisons, they are just kids. Children are learning and should be disciplined when they do wrong, but they still deserve a second chance at life. These kids will be the next generation of adults. Do you really want more and more criminals popping up from kids who didn’t learn from their mistakes? When you grow up from a child to an adult, you learn lessons that follow you through the rest of your life. Don’t you think that kids deserve this chance to use these lessons for their life? The life of a child doesn’t need to end after one awful mistake.