Progressive Voices

By Sorien Schmidt, Action for Children North Carolina

Two of the most important responsibilities of government are ensuring the safety of our communities and caring for and educating our children so they become healthy, productive adults. These two goals cross paths when a child commits a crime. Unfortunately, two recent reports show that North Carolina’s policy to process all 16- and 17-year-olds charged with a crime in the adult criminal system fails society on both accounts.

North Carolina is one of only three states in the country in which children as young as 16 are automatically processed by the adult criminal system for any crime. The law dates back to 1919. Court data indicate that 14 percent of 16- and 17-year-olds convicted of crimes in North Carolina adult courts were convicted for felonies, and only four percent of those were felonies against a person.  In essence, we punish all older children by housing them with adult criminals and giving them a permanent record as if they were all the most violent and irreparable felons.

Unfortunately, this practice fails to improve public safety. This month an affiliate of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published their findings that youth transferred to the adult criminal system are 34 percent more likely to be rearrested than youth handled by the juvenile justice system. According to state agency reports, youth who serve adult time in the Tarheel state are more than twice as likely to be reconvicted of crimes as youth in the juvenile system. Sending youth through the adult system appears to train them for more crime. 

A second new report by Action for Children North Carolina explains that scientific research on brain development has shown that the adolescent brain is undergoing significant change and is not fully developed. As a result, youth do not have the same ability as adults to make sound judgments in complex situations, to control their impulses and emotions, and to think through the consequences of events or plan for the long term. It is in recognition of such limitations, of course, that North Carolina law restricts teenage driving privileges and bans teen access to tobacco and alcohol. By not recognizing these same limitations in the criminal arena, the state puts at risk the safety of our communities and the future of a wayward teen.

On a positive note, this same research also indicates that teen brains are malleable to change. Just as exposure to adult criminals appears to influence their behavior for the worse, youth who receive developmentally appropriate services through the juvenile system have a far better chance of turning their life around. By sending all 16 and 17-year olds to the adult system, we forego the opportunity to guide them to better behavior and give up on them before they have barely begun.

It is time for North Carolina to bring state juvenile crime policy in line with scientific research, the most effective practices and the law of the vast majority of states. 

First, North Carolina must establish a task force to set a timeline for implementing the legal, agency and funding changes required to raise the age of juvenile jurisdiction from 16 to 18. The process will be complex and cannot be implemented overnight. Other states’ experiences can be our guide.

Second, North Carolina must address inadequate funding for current local juvenile justice programs to ensure that a sound financial base and infrastructure is in place for expansion of the juvenile system. 

Finally, North Carolina should provide the most effective services and an education to all juvenile offenders whether they are in the juvenile or adult criminal systems. There is extensive research that has identified best practices and programs that prevent and reduce youth criminal behavior.

The move to modernize North Carolina’s juvenile justice system will be a challenge. Changing 90-year old policies, even obsolete ones, is never easy – especially when such a change is likely to require greater near term public investments. Scientific research and experience in other states, however, tell us that providing juvenile offenders with appropriate services will turn lives around and reduce crime. North Carolina does its own people a disservice not to follow the best research for protecting its youth and communities. 

Sorien Schmidt is the Senior Vice President of Action for Children North Carolina

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 26th, 2007 at 9:40 am and is filed under Progressive Voices. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.