Children need care, not cages: investment, not prison, reduce crime
When I was in adolescence, he fell into the juvenile elimination system, I learned something that President Trump rejects recognition: the system fails most of the children who touches them, and treating children like state enemies makes societies less safe.
Trump announced this week plans to deploy 800 National Guard forces in Washington, DC, threatening to be cities like Auckland and Balimore. At the same time, the capital is required to prosecute children at the age of fourteen adults. It is the same as the failed playing book – responding to complex social problems with more police, more cages for children, and now soldiers in the American streets.
What makes this particular ridiculous is that the crime is actually falling into the cities it threatens. Baltimore is witnessing one of the lowest murders in decades, a decrease of 23 percent from last year alone. My hometown in Auckland has witnessed similar progress through community investment, not militarization.
Trump’s speech is sharply different from what already turns the lives of young people. For example, my co-worker J The regime was completely written. Despite every obstacle delivered by the adult prison system, Vasquez got six joint certificates with honors and joint guidance programs for other detained youth.
Today, Vasquez is the manager of legal services and legal services at Communities United for Transatory Youth Justice in Auckland, where I work. He graduated from Summa with honors from San Francisco State University. But Vasquez’s transformation occurred despite the trial as an adult, not because of that.
Vasquez’s story reflects what we see through our programs. We work with more than 100 young men every year – children who surrendered the system. However, 94 percent of the participants are benefiting from increased emotional affiliation and wellness, while 100 percent develops new skills. Compare this to the California juvenile halls, which assigned the average taxpayers more than $ 300,000 per youth annually to prison, yet he sees very high oud rates. We literally spend more than a quarter of a million dollars per child to make it more likely to commit future crimes.
The data is overwhelming. In Auckland-one of the cities that Trump threatened to deploy the National Guard-societal actions have found that young people in the Reconciliation Justice Program only have a 13 percent return rate over two years, at the cost of traditional trial. Research is constantly showing that young adult systems have adult systems higher than those in suitable programs.
Baltimore, another city in Trump’s scenes, offers a more clear example. Under the leadership of mayor Brandon Scott, the city is witnessing the lowest rate of killing on the record through 42 summer youth camp, the hour of extending entertainment center, and violent interruption programs that employ former criminals to mediate conflicts. It is not through the National Guard forces or the prosecutions of children, but by investing in youth. Treating children like children.
The choice is not complicated. We can follow the Trump road towards militarization and a collective prison for children – create more victims while wasting taxpayer dollars. Or we can follow the progress of cities such as Baltimore and Auckland, as they have invested in the programs that are already working.
Crime rates decrease throughout the country, including in the capital where the crime decreased by 35 percent in 2024. The last thing we need is to return to the “difficult crime” policies that destroyed generations of small life while making societies less safe.
I know what is similar to being removed by a system that only sees the worst moment. Children need care, not cages. They need guides who understand their struggles, societies that see their potential, and their leaders who believe in the second opportunities. Trump has a documented date from rush to judge the colored youth – and once called for the implementation of five black and Latin teenagers in the Central Park case, who were later acquitted of DNA evidence. We cannot allow him to repeat these mistakes at the national level.
Vamsey Palagummi is the administrative director of the United Communities for the justice of the restricted youth whose commitment to support the deprived population of his own experience as young people, spend time in the juvenile hall and put it under observation.
