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2015 State Legislative Sessions: An Update on Nationwide Juvenile Justice Reforms to Protect Youth from the Adult Criminal Justice System

Nicholas Bookout, CFYJ Fellow and Carmen Daugherty, Policy Director Tuesday, 11 August 2015 Posted in 2015, Federal Update

Nicholas Bookout, CFYJ Fellow and Carmen Daugherty, Policy Director

With the JJDPA reauthorization making it out of the Senate Judiciary, along with President Obama’s recent speech at the NAACP and subsequent prison visit, there is no question that juvenile justice reform has both the American Public and federal policymakers’ attention. While these steps towards federal juvenile justice reform are very exciting, it is also very important to acknowledge the reforms taking place nationwide in state legislatures.

This legislative session, legislation to protect youth from the adult criminal justice system was introduced in the form of 35 bills in 19 different states. To summarize the results of these bills:

7 bills that the CFYJ supports passed!
3 bills are still active in legislative sessions (3 in California).
18 bills that were introduced but the legislative session ended before they were passed or voted down.
6 bills that we supported died (5 in Florida, 1 in New York).
1 bill that we opposed died (Delaware).

Very few bills were introduced that ran contrary to the movement to protect youth from the adult system. One of these few bills was introduced in Delaware. Senate Bill 12 would have required adults who possess a firearm, and were convicted of a violent crime at age 16 or 17, to receive a mandatory minimum sentence. However, this bill died in committee, signaling a victory for youth justice.

Most Recent Victories!

House Bill 3718 is an enormous victory for Illinois. Before passage of the law, children under the age of 18 can be automatically transferred to adult courts. This practice has very negatively impacted communities of color, with 99 percent of the youth arrested and transferred to adult court in Cook County between 2010 and 2012 being children of color. 90 percent of these cases were then pled guilty – often resulting in adult incarceration. However, House Bill 3718 requires a juvenile judge to review this transfer to determine the proper court for the child, taking into account the age, background, and individual circumstances of the child. With the signature of this bill, countless children would be saved from unnecessarily harsh sentences, and the physical, mental, and sexual abuse that often comes with adult incarceration as a youth.

In New Jersey, the Governor recently signed Senate Bill 2003. This bill includes numerous provisions that drastically improve juvenile justice in New Jersey. First, this bill increases the minimum age at which a youth can be tried as an adult from 14 to 15. Second, it limits the transfer and incarceration of youth under the age of 18, instead of the current lower limit of 16, to only those committing the most serious and violent of crimes. Third, this bill makes it more difficult for youth to be transferred to adult court, as prosecutors must submit written analysis on the reasons for the transfer, which is then granted only at the discretion of a judge. Finally, this bill tightens restrictions on the use of solitary confinement for youth. These reforms would signal a positive move towards justice for New Jersey youth, while also improving physical and mental well-being.

Other Important Victories

In Louisiana, House Resolution 73 requests the Institute on Public Health and Justice to study the issue of raising the age of juvenile jurisdiction to include seventeen-year olds. Hopefully the results of this study will yield further legislation to protect children in one of the tougher states for youth justice.

Previously, the state of Maryland authorized a district court exercising criminal jurisdiction over a juvenile to order a child be held in a juvenile facility. With the passage House Bill 618, the law now mandates that the district court, when exercising criminal jurisdiction, orders a child be held at a juvenile facility, except under a few specific circumstances (bail, no capacity, security risk). Additionally, if the district court withholds a transfer to a secure juvenile facility on the basis of the child posing a risk to his or her own safety or the safety of others, the court must state on the record the reasons for finding such a risk. Because of the recent drop in juvenile crime rates, the juvenile facilities have the ability to accommodate more children without significantly impacting their expenditures. Therefore, this bill will reduce the number of children held pre-trial in adult facilities, without imposing increasing costs on the state of Maryland.

