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Public safety and legal system involvement are directly tied to labor and economic outcomes in Massachusetts.  Reducing crime is essential for economic development yet legal system involvement inhibits individuals’ ability to meaningfully access the workforce, deepening economic inequalities.  This is most starkly felt by young people who are prosecuted as adults: 18- to 20-year-olds for whom legal system involvement presents significant barriers to social and economic integration.  The legal system’s response to these young people produces the worst public safety outcomes: a recidivism rate more than twice that of similar teens in the juvenile system.  It also derails young people’s education, skills building, employment opportunities and ability to transition into a stable career, essentially carving out a cohort of young people from each generation from Massachusetts’ labor market and economy:

• Young people's prosecution as adults during their late adolescence derails their education, which can have serious effects on their ability to attain employment during these critical adolescent years, diminishing their lifetime earnings.

• Because of the juvenile system’s prioritization of education, skill building and positive youth development, this proposal will increase the participation of young people – a significantly under-employed population – in the workforce and building their engagement in the labor market, which is one of the keys to addressing the labor shortage.

• Prosecuting and sentencing young people as adults further closes off the formal economy to young people, with lifelong impacts, depriving their communities and the Commonwealth of their productive capacity.

• Because the legal system is not an equal opportunity employer, the economic impact of criminal legal system involvement deprives predominantly communities of color and low income communities of the economic productivity of their young men of color.

• Because of the juvenile justice system's greater utilization of community-based alternatives to legal system involvement and reduced recidivism rates when compared to the criminal legal system, Raise the Age will reduce the state’s long-term spending on the legal system and its associated costs to taxpayers.

• The Raise the Age campaign seeks to shift this older youth population into the juvenile justice system, where young people are more likely to be held accountable for their actions by engagement in treatment - including therapeutic programming – that addresses the underlying causes of their behavior. The juvenile system also ensures deeper family engagement to support young people as they transition to adulthood and opportunities to further and complete their education. In comparison to the adult legal system, the juvenile justice system is more likely to focus on positive youth development and reintegration - helping more young people desist from crime and get on a pathway to being active, positive participants in our communities.