Introduction
The construction of the Union Pacific Railroad led to the establishment of the Wyoming Territory. Andrew Johnson, the president of the region, approved the Organic Act when tracklayers had neared the present-day Rawlins in the central part of Wyoming. A better share of the area that makes Wyoming was detached from the huge Dakota Territory, which had been part of the new Wyoming Territory (Moncrief 66).
Wyoming is a region that is situated in the hilly areas of the western side of the US. It is ranked the tenth most widespread and least habited American region when compared to the fifty American states. The region’s climate is semi-arid. Hence, the area is much drier when compared to most of the US. The region has had loopholes in its administrative structures. Any government is expected to be impartial when addressing its people.
Court systems should not demonstrate discrimination along with gender, age, status, health, and/or religious lines. However, as the paper reveals, Wyoming’s court systems have had issues of discrimination where much focus had been given to older people while neglecting the tender aged class.
The paper will major on the identification of the most conspicuous problem in Wyoming government system, particularly its failure to structure a court system that favors the youths/children and women. However, it will also provide corresponding solutions to the stated problem.
Wyoming Government Systems
The Place of Women in the Government
The region acquired the name ‘Wyoming’ when spokesperson J.M. Ashley brought a petition to the legislative body during the mid-1860s to establish a provisional administration for the entire Wyoming province. The region was named after a Pennsylvanian gorge that had a similar name. During the period when the Union Pacific Railroad reached the town Cheyenne at the close of the 1860s, the population began to grow steadily. The then federal administration established the whole territory in July 1868.
Contrary to any other region, Wyoming did not have momentous locations of mineral resources, even with the apparently increasing number of people. During this time, women were not recognized as eligible to participate in any elections. When the government-subsidized missions in the Yellow Stone commenced, reports by Colter and Bridger were declared factual. During the close of the 1860s, the territorial administrator, namely John Allen Campbell, emphasized the right to take part in elections for the female gender.
This bold move by the court made it the first territory, followed by the US, to acknowledge the place of the woman in the government. Additionally, it was the first to receive women into politics. However, the court systems did not conclude on who was eligible for this exercise. Hence, the introduction of women into active roles in the government was very slow and procedural.
The process of establishing a stable administrative system that could properly address women’s rights was slow. The Wyoming charter introduced three key administrative departments, which included the managerial, legal, and lawmaking bodies. The lawmaking subdivision constituted the council that had a maximum of sixty members and a 30-associate committee.
The managerial department, which was headed by a superintendent, included the region’s writing desk, treasurer, inspector, and an administrator from the public domain (Baldwin and Hart 75). The region did create a space for a substitute administrator. As an alternative, the government escritoire took the front position in the progression.
The Wyoming sparse population allowed a limited space in the US legislative body. Hence, it did not have pronounced powers to air out its issues, specifically the tribulations its women were undergoing. Besides, its low population was a barrier in terms of getting an audience in the US Congress (Smith 430). For instance, whereas Montana recorded a survey population of close to 1million people in 2010, Wyoming register only half of the figure.
A stable court system should have all court levels, including an intermediate appellate court that can attend to petitions of an examination court or other junior hearings. Although Wyoming’s court structure is largely attributed to the size of the region and the corresponding lower caseload, the implication is that the Supreme Court does not properly attend to petitions from the district courts since it deems them (petitions) minor.
Although the government voted Democrats to the national headquarters in the mid-1900s, the shaky court systems have failed to address political matters in the region, especially the issue of conservativism that has prevailed since the Republican movement subjugated the region’s senatorial titles (Smith 54). Now, two legislators, namely Enzi and his colleague Barrasso, stand for the government in Washington.
Besides having only a single associate of the Upper Chambers, it has a female spokesperson, namely Cynthia Lummis. Interestingly, the government chose Democrat Nellie as the earliest ever female in the American records to work as the administrative superintendent. She held office for two years beginning mid-1920s after she emerged the victor in an extraordinary ballot vote to take over her spouse’s position after he unpredictably passed on while still on duty in the government.
The courts took advantage of Bradford’s death to silence people so that no investigations could be done to confirm whether her election was fair or whether other external forces were used to grant her the victory at the expense of other eligible women.
In the period of war, the Wyoming government was conducted effectively and economically, although it operated without the political bickering and sniping. In 1941, three republicans and two Democrats were holding the office. Besides the normal interparty strife, there emerged trouble within the dominant Republican Party (Moncrief 89). Governor Smith was not in a position to persuade his subjects to overthrow the paid executive officer, Dr. H. D Port, whom he (Smith) gravely disliked.
Therefore, he set out to change the board. When the terms of the highly ranked and respected Republican board members expired, the governor did not submit substitutes to the Republican Council. Despite the issue being publicized, the judicial systems did not exercise their mandates of addressing the issue with the weight it deserved. The secretary of the region vied against Smith and defeated him when he sought re-election in 1942 (Moncrief 98). The vote-seeking operations of 1942 were both hard-fought and personalized.
The situation was extended to the 1943 legislature, where administrator Hunt faced hostile majorities in both houses. The western right to vote was implemented during the close of the 1860s. Initially, it was not clear which age was to be allowed to vote, although the courts had paved the way for women to cast their ballot papers. This time, twenty members from the territorial governing body approved a revolutionary measure stating that every woman aged twenty-one could participate in the election process without any discrimination.
The Place of the Youths/Children
Currently, in the same region, youths and children are heavily mistreated and neglected, rather than being rehabilitated in the region’s juvenile justice system (Smith 59). According to Hill, “Most Wyoming judges believe that answering the questions of juvenile justice and how to adequately serve our children and families in the justice system constitute the greatest challenge facing the Wyoming judiciary” (2). The government has recorded the maximum infantile confinement instances in the US.