Texas, a state surprisingly making positive strides in youth justice reform, passed two bills protecting youth. In Texas, a juvenile may be waived by a juvenile court to be tried as an adult in a criminal court. Previously, this transfer could not be appealed until after a juvenile had been convicted or deferred. With the passage of Senate Bill 888, a juvenile has the right to appeal a juvenile court order that waives exclusive jurisdiction before adjudication. This legislation also mandates that the Supreme Court take up standards to accelerate the disposition of these appeals by the appellate court or the Texas Supreme Court. These appeals may be taken by or on behalf of the child. With the post-adjudication appeal process often taking years to complete, this streamlined process increases the efficiency of appeals, potentially saving the state of Texas countless resources. Meanwhile, juveniles facing charges will encounter a more just process capable of adequately accounting for the differences between juveniles and adults.

The second bill, Senate Bill 1630, first aims to reduce the number of Texas youth held in TJJD (Texas Juvenile Justice Department) facilities, especially those far from their families and communities. To do so, they are expanding the scope of juvenile probation, with this probation serving as an alternative to incarceration for low and medium risk youth. This bill will keep low and medium risk children in Texas closer to home, likely decreasing recidivism and providing specialized services for the needs of youth.

Finally, Utah also undertook positive youth justice reform. Previously, a Utah district court held jurisdiction over any 16 year old that committed any sort of felony. With Senate Bill 167, this jurisdiction is now limited to about ten violent felonies. In addition, when the state petitions to have a juvenile transferred to a district court under the premise of an allegation of one of these felonies, the juvenile judge may exercise judgment on the transfer. The judge can now take into consideration the interests of the minor, the ability of different facilities (both adult and juvenile) to provide rehabilitative services, and the course of action best suited to reduce the risk posed to the public. Lastly, with SB 167, juveniles may not be shackled or otherwise restrained when appearing in court. Consequently, this bill will reduce the number of youth in Utah unnecessarily tried as adults, while also providing for more humane treatment of children and safeguards to keep them out of adult facilities.

Finally, in California, there are multiple reforms taking place. The California District Court of Appeals recently upheld Proposition 47, the Reduced Penalties for Some Crimes Initiative, which was approved in November 2014. As a result, non-violent, non-serious crimes in California must now be classified as a misdemeanor instead of a felony. Consequently, those sentenced under previous guidelines may be re-sentenced. Such ruling allows thousands of youth previously sentenced to unusually harsh penalties to appeal these decisions and leave incarceration.

Furthermore, Senate Bill 382 passed the California Senate and Assembly, and simply awaits concurrence on amendments. If signed by the governor and enacted, this bill would allow judges to consider more comprehensive information when granting a transfer waiver. By doing so, judges will have a greater opportunity to consider the rehabilitative capacity of a youth before subjecting that individual to adult court, its more austere consequences, and potential incarceration.

The Campaign for Youth Justice is incredibly excited about the passage and progress of these bills. With each piece of legislation passed, countless youth in these states are in one form or another protected from the horrors of being incarcerated with adults as a child. More of the United States’ children are kept out of harm’s way, and given a better chance to be rehabilitated, in lieu of being subjected to inhumane punishment.

While it is encouraging to see these positive steps taken, and CFYJ commends these states and all involved for passing such legislation, there is still so much more to be done – in these states and across the nation. With a per day average of 6,000 of America’s youth spending time in adult jails or prisons, these reforms are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the need to protect our nation’s youth. Until this number is zero, we must keep fighting to have children be treated by America’s criminal justice system as just that – children.

The Realities of the School to Prison Pipeline

Friday, 31 July 2015 Posted in 2015, CFYJ Updates

By Mette Huberts, CFYJ Fellow

As summer begins to wrap-up and the thoughts of another school year creep back into our minds, this week the CFYJ fellows focused on a different type of school experience at our last Summer Institute Event. Kaitlin Banner, a staff attorney in the Ending the Schoolhouse to Jailhouse Track program at the Advancement Project, was kind enough to share her experience and knowledge on the school-to-prison-pipeline with us. She not only explained the causes and consequences of policies that form the pipeline, but also talked openly about how we must go about reforming the issue.

