Band 6+: A recent newspaper article reports that a 14-year-old boy who seriously destroyed his school got a punishment to clean streets instead of sent to the prison, do you think this is right? or the young criminals should be sent to the jail.

Recently, news about crimes committed by young criminals were frequently present to the public’s eyes. For example, a child who was merely 14 years old seriously destroyed his school, and was punished to clean streets instead of sent to the prison. ‘These little douchbags were never punished for their behaviours just because they are still a child’, many commented under these news. However, in my opinion, what kind of punishment the child deserves depends on the intention of the child, for at last, punishments are used for redemption of the sinners.

If the youth has no intention in harming others, it is more reasonable to give them lighter punishments for their crimes instead of sending them to jail right away. The crime may had been an accident that resulted from their lack of knowledge or their naughtiness, for example, they may had mixed a few chemicals together which could react to release certain harmful products. In this case, they are never aware of the consequences of their behaviours that came with their curiosity, and are not expecting such an outcome; it could be claimed that they are simply young and unwise to have done the crime, and that problem can be fixed with education about safety and discipline. Sending them to jail is of little utility and effectiveness in such scenarios in correcting their behaviours but punishing them only.

On the flip side, if the young criminal was intentionally and consciously making a plan to reach the outcome, sending them to prison as punishment would be understandable because they do deserve this kind of treatment in order to correct their behaviour and protect others from them. Nonetheless, education have to be provided in prison in order to help them make changes and be ready for the day when they are ready to return to the society.

In conclusion, I believe that not all young criminals should be punished by sending them to the jail because some of them still deserves second chance. Yet sending young criminals to jail should be a punishment available for there are youths who should receive such treatments, indeed.