It's the frontal lobes...

The NY Times has an editorial today on a topic that's concerned us for a long time -- treating children as adults in the juvenile justice system. The new research on the development of the frontal lobes of the brain -- and the dreadfully long time it takes for that to happen! -- supports the idea. Here's the 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.