Criminal justice professionals should critically evaluate the juvenile justice practices and policies of other countries that can inform potential changes in their own practice. According to the Report, it’s not easy for a youth to be given a prison term in Germany, so when one is sent to Neustrelitz, they tend to be in for violent offenses. But I know I’ll never forget what I did.”. In Germany, offenders age 18 to 21 are under the jurisdiction of juvenile courts. The German system’s educational and rehabilitative ethic also holds true when youth are incarcerated. The track record for this idea is short but promising. The U.S. system is organized around the central tenets of incapacitation and retribution. 2011). Youth justice in Germany covers juveniles and young adult offenders from 14 to 20 years of age. This includes more than 90 percent of those who had committed homicide and rape, according to The Crime Report. He's 23 and wears his hair shaved on the back and sides with a fashionable little ponytail on top, along with a thin goatee. In 1923, for the first time in German criminal law history, judges were given the option, but only for juveniles, to suspend a prison sentence and replace it with probation. Neustrelitz Prison for young male and female adults in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany. Germany's criminal justice system contrasts sharply with the U.S. criminal justice system in a number of important ways; in particular, police and prosecution agencies are state-level rather than local, and the prosecutor in Germany is a civil servant rather than an elected official who operates within a hierarchical system. Scott Budnick, left, President of the Anti-Recidivism Coalition, and Khalil Gibran Muhammad, right, Director at Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, Center talking to inmates at Neustrelitz Prison on Wednesday. The contemporary juvenile system in Germany reflects the practices that developed in the Federal Republic (West Germany) after World War II. According to Germany’s Youth Courts Law, when a youth is confined, it should “arouse the youth’s sense of self respect,” “be structured in an educational manner” and “help the youth to overcome those difficulties which contributed to his commission of the criminal offense”. However, “young people can receive sentences of up to 10 years. The legal approach since the enactment of a first Juvenile Justice Act (JJA) in 1923 has combined justice and welfare models. “This is the place for violence because they are young, they are aggressive, they have no control,” said Jörg Jesse, head of prisons in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. This is in sharp contrast to the U.S., where 16 and 17-year-olds are regularly placed in adult facilities. But because Neustrelitz houses young men and women who have committed more serious crimes — more than half of them violent — there was a familiarity that made the contrast easier to digest. Incarceration is used less frequently and for shorter periods of time in Germany and the Netherlands. resort to implement education within the juvenile justice system. Its section 174 penalizes those who have custody or authority over a person below the age of eighteen for the commission of sexual acts upon these minors. ), But you can’t underestimate the power of a success story to push along American efforts to think more seriously and broadly about prison reform. This is a sharp turn from the United States, who believes the day someone turns 18, and sometimes long before, they are fit to be tried as adults, depending on the crime and the circumstances. The prison will help him find a job and an apartment. In the German system, judges are narrowing issues in dispute from the beginning. ), We're touring German prisons this week, with VICE. As in the United States, the states in Germany are responsible for the administration of criminal justice. They are geared toward education (“education instead of punishment”). ... trauma and lack of parental guidance brought a generation of orphaned children into contact with the German justice system… You can help us meet this need by becoming a member today. Unlike penal institutions in America, youths there are offered an assortment of vocational programming like woodworking, metal working, culinary instruction and farming. For behind-the-scenes photos and observations from the road, follow our reporter on Twitter. These records stay in a computer system until you ask for them to be deleted, or expunged. When asked what advice he would have for the American justice system, Schulz was ready. “There’s probably a big demand for this skill in the German economy,” noted Gregg Marcantel, the head of New Mexico’s prison system, referring to the country’s car industry. Diversion obtained major importance in the 1980s and 1990s (in 1999 69% of all decisions by prosecutors or judges were dismissals on the grounds of their … Fewer than 1 percent receive sentences of five to 10 years; fewer than 5 percent receive sentences of between three and five years,” the Crime Report reported. The rehabilitative ethic of Germany’s youth syste… The ambivalent nature of the system reflects the lack of a coordinated, holistic juvenile justice policy. He tried to escape twice, and was forced to stay for short periods in more locked-down rooms. Here, administrators emphasize therapy (the rabbits are part of “animal therapy”) and eschew the retributive impulse that has defined American justice for decades. The difference was that he eventually realized he didn’t need to. The rehabilitative nature of Germany’s youth system is modeled by its Young Offender Institution at Neustrelitz Prison. 