The “school-to-prison-pipeline” is a buzz term used to emphasize how our education systems are indirectly pushing kids out of school and on a pathway to prison. Due to the combination of an excess of strict zero-tolerance policy laws and vague laws that lead to high disparity rates, students are being arrested for “crimes” such as scribbling on desks and hugging a friend. Over 3 million students each year receive an out-of-school suspension as punishment for such acts, with black children having a one in six chance of being suspended at least once. This overuse of out of school suspensions only exacerbates the problem, forcing kids to fall behind in school and become disengaged. One way to combat this overuse of suspension and expulsion, Banner informed us, is to create a longer, more intensive due process for students facing such punishments. This longer process is a heavier burden on the schools and therefore discourages them from immediately turning to suspension and expulsion where it may not be necessary.

In addition, Banner explained that the more we allow our schools to feel like prisons, the more inclined students will be to act like criminals. Instead of implementing surveillance cameras, armed guards, and metal detectors, schools need to start talking to kids about their actions in a developmentally appropriate manor. Referring to things such as speaking back to a teacher as “disorderly conduct” and swiping headphones as “theft” only tells the child that they are a criminal rather than simply a teenager acting out. While of course these actions cannot be condoned, they must be addressed with consideration of age and situational factors. At the Advancement Project, one of the solutions Banner uses to fight the pipeline is to implement restorative justice practices in schools, encouraging a focus on adult to student and peer to peer relationships instead of punishment. This has proven much more successful than the harsh punishment on small acts of wrongdoing that schools have previously (and often still do) used.

By identifying both the causes and consequences of the school-to-prison-pipeline, Banner helped us better understand the faults of the system and the pressing need for change. Through providing ideas and tactics of reform she inspired and encouraged us to be more consistently aware of the realities of the school-to-prison-pipeline and to call for reform. There are millions of lives at stake here, millions of children being unjustly treated and sent down the wrong path from their school, a place many of us instinctively deem safe. It is up to us to recognize and work to end the pipeline and to refocus our schools on education instead of punishment.

Kids Count: Washington, D.C.’s Rate of Juvenile Incarceration the Highest in the Country

Thursday, 30 July 2015 Posted in 2015, Research & Policy

On Wednesday, July 29th, the Washington Post published an article “The states where children are most likely to be locked up, poor and hungry” discussing the well-being of children across the nation. This article utilized the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Kids Count report, a collection of statistics tracking the welfare of children on a state-by-state basis.

Unfortunately, this article and report highlight a very sad figure: the District of Colombia has the highest rate of juvenile incarceration in the entire nation. With 618 out of every 100,000 children in D.C. incarcerated, this rate is more than twice that of every state in the nation, save three (Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska).

While the JJDPA reauthorization, in the form of Senate Bill 1169, is seeing movement in the Senate with a voice vote out of the Judiciary Committee, the federal government alone cannot act to protect the youth in our nation’s capital. With about 1 out of every 150 children in DC incarcerated, the DC city council, with the help of the DC JOY Campaign, needs to act NOW to protect the children of DC and their futures.

New Report: Economic Costs of Youth Disadvantage, and High-Return Opportunities for Change

Thursday, 30 July 2015 Posted in 2015, Federal Update

A new report from the White House Council of Economic Advisers explores the barriers that disadvantaged youth face, particularly young men of color, and quantifies the enormous costs this poses to the U.S. economy. In particular, this report focuses on the significant disparities in education, exposure to the criminal justice system, and employment that persist between young men of color and other Americans.

The report highlights the economic costs of youth crime stating, "The average annual cost of incarceration for a single juvenile is over $100,000—far more costly than the sticker price of tuition at the most expensive college in the country or a year of intensive mentoring. This suggests that government expenditures on crime could be redirected toward higher-return investments that generate larger benefits for the wider economy."

Read the full report here.

The EPA’s 2020 Environmental Justice Action Agenda: A Call to Protect Our Nation’s Youth from Hazardous Conditions While Incarcerated

Tuesday, 28 July 2015 Posted in 2015, Federal Update

By Nicholas Bookout, CFYJ Fellow

On July 14, 2015, The Human Rights Defense Center sent a letter to the EPA – endorsed by CFYJ – urging the agency to include the United States’ prisoner population in its 2020 Environmental Justice Action Agenda. Much to the excitement of criminal justice and environmental advocates, the following day an EPA staff person responded by saying that the Environmental Office will acknowledge this gap in EPA policy and include the prisoner population in its 2020 agenda.

