Why Raise the Age to include 18-20 year olds in the juvenile justice system?
This Reform Will Decrease Crime.
Young adults are highly amenable to rehabilitation. Keeping 18 – 20-year-olds in the juvenile system, where they must attend school and participate in rehabilitative programming will lower recidivism.
CDC research has shown that similar adolescents had a 34 percent lower recidivism rate when they were in the juvenile versus adult system. In Massachusetts, the recidivism rate for formerly incarcerated young people is lower for those committed to DYS compared to those incarcerated in the adults system (26% vs. 55% re-conviction rate)
Transition age youth are highly influenced by their environments. Adult jail and prison increases offending behavior.
Massachusetts policy makers raised the age of juvenile court to keep 17-year-olds out of the adult system in 2013. Since then, juvenile crime has declined by 51%, and has seen faster declines in violent and property crime rates than the national average.
What We’re Doing Now Does Not Work
We spend the most on this age group with the worst outcomes. Young adults spend 10% to 20% more time incarcerated in Houses of Correction than any other age group. They also have the highest recidivism rate of any in the adult system – with 76% re-arraigned within three years.
We’re making things worse. Most young people “age out” of offending by their late twenties, particularly with developmentally appropriate interventions. Exposure to punitive environments like adult jails and prisons can actually increase offending.
Massachusetts’ Young Men of Color Bear the Harshest Brunt of These Policies
Only 25% of Massachusetts’ young adult population is Black or Latino, but 70% of young adults incarcerated in state prisons and 57% of young adults in county jails are people of color.
In 2015, 90% of 18 and 19 year olds in the Suffolk County Jail were Black or Hispanic or Latino.
Black and Latino young adults are 3.2 and 1.7 times as likely to be imprisoned as their white peers.
Massachusetts’ Economy Will Benefit
An educated workforce is one of the state’s best economic assets. Mass. employment growth will drop by more than half next year due to worker shortages as baby boomers retire. We need new workers to fill the gap. Massachusetts needs people eligible to serve in the armed forces, or get professional licenses, yet an (adult) criminal record can bar young people from these opportunities.
Criminal legal system involvement limits young people's access to education, including special education, and post-secondary education opportunities. Involvement in the adult system makes it less likely that a youth will graduate. This has lifelong negative consequences on young people and Massachusetts’ taxpayers.
Because the criminal justice system impacts young people of color at higher rates, the decrease in opportunity hits minority communities especially hard. This reform gives young people a better chance to grow up to contribute to their communities, thus helping to prevent intergenerational poverty.
Young People Will Be Held Accountable
The juvenile system typically imposes more supervision and intensive services while in confinement than the adult criminal justice system. Massachusetts DYS agency is a national model and already serves this age group. 80% of new commitments to DYS are for young people age 16 to 20. Some victims’ groups support restorative justice that holds offenders accountable; this is more available in the juvenile system.
The most serious crimes will continue to be eligible for adult sentences. As is currently law, young adults facing murder charges would still be tried in adult court, and prosecutors can seek a “youthful offender” indictment in other serious offenses. If adjudicated a youthful offender, the judge has the power to impose (1) a juvenile sentence (until age 21); (2) an adult sentence; or (3) a combination of juvenile and adult sentencing past their 21st birthday.
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