New Tier in Australian Prisons for Young People

There has been talk here in Australia about whether or not to add a new tier to the prison system that specifically caters to those aged between 18 and 24 years. this topic has raised many debates because many people believe if you commit a crime you should go to prison and no allowance should be made, but does it make sense to divide the prison system to accommodate that age group.

I have worked with teenagers and inmates alike, when you place a teenager in a prison system we expect them to learn a valuable lesson, but in reality they learn how to be more aggressive, commit bigger and more violent crimes and generally become much worse then when they went in.

Teenagers brain development is slow with the parts of the frontal lobe that control impulse the last part of the brain to develop. The frontal lobe of the brain normally fully develops in boys around age 25 and in girls around age 23. When you have teenagers in high powered cars screaming along the street it is only after they are wrapped around a tree with their mate dying in the passenger seat that they think maybe I shouldn't have done that. The same can be said about the other crimes of youth.

Although a small percentage of teenagers that commit crimes pre meditate their actions the majority are committed on whim. So the question remains although those aged under 18 are placed in juvenile detention should those aged 18 to 24 be placed in adult facilities, or should a new tier be added?