Unlike the punishment for adults who’ve committed crimes, state and federal laws dictate that the juvenile justice system must provide treatment, rehabilitation and a chance to correct the missteps of youth. Driven by ever-expansive research on the adolescent brain, reforms nationwide aim to keep older teens out of adult courts, jails, and prisons. Now two states are reversing that trend by passing legislation to prosecute teenagers as adults. Citing upticks in violent crimes committed by youth, Republican politicians in Louisiana and North Carolina have passed laws that roll back recent reforms and allow for the criminal justice system to prosecute teens as adults.

Michelle Weemhoff, director of advocacy for the National Youth Justice Network, called the new laws in North Carolina and Louisiana “really shocking.”

“The fact that this goes against decades of long-standing research seems irresponsible and unfortunately dangerous,” she said. “It feels like we’re going backwards.”

North Carolina and Louisiana Move Back Towards Prosecuting Teens As Adults

Critics say the more punitive standards have been fueled more by rhetoric and anecdotal crime reports than hard data. Also in dispute is whether justice reforms have led to increased crime.

According to the most widely agreed-upon measure of statistics, the FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System found youth arrests for violent crimes increased 17% between 2021 and 2022. But both the number and the rate of youth arrests for violent crime remain well below previous peaks in the 1990s. Last year’s most recent data show violent crime committed by people of all ages has subsided since last year, in a return to pre-pandemic levels.

Over the past decade, almost all states — with the exception of  Georgia, Texas and Wisconsin — have moved away from prosecuting older teens accused of crimes as adults. Vermont lifted its age limit in 2022, allowing 19-year-olds to remain in the juvenile justice system where they have access to rehabilitative services.

Inside adult jails and prisons, age-appropriate services and educational options are limited or nonexistent. And children sent to adult facilities often face long-term consequences. Unlike the juvenile justice system, where criminal records are sealed, adults who’ve served time struggle to pass background checks for housing and employment.

Read the full article about prosecuting teens as adults by Jeremy Loudenback at The Imprint.