Per Executive Order 12898, government agencies are to, “Focus federal attention on the environmental and human health effects of federal actions on minority and low-income populations with the goal of achieving environmental protection for all communities.” As such, the EPA is currently drafting its Environmental Justice 2020 Action Agenda, which seeks to, “Make a visible difference in environmentally overburdened, underserved, and economically distressed communities.”

With prison population being disproportionately both low-income and individuals of color, there is no question that the prisoner population comes from overburdened and economically distressed backgrounds. Furthermore, the 2.3 million yearly incarcerated Americans, 100,000 youth amongst them, are exceedingly exposed to harmful environmental conditions. The HDRC provides numerous examples of this environmental overburdening; these circumstances include prisoners facing close proximity to toxic waste, prolonged exposure to contaminated drinking water, and sickness resulting from exposure to coal ash. Thus, the prisoner population, by and large, faces harmful conditions of industrial pollution both prior to and during incarceration.

However, as the HRDC letter articulates, the EPA does not currently take the prisoner population into account as it formulates this action agenda. Therefore, millions of Americans, and thousands of children, are continually exposed to hazardous environmental conditions. Luckily, with the EPA’s acknowledgement of this gap in policy, there will soon be an effort to remedy these injustices.

Unfortunately, the United States still locks up thousands of children in the adult criminal justice system. In an effort to recognize another negative consequence of this practice, and to positively influence the conditions of confinement for adults and youth alike, the Campaign for Youth Justice wholly endorsed the HRDC’s letter. CFYJ is excited that the EPA will include the prisoner population in its 2020 Environmental Justice Action Agenda, taking a small yet important step towards justice for our nation’s youth. As such, we also hope that the United States government and American People, as supposed global leaders in the realm of Human Rights, will take note of yet another injustice in our nation’s criminal justice system, and work towards reform that will increasingly remove our nation’s youth from these harmful circumstances of imprisonment.

Encouraging Young Leaders to Fight for Juvenile Justice Reform

Friday, 24 July 2015 Posted in 2015, CFYJ Updates

By Samantha Goodman, CFYJ Fellow

As part of the Coalition for Juvenile Justice's 2015 Youth Summit, CFYJ Policy Director Carmen Daugherty, along with DC Lawyers for Youth Executive Director Daniel Okonkwo and Free Minds Senior Poet Ambassador Gary Durant, presented on Keeping Young People Out of Adult Courts, Prisons, and Jails. The presentation was part of an annual two-day summit for emerging leaders in the field of juvenile justice hosted by CJJ and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

Following Hill visits, where the attendees (aged 16-25) met with members of Congress and/or their staff to discuss and share stories on the need for youth justice reform, Daugherty challenged participants to consider how reform movements get started. Together, Daugherty, Okonkwo, and Durant helped the young leaders understand the difficulties and best ways to build a campaign or movement. Participants reflected on engaging unlikely allies, unifying one goal, and mustering commitment to the cause.

Keeping in line with the theme of the summit, Daugherty explained the problems with trying and incarcerating youth as adults. She presented state-by-state efforts and statistics, inviting the attendees to get involved in programs in their communities.

"There are no best practices for how to house kids in adult facilities because kids don't belong there," Daugherty said to the young leaders.

Okonkow outlined the DC Judge Our Youth Campaign and Durant shared his personal experience as a juvenile in the system as well as a poem he wrote when first involved with Free Minds.

For more information on how you can get involved in our efforts for juvenile justice reform, call the Campaign for Youth Justice at (202) 558- 3580.

Announcing the 2015 Multi-System Integration Certificate Program

Thursday, 09 July 2015 Posted in 2015, CFYJ Updates

The Center for Juvenile Justice Reform (CJJR) at Georgetown University‘s McCourt School of Public Policy is pleased to announce that the application window for the 2015 Multi-System Integration Certificate Program is now open through August 21, 2015. The Multi-System Integration Certificate Program will be held October 29 - November 4, 2015 at the Georgetown University Hotel and Conference Center, and is designed to support local jurisdictions in their efforts to improve outcomes for youth known to both the child welfare and juvenile justice system (i.e. crossover youth) through a multi-disciplinary approach that highlights integration and collaboration.

