Just let the kids be kids.
Youth are routinely charged and prosecuted in the adult criminal justice system; despite the establishment of a separate juvenile justice system in 1899.
Children were being subject to unspeakable atrocities in adult jails which was the main reason behind the development of the juvenile justice system. These children were then being returned into society as hardened criminals and even more scarred. Even with the creation of these juvenile detention centers, about 200,000 youth enter the adult criminal system each year.
What do prosecutors expect children will aspire to be when they grow up after they lock them up with murderers, rapists, and robbers?
John J. Dilulio, an American Political Scientist, wrote in The New York Times that “most kids who get into serious trouble with the law need adult guidance. And they won’t find suitable role models in prison. Jailing youth with adult felons under Spartan conditions will merely produce more street gladiators.”
Incarcerating youth in adult prisons is way more harmful than incarcerating them with people of similar age. Multiple sources of research show that youth held in adult facilities are at the highest risk of sexual abuse. These children are also 36 times more likely to commit suicide than youth in juvenile facilities, and they are also at a greater risk of being held in solitary confinement than they would be in a juvenile facility. For these three reasons alone, incarcerating youth with adult prisoners is self-destructive and self-defeating.
The lack of programs for early development can heavily impede chances for healthy growth. Holding youth in adult prisons denies individuals access to many essential programs such as basic education as well as treatment and counseling services.
A 2018 Southern Poverty Law Center report revealed that education provided to children in adult jails is either virtually nonexistent or seriously deficient. The report also found that in many jails, children are housed in solitary confinement to keep them separate from adults which then denies them from any education at all.
Jeree Thomas, the policy director at the Campaign for Youth Justice, detailed the multiple barriers to education for youth in the adult system, furthering the point that youth held in adult jails have marginal access to educational services.
Punishing children the same way that adults are punished does not advance public safety. The Juvenile Law Center found that as youth mature, there is less of a chance for them to re-offend. Locking children up for years will extend their incarceration well beyond the time that is needed for them to be rehabilitated.
Currently, in only four states (Georgia, Michigan, Texas and Wisconsin), 17-year-old youths are automatically prosecuted as adults. Many states have different laws for specific offenses that automatically require adult prosecution. The big policy that affects a lot of states is the “once an adult, always an adult” policy which mandates that if someone under eighteen has ever been charged as an adult, all of their future cases must also be handled in the adult system.
These devastating and life-long effects come as a result of decisions made before age eighteen — an age when, according to research, youths’ brains are still years away from full development. Children shouldn’t be held to the same standards of responsibility as adults, so there’s absolutely no reason to punish them as adults.
