Communications

Federal law, and the laws of most states, provide stringent limitations on how juvenile courts can deal with status offenders, and for good reason.

Eighty percent of the states (40 states and Washington, DC) have changed their laws to make it more difficult to treat children as if they were adults. As a result, the number of youth charged as adults has dropped from an estimated 250,000 to 75,9003, as youth crime and arrest rates continue to fall to their lowest point in 50 years.

When young people do not receive credit for the work completed in juvenile justice facilities, they face a slew of educational consequences, including repeating courses or an entire grade level.

This report summarizes lessons learned through the first months of the pandemic, focusing on system responses, both positive and negative, to slow the virus’s spread and to protect the safety and wellbeing of youth in the juvenile justice system while keeping the public informed.

But over the last few years, a national bipartisan conversation on the need for a different, more age-responsive approach to criminal justice for young adults has emerged.