The purpose of the certificate program is to bring together current and future leaders to increase their knowledge about multi-system reform efforts related to crossover youth, improve the operation of their organizations in serving this population, provide an opportunity for the development of collaborative leadership skills, and create a mutually supportive network of individuals across the country committed to systems reform. Participants receive instruction from national experts on cutting edge ideas, policies and practices including multi-system approaches, cost efficiency procedures, collaborative leadership techniques and proactive communication strategies. After completing the program, participants will be responsible for the development of a capstone project -- a set of actions each participant will design and undertake within their organization or community to initiate or continue collaborative efforts related to crossover youth.

Additionally, the program highlights CJJR’s Crossover Youth Practice Model, which has been proven to assist jurisdictions in strengthening practices and policies related to crossover youth. CJJR has aligned the Multi-System Integration Certificate Program and the Crossover Youth Practice Model as a way to enhance knowledge of multi-systems issues in jurisdictions around the country, thereby assisting them in improving both child welfare and juvenile justice outcomes for these youth. In further support of this approach the program focuses on issues such as family engagement, behavioral health, education, and racial and ethnic disparities – as well as innovative and flexible financing strategies.

We encourage you to apply to the Multi-System Integration Certificate Program and consider passing along information about this opportunity to your colleagues and partners. For more information, please visit our website where you will find detailed information about the program, including how to apply, tuition, and available subsidies for those with financial need. Again, applications are due by August 21, 2015. Please direct questions to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

National League of Cities to Hold Leadership Academy on Juvenile Justice Reform

Wednesday, 08 July 2015 Posted in 2015, CFYJ Updates

WHAT: A two-day convening of teams of city officials and local partners to learn about opportunities to engage in and lead juvenile justice reform efforts, to take place in September 2015.

Despite substantial decreases in juvenile crime rates during the past decade, the nation’s juvenile justice systems remain in great need of fundamental reforms. For example, the availability of high-quality, community-based alternatives to incarceration for youth and supports for reentry is uneven and racial and ethnic disparities within the juvenile justice system are unacceptably large. A number of states and local jurisdictions have made significant progress in improving these systems, relying on evidence-based models that hold youth accountable for their actions in developmentally appropriate ways. In some states, local governments – including cities – have assumed greater responsibility for community-based treatment, diversion programs, and re-entry. These promising developments provide the basis for new and expanded city-led efforts to improve outcomes for young people and communities across the nation.

The Models for Change initiative of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is playing a key role in reshaping the juvenile justice system, grounded in core principles of fundamental fairness; developmental differences between youth and adults; individual strengths and needs; youth potential; responsibility; and safety. Models for Change has supported counties and states in reforming the way they treat young people who are charged with crimes. Local officials say that Models for Change has helped them improve public safety and support youth, even as they grapple with tight budgets and tough fiscal decisions.

Mayors and other city officials have unique opportunities to drive further improvements in their local juvenile justice systems. Municipal leaders and their community-based and faith-based partners can explore new roles and resources in collaboration with the courts and juvenile probation. City agencies (particularly in consolidated city/county governments) may also stand to benefit financially from the adoption of promising juvenile justice reinvestment strategies.

As part of a strategic partnership with the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the National League of Cities (NLC) Institute for Youth, Education, and Families will host a Municipal Leadership for Juvenile Justice Reform Leadership Academy on September 23-25, 2015. This convening will provide city officials with the skills and knowledge they need to consider and take up leadership roles in juvenile justice reform, giving participants intensive access to national experts, promising practice examples, peer sharing, and local action planning.

WHERE: The Marriott-Renaissance Depot Hotel, Minneapolis, Minn.

WHO: City elected officials, senior city staff and other community or juvenile justice system stakeholders applying in city teams of up to three persons each.

NLC will select teams up to 10 cities to attend the leadership academy. Each city may nominate a team of up to three representatives that must include at least one of the following individuals: the mayor; a city council member; or a senior representative of the mayor’s or city manager’s office. Other team members may include but are not limited to: senior representatives of city agencies including police departments; juvenile court officials including detention or probation officials, prosecutors, public defenders, or judges; and community-based service providers implementing programs for youth at-risk of involvement or youth currently involved in the juvenile justice system.