2,014 ... Minors between 14 and 18 years are sentenced by juvenile justice. Criminal Justice in Germany contains a dedicated section with figures on offender-victim mediation. The state assumed the responsibility of parenting the children until they began to exhibit positive changes, or became adults. Part 2: Our reporter went looking for a state with a more humane system compared to New York or New Jersey. If prosecutors are worried what victims and the general public might think if a man — who attempted to murder someone — got less than five years in prison, they could trot out Schulz, who talks about the letters of apology he sent to his victim. If you go to juvenile court you will see that there are a … Both countries rely heavily on fines or other community-based sentences, not prison sentences. In 1953, German law was changed to allow youth up to age 21 when they committed their offense to be tried as juveniles,” The Crime Report reported. Written By Incarcerated - Advancing Social Justice. Their lower incarceration rate is attributed to their approach toward criminal justice. I recently traveled to Germany and it's a peacful and beautiful place to stay. The virtues of German civil justice are clear. Neustrelitz Prison is a juvenile facility, but whereas in the United States the word “juvenile” usually refers to those under 18, the 150 men and women at this German institution are almost all between 19 and 25. Throughout Europe, juvenile sentencing laws cover people until they are at least 18. And in both Germany and the U.S., there is a widespread recognition that young brains are different: they are less mentally culpable for their crimes, more open to rehabilitation, and more vulnerable to exploitation in the culture of prisons. Expensive but a great experience. They’re housed in a collection of small white buildings with pitched, shingled roofs that sit behind a wall in the countryside of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, a large but sparsely populated state along Germany’s northern coast about the size of New Hampshire. When he got here, Schulz was like most violent young men when they enter prison: He was angry. People in the Juvenile Justice System. The German Criminal Code contains stringent provisions against the sexual exploitation of children. Deprivation of liberty is a last resort,” according to The Crime Report. In many countries, elements Marcantel joked that the young inmate could probably run the facility. (We did not get the exact figures, though Schulz implied the number was high. He’s a brawny guy, a middle linebacker when he plays football — the American version — for recreation. Juvenile Justice in Germany Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law Research Paper No. “Clearly, there are substantial cultural differences between the U.S. and Europe…No one expects to go to Croatia, Germany, and the Netherlands and borrow their systems wholesale…” but that doesn’t mean that we have nothing to learn,” the article added. In 2013, Vera took a similar group on tours of prisons in the Netherlands and Germany. “I realized through therapy that I had a second chance.”, Nonprofit journalism about criminal justice, A nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal justice system. FJP On the Road: Juvenile and Young Adult Justice in Germany. He knows he is getting a far better deal than he would in the U.S., and spoke of seeing documentaries on television about solitary confinement, “where you go years without touching even another person’s finger — it’s unimaginable." I’m 88 kilos [194 pounds].”). We saw the familiar sights of incarceration: surveillance cameras, blue sweatsuit uniforms, steel-reinforced bars over windows, and tall, white walls topped by spools of razor wire. All new gifts are being doubled by a generous group of Marshall Project supporters. By the time they are … Germany is a federal republic consisting of 16 federal states, which dispose of a certain degree of autonomy, particularly concerning questions of education and culture, but not in criminal and prison law as well as juvenile justice. An adult between 18 and 21 years may still be sentenced by juvenile justice if mental matureness is not existing. juvenile justice system rehabilitation of juveniles are seeked through retributive means. Dec 11, 2020Dec 11 at 12:43pm Germany's justice system is really good. education, resocialization. But they rarely do. The juvenile justice system exercised its authority within a "parens patriae" (state as parent or guardian) role. “Make prisoners realize, like they do here, that they only have one life,” he said. John Wetzel, who runs the prison system in Pennsylvania, adapted ideas from the trip as he revamped the way his state handles prisoners before they’re released. 2015-28 45 Pages Posted: 23 May 2015 Last revised: 9 Jun 2015 Any notion that there is a distinctive pan-European approach to juvenile justice is a fallacy. As a result of this approach, 66 percent of emerging adults who committed a crime were sentenced as juveniles. Did she respond? https://www.themarshallproject.org/2015/06/19/how-germany-treats-juveniles 1. Advocates said to check out Germany. Like many young prisoners I’ve spoken with in the U.S., he was initially afraid and tried to toughen up so nobody would mess with him. 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