Teenagers in Prison

Teenagers in prison find safety in social invisibility by becoming disconnected and inconspicuous. Some retreat deeply into themselves,trust almost no one and adjust to prison stress by leading isolated lives of quiet desperation and loneliness.
Whether teenager or young adults, child offenders serving life with out parole must face the possibility that their loneliness will be with them throughout their entire lifetime.
It is not surprising that the psychological strain of a sentence that will only end in death causes youth offenders to contemplate suicide.
several factors associated with suicide in prison are the youth of the prisoner and the length of a sentence of life without parole, also the loss of outside relationships,conflicts with facility staff, victimization,further legal problems.
Rape and intimidation from other inmates and intimadation of male guards being present during undressing, strip searches and showering of female inmates. Young inmates can not effectively cope with these stresses, result often in self injury,and varying degrees of suicidal behavior.
The difference of youth offenders and adults serving life without parole is that youth are likely to be much more dependant on family relationships and will suffer these losses at a very young age, causing them to endure their loss longer then other inmates.
We have said little and done less while our nations penal system has been used in a terribly inhumane , excedingly expensive, and in the long run,a very dangerous political tug of war over who can lock up the most people, at no matter what age, for the longest amount of time.
The public has been kept ignorant of the harm that prisons can do and of long term sentencing of our youth,but they have been convinced that cruel treatment is a careful effective and perhaps even the only strategy to be followed in crime control.