NLC will select, on a competitive basis, a diverse set of cities of various sizes from different regions of the country to participate in the leadership academy. Preference will be given to cities that are members in good standing of NLC. NLC will use selection criteria that include evidence of high-level municipal leadership and commitment to improving outcomes for youth involved in the juvenile justice system, collaboration among relevant city, county and state agencies, and a clear indication of how the leadership academy can catalyze local efforts.

WHEN: The leadership academy will take place on September 23-25, 2015, beginning with an opening dinner and program on Wednesday evening and concluding with lunch on Friday. Interested cities must submit applications via e-mail (see instructions below) on or before July 15, 2015. We encourage early applications. NLC will announce all selections by July 29, 2015.

BENEFITS: Selected city teams will learn about best practices and lessons learned from the Models for Change initiative; explore successful efforts to improve juvenile justice initiatives in cities across the country, especially through diversion and re-entry initiatives and efforts to eliminate racial and ethnic disparities; gain access to and guidance from juvenile justice experts; and strengthen their relationships with peers in cities across the nation.

Following the Leadership Academy, NLC will invite participating cities to join the NLC Juvenile Justice Peer Learning Network, s group that provides ongoing opportunities for city leaders to learn and receive support from nationally-recognized experts in the field and from peers in other cities.

TRAVEL: NLC will reimburse participants for airline travel (up to a maximum of $500) as well as hotel and other travel-related costs in accordance with NLC’s travel reimbursement policies. Meeting participants will receive reimbursements promptly upon submission of travel receipts following the convening.

FOR MORE INFORMATION about the application materials or the leadership academy, please contact Laura Furr at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or (202) 626-3072, or participate in the Question and Answer session at 3:00 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, July 1, 2015.

Washington Lawyers’ Committee Report: D.C. Youth Facing Deplorable Conditions in Adult Jail

Tuesday, 07 July 2015 Posted in 2015, Take Action Now

By: Nicholas Bookout, CFYJ Fellow

On June 11th, 2015, the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs released a report entitled, “D.C. Prisoners: Conditions of Confinement in the District of Columbia.” This report discusses the dreadful conditions faced by those housed in D.C. jail facilities, including vermin and pest infestations, heightened suicide rates, a crumbling physical infrastructure replete with leakages and mold, and an understaffed and undertrained correctional staff.

While the reported conditions are dehumanizing and unacceptable for any individual, imagine being a child in such a facility. Unfortunately, at the time of this report, this was the reality being lived by 25 of D.C.’s youth under the age of 18. D.C. law permits youth under 18 to be housed in the D.C. jail, both for pretrial and post-conviction detention. To learn more about D.C. youth in the adult system, check out this 2014 report by DC Lawyers for Youth and the Campaign for Youth Justice.

In addition to simply living in this deplorable environment, these youth face additional problems associated with being children in an adult facility. For example, in an effort to keep youth separated from adults in the D.C. jail, there is the excessive use of solitary confinement, in some instances a full two months of 23 hours a day in solitary confinement with only one hour of recreation.

At a point in their lives when family involvement is critical, youth are limited to video visitation, unable to spend time with family members in person. Life for a juvenile in a D.C. adult facility is not limited to physical and emotional depravity, however. Per this report, education programming is vastly limited, and youth are therefore denied the mental stimulation their developing brains desperately need. Additionally, research shows us that youth who are transferred from the juvenile court system to the adult criminal system are approximately 34% more likely than youth retained in the juvenile court system to be re-arrested for violent or other crime.

The Washington Lawyers’ Committee makes strong recommendations to improve conditions of confinement for D.C. inmates, including:

Closing the Central Detention Facility and the Correctional Treatment Facility and construct a new, safer, more effective facility
Expanding the Secure Residential Treatment Program
Correcting deficiencies in suicide prevention and youth confinement
Conducting a review of training of correctional officers tasked with specialized functions related to mental health or the juvenile unit
Revising current policies restricting “Good Time Credits”--a program which reduces sentences for successfully completing academic, vocational, and rehabilitation programs
Returning management of the Correctional Treatment Facility to District control

The recommendations are the product of a study that brought together legal, civil rights and criminal justice experts, as well as senior federal and District of Columbia judges. With the assistance of the DC JOY campaign, DC Council should embrace these recommendations and take action to remove youth from the D.C. Jail.

