National Resolution on Trying & Sentencing Youth as Adults
WHEREAS policies and practices providing “adult time for adult crime” are often harmful—rather than helpful—to community safety, as evidenced by research demonstrating that prosecuting juveniles in the adult criminal system increases rather decreases the likelihood that they will re-offend, as compared with handling them in the juvenile justice system;
WHEREAS, 75% of youth under age 18 sent to adult facilities will be released by the age of 22 and most will have been denied adequate education, mental health treatment, drug treatment and employment skills training;
WHEREAS trying and sentencing youth in adult court is not reserved for the most serious, chronic and violent juvenile offenders, but inappropriately includes more than half of the cases involving only nonviolent drug and property crimes;
WHEREAS there exist serious human rights concerns, as well as physical and emotional health concerns, when youth held in adult facilities are sexually assaulted five times more often, commit suicide eight times more often, and are assaulted with a weapon 50% more often than youth held in juvenile facilities;
WHEREAS there exist serious civil rights concerns given that youth of color are disproportionately represented in cases sent to adult court—as shown in 18 of the largest court jurisdictions where 82% of juvenile cases filed in adult court involved youth of color;
WHEREAS research continues to establish and reaffirm that the adolescent brain—particularly the part that makes judgments, reins in impulsive behavior and engages in moral and ethical reasoning—is not fully developed until age 19 or 20, laying the foundation for laws that prohibit youth under age 18 from taking on major adult responsibilities such as voting, jury duty and military service;
WHEREAS the use of statutes or procedures that automatically exclude youth from the juvenile court without an assessment of individual circumstances deny them basic fairness;
WHEREAS more than 250,000 offenders under the age of 18 are sent each year to adult criminal courts across the United States, including an estimated 218,000 excluded from juvenile court jurisdiction, not because of the severity of their crimes, nor because they are habitual violent offenders, but because states have lowered the age of adulthood in the criminal code;
BE IT RESOLVED that the Campaign For Youth Justice and signers of this resolution will work to build broad acceptance for reform, as well as to create reform, in state policies and practices, so as to significantly reduce the number of youth sent to adult criminal court and to ensure that young offenders are appropriately adjudicated in ways that enhance community safety and vitality.
To sign on to this resolution or for more information about the campaign please contact the Campaign For Youth Justice at info@campaign4youthjustice.org
Signatories to the National Resolution As of November 11, 2008
National Organizations
ACLU National Prison Project
Alliance for Children and Families
American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
American Academy of Pediatrics
American Counseling Association
American Humane Association
American Probation and Parole Association
American Psychiatric Association
American Youth Policy Forum
ASPIRA Association
Campaign for Youth
Campaign for Youth Justice
Catholic Charities USA
Center for Children's Law and Policy
Center for Law and Social Policy
Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice
Child Welfare League of America
Church Women United
Coalition for Juvenile Justice
Coalition on Human Needs
Committee for Public Counsel Services
Community Justice Network for Youth
Community Justice Network for Youth (CJNY)
Council for Children with Behavioral Disorders
Covenant House
Critical Resistance
Drug Policy Alliance
Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health
Forum for Youth Investment
Girls Inc
Human Rights Watch
Justice Policy Institute
Juvenile Law Center
Legal Action Center
Magellan Health Services
Mental Health America
NAACP
National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd
National African American Drug Policy Coaltion Inc.
National Alliance on Mental Illness
National Association of Counties
National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
National Association of School Psychologists
National Association of Social Workers
National Center for Youth Law
National Council on Crime and Delinquency
National H.I.R.E. Network
National Insitute for Children Youth & Families
National Juvenile Defender Center
National Juvenile Justice Network
National Network for Youth
National PTA
National Youth Employment Coalition
Physicians for Human Rights
Presbyterian Church USA
Reclaiming Futures, Portland State University
School Social Work Association of America
Society for Adolescent Medicine
Southern Poverty Law Center
Southwest Key Program
The Corps Network
The Sentencing Project
Unitarian Universalist Association
United Church of Christ, Office for Church in Society
United Methodist Church
United Methodist Church, Board of Church and Society
Voices for America's Children
Western Juvenile Defender Center
Youth Build USA
Youth Law Center
State Organizations
Alabama
Southern Juvenile Defender Center at the Souther Poverty Law Center
Youth Justice Coalition
Alabama CURE
Arizona
Children's Action Alliance
California
Youth Justice Coalition
Archdiocese of Los Angeles Juvenile Detention Ministry
Western Juvenile Defender Center
Colorado
Pendulum Foundation
Colorado CURE, Inc.
Connecticut
Connecticut Juvenile Justice Alliance
Washington, D.C.
Juvenile Justice Clinic, Georgetown University Law Center
The Center for Community Empowerment
Children's Law Center - Washington, DC
Covenant House Washington
Justice For DC Youth! Coalition
Delaware
Delaware Collaboration for Youth
Delaware Center for Justice
Florida
Justice 4 Kids
Georgia
Barton Child Law and Policy Clinic, Emory University
Making The Walls Transparent
Georgia Parent Support Network Inc.
Youth Task Force
Idaho
Tribal Justice Programs
Illinois
Juvenile Justice Initiative
Illinois Juvenile Justice Initiative
Indiana
Indiana Juvenile Justice Task Force, Inc.
Kentucky
Central Juvenile Defender Center, Children's Law Center
Central Juvenile Defender Center
Louisiana
Families and Friends of Louisiana's Incarcerated Children
Massachusetts
Citizens for Juvenile Justice
Juvenile Justice Center, Suffolk University Law School
Youth Advocacy Project
Maryland
Maryland Juvenile Justice Coalition
Maine
Juvenile Justice Clinic, University of Maine School of Law
Michigan
Michigan Collaborative for Juvenile Justice Reform
Association for Children's Mental Health (ACMH)
Association for Children's Mental Health
Michigan Council on Crime and Delinquency
Michigan Collaborative on Juvenile Justice Reform
Mississippi
Mississippi Youth Justice Project
North Carolina
Action for Children North Carolina
Nebraska
Voices for Children Nebraska
New Jersey
Statewide Parent Advocacy Network of New Jersey
New Jersey Parents Caucus
New Jersey Parents Caucus of Passaic County
New Jersey Parents Caucus of Union County
New Jersey Parents Caucus of Bergen County
New Jersey Parents Caucus of Camden County
New Jersey Parents Caucus of Essex County
New York
Correctional Association of New York
Ohio
Juvenile Justice Coalition
Children's Defense Fund of Ohio
Voices for Children of Greater Cleveland
Oklahoma
Oklahoma CURE
Oregon
Partnership for Safety and Justice
Reclaiming Futures, Portland State University
Pennsylvania
Mental Health Association in PA - PA Collaboration for Youth
Mental Health Association in PA
South Dakota
Parents Who Care Coalition
Texas
Southwest Key Program
Texas Coalition Advocating Justice for Juveniles
Virginia
Just Children
Virginia CURE
Vermont
Office of the Juvenile Defender
Wisconsin
Wisconsin Council on Children and Families
