[Youth-list] Raise the Age Editorial

[Yalie4567 at aol.com]

NY Times
May 24, 2007 
Editorial 

Giving Juvenile Offenders a Chance 

The Connecticut State Senate set a welcome national example this week when
it passed a bill that would move 16- and 17-year-old offenders out of the
adult courts and back into the juvenile justice system where they belong.
Connecticut's House should move quickly to approve the legislation, which
would rescue thousands of young people from being trapped in an adult system
that, far from reforming them, too often turns them into hardened criminals.

Forty states have laws that either allow or require young offenders to do
some time in adult jails. Thankfully, many are beginning to revisit those
policies. But Connecticut is one of only three states - along with New York
and North Carolina - that automatically try 16-year-olds as adults.
Embarrassed by that fact, last year state lawmakers in Connecticut
established a commission that was instructed to bring the state's correction
laws into line with humane and sensible practices. 
This bill is the welcome result. It is also backed by a substantial body of
research showing that children who are processed through adult courts and
who do time in adult jails fare worse in life - and commit much more violent
crime - than children handled in juvenile courts. Once saddled with adult
convictions, these young offenders are typically barred from all kinds of
jobs and confined to the very margins of society. 

The new legislation, which calls for juveniles to be closely supervised and
provided with extensive mental health, educational and re-entry services,
will cost Connecticut more money initially. But the law would more than pay
for itself by cutting down on recidivism and by giving troubled young people
a real chance to become productive, law-abiding adults. 



Shelley Geballe, JD, MPH
President, CT Voices for Children
33 Whitney Ave. New Haven, CT 06510
203.498.4240, 203.498.4242 (fax)
www.ctkidslink.org


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