Liberty and Justice for All--Except You

Marcy Mistrett Monday, 06 July 2015 Posted in 2015, Across the Country

July fourth is the 239th birthday of the United States of America. While the country gathers to commemorate the vision of the founding fathers’ as they signed the Declaration of Independence, I can’t help but to think about populations who were excluded from the founding documents. The Bill of Rights, for example, extended to only those who were governed—at the time that meant only white men. The enslaved, women, First Nation persons, and children were among those individuals exempt from the promises of freedom and liberty protected by the Bill of Rights.

More than two centuries later we have made progress in terms of extending these protections to more of our citizens. Youth, however, are not one of those groups. One hundred years after the establishment of a separate juvenile court, we are still depriving children of their liberty, incarcerating more than 60,000 youth per year, the vast majority for non violent crimes including truancy and running away from home. More egregiously, we continue to lock up nearly 100,000 children charged as adults in adult jails and prisons each year, many for property and drug offenses. We persist in implementing and supporting these harmful policies despite the lowest juvenile crime rates in 30 years. The youth crime rate has fallen approximately 43% since the 1990’s, and the most serious crimes have fallen even more rapidly—the number of murders involving a juvenile fell by 67% over a similar time period.

Youth prosecuted as adults forfeit their rights to a childhood and are expected to take on the responsibilities of adults. Below find rights of childhood that youth tried in the criminal justice system forfeit:

1.Right to be seen as a child who is capable of making mistakes; even egregious ones.

Despite brain research and Supreme Court findings that adolescent brains are different from adults, youth tried as adults are no longer afforded the rehabilitative presumption of juvenile court; instead they are punished as adults with a focus on retribution.

Furthermore, an abundance of research shows that most serious youth offenders will age out of criminal behavior, and that harsh punishment experienced in the adult system actually leads to an increase in re-offending, making communities less safe.

2 .Right to equal treatment.

Children are not all treated the same in the adult criminal justice system. African American, Latino, and Tribal youth are between 2-9 times more likely to be prosecuted in adult court than their White counterparts. These disparities grow even larger by sentencing, with African American young men receiving the harshest sentences for their actions.

3. Right to safety.

Children in the adult criminal justice system forfeit their rights to safety. Housed in adult facilities, they are much more likely to be sexually, physically, or emotionally victimized by other inmates and correctional officers.

4. Right to be part of a family.

Youth in adult facilities often lack access to their families. Frequently held far away from home, in facilities that often prohibit in-person visits or charge exorbitant rates for phone calls, youth often lose touch with their families when they are in adult facilities.

Unlike in youth facilities, where best practices encourage family engagement in the rehabilitation of a young person, youth in adult facilities are presumed to be independent of their families.

5. Right to learn.

Many adult facilities don’t offer education opportunities. Those that do are limited in their scope, and aren’t aligned with state education standards, so many youth don’t earn credit for the schoolwork they completed while detained. Only 1 in 10 children who have been incarcerated continue their education after release.

6. Right to repair their wrongs.

Youth prosecuted as adults aren’t able to make amends to their victims and communities. The voices of victims matter. Too often the government assumes victims want retribution and punishment, and exclude them from the lengthy court process. Research shows that some victims favor restorative justice practices which allows for the victims to be heard and have a voice in determining outcomes. Restorative justice practices increase the chances of a young person being rehabilitated and staying away from future criminal behavior.

7.Right to respect and dignity as a human being.

Violent security tactics, pepper spray, shackles, and other abhorrent practices become all to normal for youth in adult jails and prisons. Not only do youth lose their right to safety through these conditions, they lose their right to compassion and humanity.

Far too many youth enter the adult criminal justice system only to come out as uneducated, unskilled adults--far from being able to declare any independence from the system or their families. As we reflect upon our nation's independence, let's not overstate how far this country has come in regards to the rights of our young people.

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