Parents or Prisons Policy

Introduction

Parents are judged with the responsibility of molding a child’s character but when parents fail prisons is the appropriate alternative. Arguably, without the presence of two parents working as a team, a child is prone to criminal justice system at some juncture in his life. If a child gets himself entangled in the criminal justice system when young or as an adult, the prison will become his parent and, therefore, plays the role of supervising and taking the child’s behavior into control.

Imprisonment gives extreme, tight supervision that children outgrow in their early years as toddlers (Seymour & Hairston, 2001). Secondly, a prison institution does the correction without love and affection that is common to parental care of little children. These are the measures taken against an individual lacking self-command is paramount to live in a society full of freedom that a majority of people do at the same age.         

A bigger majority of the people must abide by the law willingly. Failure to obey the law, someone will have to force them to do so or safeguard the public when they do not. Basic self-control that society does not value does not come automatically. Conscience development happens in one’s life at a tender age. In order for children, to develop, empathy for them to get concerned on whether they cause harm to other or treat them fairly. Self-control helps children to adhere to these impulses and do lawful things regardless of the benefits for doing otherwise.

Each of these developments happens in the family set up. Children attach to other people depending on how they related with their parents. Children train reciprocity and other virtues from these primary relationships. Any interference caused on these fundamental relations impacts negatively on children and the people around them. Children of single parents or none at all are highly susceptible to committing crimes.

According to Jennifer Morse’s article, without both parents supporting each other a child learning fairness, self-control among other qualities that society takes for granted. Failure of a child to learn this at home the society will move in to restore order. The society controls misconduct through rehabilitation, incarceration or restraining. At this point prisons play parental roles.

Personally, Jennifer’s views on single parent households and delinquency are true. I credit her argument because children coming from single parent families are brought up not by an iron fist. Lacking of these strict laws makes them insolent. Since there is no keen monitoring on them, they live not in fear of imprisonment since they think society might not care like their single parents (Seymour & Hairston, 2001). Families with single parents provide an environment for stealing money and perhaps using the money in buying alcohol. Male children notorious in disrespecting mothers hence, their misconduct goes unquestioned.

Additionally, some events keep happening all over the world and they seem to solidify Jennifer Morse’s argument. In “San Diego Union Tribune” on Wednesday a headline is “Dangling Foot a tip-off”. In this article, a security guard apprehended two boys trying to dispose their trash. The guard got suspicious after landing eyes on what looked like the leg of a human being. The guard approached the two boys and demanded to know what their trash was. The teenagers objected, leaving the guard unable to execute arrest and detention because he was a private guard. The guard made an effort and took details of their plate number and other useful details.

After the incident, the guard rang authorities. The trash turned out to be a copse of the boys’ mother. The body lacked sexual organs, an indicator that the boys had strangled, beheaded her and finally cut off her hands. They later dumped her body in a ravine in county known as Orange. Other crimes carried out by young children include that of Alex and Derek King. The two boys were aged twelve and thirteen respectively. The two boys battered their father with the help of a bat for playing baseball. The boys had not lived with their mother for a period of seven years.

Eventually, according to a research by first Baptist Church of Mason, children who had responsible fathers were more confident, better positioned in dealing with disappointments and a superb self control. In this article 63% of suicides by teenagers arise from homes without fathers. The article also indicates that 90% of runaways are from homes without fathers. This is proving that homes with both parents are credited in the bringing up of well-behaved children.