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There seems to be a disconnect between why we try adults as criminals and why we try children differently.
We don't try children as criminals because it is more productive to instead treat them as children in need of guidance, assistance, direction, and simply help. A child is not yet fully developed. Lawmakers and politicians have recognized this and have put juvenile systems and laws in place for that reason.
We have men's prisons and women's prisons. I think it should be obvious why we don't have children's prisons. Or are we suggesting we put prepubescents in adult prisons?
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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön
Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot
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