Over the last decade, half the states where 16-or-17-year-olds (or both) were under adult court jurisdiction “raised the age” so that justice system involved young people are served by the juvenile justice system, cutting the number of youth in the adult system by about half. In Raising the Age: shifting to a safer and more effective juvenile justice system, the Justice Policy Institute (JPI) shows how states implemented raise the age laws without overwhelming juvenile justice systems, kept correctional costs in check, and enhanced community safety. Raising the Age shows how state and local youth justice systems managed the change by shifting to more effective approaches that include, increased use of diversion, reduced reliance on pretrial detention, and targeted efforts to make probation and aftercare approaches more effective. Raising the Age shows, by keeping more youth at home or in their home communities, juvenile justice systems can reallocate resources to serve more youth in a more cost effective way.
On this edition of Prison Pipeline, host Doug McVay speaks with the co-authors of Raising the Age, Justice Policy Institute Research & Policy Director Jason Ziedenberg and Research & Policy Associate Jeremy Kittredge.
Raising the Age: shifting to a safer and more effective juvenile justice system is available on JPI’s website, justicepolicy.org.
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