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A young boy, not older than fifteen years old, rolls his first joint in an alley behind a dumpster. That first joint will be the first in line of thousands of others. This young boy will die at the age of 32 of an overdose. No one attends to his funeral.

This story is based on many, many true ones. This symbolic little boy grew up and already before he was old enough to go to prison, he knew how to avoid it. Why? Because when he was caught with the drugs in that young age, there was nothing anyone could do. He was practically given the time to learn how to trick the police. The only solution to this is obvious. Youth prisons.

Prisons, a common kind of punishment when a crime has been committed. Not for kids, though. Of course there is a reason for that, you are too young to take responsibility for your actions and not always aware of that what you are doing is wrong or bad. All true, awareness comes with maturity. But this goes both ways. If you don’t understand that taking drugs are bad, you probably don’t understand how to stop using them and the effects they have on your body and mind.

Since we don’t have a good enough solution today, we need to find one. To stop this horrible acts happening behind parents backs.

Then, prisons are the way to go. Not a few days in rehab with group therapy, that is more like a vacation. A real-life prison where they get to see what their future will have to offer if they don’t change their lifestyle.

The youth prisons and its crew will be there only for the young people’s sake. Trained and educated to know how to approach and help them in the right way. The prisons would be equipped with education so that they wouldn’t get behind in school, doctors for emergencies and welfare and therapists/psychologists to talk to and solve issues.

The length of the stay will be adapted by how long period the drug abuse has been going on, how heavy the drugs involved are and how addicted the person are.

One con of this is that during the stay, they will lose their addiction. They will get time to grow and realise the gravity of their actions. As the addiction leaves their system they will also get the chance to see how much better life is without drugs. Of course the crew will treat them as the kids they actually are, and not like some serial killers or rapists.

Sometimes there is a very easy way to explain why the kids are doing drugs. Sometimes they have parents who themselves do drugs, and the kids simply copy them. How easy can it be to see the difference between right and wrong then? Maybe their parents don’t even care what they do, and then the drugs can be a way to get the attention they so well need. Or, they can have wonderful loving parents, but have been victims of crimes themselves and don’t dare to speak up about it. Many youths live with big secrets that are extremely hard do carry and they escape in to the drugs. In all of these cases, it must be exposed. Or else they will never stop using.

Also this goes both ways. The prisons can prevent these things from happening to others. If a drug addict chooses to have kids, witch no one can stop them from, there is a huge chance that they won’t be good parents at all. Open drug using, aggression and instability.

The victims of crimes mentioned above, someone is responsible for those. Maybe an aggressive drug addict?  

The prisons can even prevent kids from even trying the drugs for the first time. If they know that they actually risk going to prison for doing it, it can inhibit the desire to try it. It makes the whole picture more serious, it jumps up a step on the severity scale.

One thing that also should be mentioned about these prisons is that they will be limited to a number off crimes. That meaning, a kid wouldn’t be sent to prison for stealing candy at the supermarket. But maybe for aggravated assault or stealing a car.

The kids are our future. They are the ones who are supposed to raise our grandchildren, save our world from the Climate threat and make the world a good place to be. They are our future. We need to do what’s best for them so they can grow up and become good people. That is why we need those youth prisons. To stop and prevent the kids from using drugs, finding out why they do it, change how they think about drugs, and protect others from harm. It is our responsibility to take care of the kids when they can’t take care of themselves.

 Av: MEEJ