Why ‘Adult Time for Adult Crime’ Doesn’t Work

Written by Matt Kelley, the following originally appeared on Change.org’s Criminal Justice Blog (10/14/10).

Trying children in adult courts and locking them in adult prisons and jails is cruel and counterproductive, and a new report from Baltimore shows us just how badly “adult time for adult crime” policies have failed.

Released last week by a coalition called the Just Kids Partnership, the report details the cases of 135 juveniles charged as adults in Baltimore — and the results speak volumes. Most revealing is the fact that only 10 percent of juveniles charged as adults actually ended up sentenced to serve time in adult prison. Most cases were either dismissed outright or transferred back to juvenile court. And while this pointless charade played out, the kids involved spent an average of five months in adult jails, without the education and social services they need.

The Cost of Confinement

Dear CfJJ Members and Friends:

In case you haven’t read it yet, we suggest looking at the Justice Policy Institute’s report The Costs of Confinement: Why Good Juvenile Justice Policies Make Good Fiscal Sense. The report highlights the high rates of youth incarceration across the country and describes how relying on confinement is both costly and ineffective at reducing recidivism. The report goes on to identify the progress that a number of states have made in reducing confinement of youth and highlights several effective community-based alternatives.

It should be noted that Massachusetts has been experiencing substantial decreases in the number of youth held in secure confinement. Detention admissions (youth held in secure facilities while awaiting trial) was 22% lower in 2009 than 2008, and new commitments (youth adjudicated and sentenced to the Department of Youth Services) went down 13% within this one year period as well.