Join the Campaign
Sign the Health Impact Statement of Support
Involvement in the carceral system has significant and direct impacts on the health of individuals and communities. These health impacts are compounded by overt and structural racism resulting in minorities being at higher risk for these negative health consequences. LGBTQ youth and youth of color are also disproportionally affected. Legal-system involved young people experience poorer health outcomes as a result of being treated and prosecuted as adults in comparison to similar youth prosecuted in the juvenile system.
The Raise the Age campaign seeks to provide an avenue for older adolescents to be charged as juveniles to reduce the short- and long-term harms of legal system involvement. By shifting the older adolescent population into the juvenile justice system, they are more likely to be held accountable through more developmentally appropriate interventions including educational access, family engagement, and therapeutic programming. In comparison to the adult legal system, the juvenile justice system is more likely to focus on positive youth development and reintegration. Additionally, youth prosecuted in the juvenile system have greater access to diversion from court involvement and incarceration. At the deepest end of system involvement is the increased severity of negative impacts when a young person is incarcerated in an adult facility versus a juvenile facility. Decreasing the risk of a young person serving time in an adult correctional and reoffending mitigates the public health harms to youth and their communities.