It was ranked second nationwide in terms of infantile confinement cases that have involved children aged below eighteen years. However, no research has been done to confirm whether Wyoming youths have been significantly involved in felony issues than elsewhere (McDonald 23). Surprisingly, a big number of detained youths are held for non-violent crimes where many of them have committed minor offenses that are not supposed to warrant any detention.
Many of them are confined after being found in possession of tobacco, violating curfew, and/or missing school, among other petty reasons. Despite the evident weak reasons for imprisoning the youths, the existing courts have not yet established a body that outlines the extent of crime that should warrant detention for a young person.
In the grown-up benches, adolescents are often handled cruelly while at the same time being deprived of a variety of essential requirements. Confirming this assertion, Hill says, “Juvenile justice and Wyoming’s current approach to providing services for children and families is the most critical issue confronting the courts” (3). Additionally, the region does not maintain guidelines that outline which group of the youths needs to be subjected to detention.
As a result, court officials frequently major in detention as a default solution to such cases. In the absence of a lucid national bursary framework, several districts miss out on the monetary support for sustaining a self-regulating body for the adolescents, as well as according to other options that can replace teenagers and infant custody. Consequently, many teenagers who are needlessly confined end up being deprived of recuperative and society-based options.
Many youths from this region are held in adult jails instead of having a sound separation between the two, as the law requires (Smith 43). Wyoming government does not have a resourceful information structure that can mark out aspects such as the figure of apprehended teenagers, their individuality, and results after the confinement. The officials end up lacking a clear picture of how the system works and whether the rehabilitative mechanisms are effective for this category of people.
Hence, the government cannot make evidence-based decisions concerning judicial operations. During the 1960s, the judicial decisions required juvenile courts to be conducted more like the formal criminal courts (Baldwin and Hart 55). Young offenders were to be supplied with legal privileges of discernment, guidance, as well as examination. Reformers raised the concern that children were not rehabilitated. They were found lost in the systems where they were warehoused in low-standard facilities.
At the beginning of the 1970s, social scientists advocated community-based deterrence and treatment programs as opposed to imprisonment. In 1974, the Upper House passed the Infantile Integrity and Felony Deterrence Act, which required adult and young offenders to be kept separate. First-time criminal offenders were not to be confined. A number of regions were greatly encouraged to bring up programs at the expense of institutionalizing children.
States that did not comply with the Act suffered from the little federal funding for juvenile programs and planning. Wyoming happened not to have complied because it had no stable bodies that could enforce the law. Whereas other counties have progressed with psychoanalysis, restorative justice, treatment, and the imprisonment substitute mechanisms, Wyoming is still lagging behind in terms of their implementation.
In Wyoming, according to Moncrief, 75 percent of youths who had been accused of criminal issues are not placed under any legal counsel representation (24). The witnessed recognition gap has been heightened in the metropolitan and the circuit legal chambers.
Solution
From the above expositions, it is apparent that Wyoming government’s court systems have many gaps that need to be sealed so that all people, irrespective of their gender and age, can be represented well. This section presents policy recommendations with regard to the failed Wyoming government, especially with reference to its poorly structured court system.
To address the issue of women, although Wyoming pioneered in recognition of women’s rights and their voting eligibility, it should also implement bodies that can guarantee a fair selection of women in leadership and government positions. Since Wyoming has not established a distinct adult and children court system, it has been problematic and unfair to subject children offenders to the same rulings while not considering their age and intellectual capacity.
Hence, Wyoming should establish a unified juvenile or even a family court system that has exclusive jurisdiction that captures the non-traffic youthful issues and/or a judiciary that is professionally trained on the juvenile law (Smith 87). Hill reinforces this advice when he says, “Specialty courts, including drug courts and family courts, …can be a beneficial asset to individuals in the court system” (8). Secondly, it is important for the government to establish an all-inclusive youthful framework that can address all young offenders’ issues.
The suggested framework needs to accommodate certain bureaucratic structures that offer standardized practical measures on the supervisory guidelines concerning youthful cases.
Besides, the government needs to establish all-inclusive adolescent trial chambers, which focus on recuperative doctrines that can endorse responsibility while at the same time guaranteeing advancement for teenage criminals without even forfeiting their societal security. Finally, the government is advised to establish an organized sort of information gathering and scrutiny mechanism that can direct court management while portraying the efficacy of the programs.
Conclusion
Wyoming has the most pronounced instances of imprisonment of individuals whose age is below twenty years. Nevertheless, the region does not map out all the imprisoned youthful offenders, the main ground for their confinement, and even the duration of the imprisonment. The region has continued to wallow without clear goals on how juveniles need to be treated. It has not established cost-effective ways that can deal with errant adolescents who might have the capability of being productive citizens.
In the society and government, children are viewed as developing beings whose morals and cognitive abilities are still being formed. Since their thinking and judgment capacities are weaker compared to that of adults, they cannot be subjected to the same court rulings or detention centers as their grown-up counterparts. Hence, Wyoming has a role to play in terms of restricting its court systems such that women and children’s rights and privileges can be addressed properly.
Works Cited
Baldwin, Guy, and Joyce Hart. Wyoming. New York, NY: Marshall Cavendish Benchmark, 2008. Print.
Hill, William. League of Women Voters of Wyoming Judicial Voters, 2008. Web.
McDonald, Laughlin. American Indians And The Fight For Equal Voting Rights. Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 2010. Print.
Moncrief, Gary. Reapportionment and redistricting in the West. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2011. Print.
Smith, Lori. Tapping State Government Information Sources. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2003. Print.