Let’s Build on Juvenile Justice Reforms by Raising the Age
In 2018, Massachusetts passed a comprehensive criminal legal reform bill, but we have much more to do if we want to make our criminal justice system more just.
One of those things: keeping 18 to 20-year-olds in the juvenile system.
H.1710 and S.942: An Act to promote public safety and better outcomes for young adults would do just that.
When young adults are kept in the juvenile system, they are able to have better access to school and rehabilitative programming. Research has shown that similar adolescents have a 34 percent lower recidivism rate when in the juvenile system than in the adult system.
Young adults are highly amenable to rehabilitation. Keeping 18 – 20-year-olds in the juvenile system increases their access to education and to programming and will lower recidivism.
We know that such reforms work: a decade ago, Massachusetts raised the age of juvenile court to keep 17-year-olds out of the adult system, which has led to better outcomes for youth and for public safety.
Our criminal legal system disproportionately harms communities of color in Massachusetts. 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. Our criminal legal system is limiting young people’s access to opportunities, exacerbating economic inequities.
