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The National Resolution on Trying and Sentencing Youth as Adults is a declaration championed by the Campaign and its many supporters to end the involvement of youth in the adult criminal justice system. This resolution establishes the many concerns that go along with trying and sentencing youth as adults. Please consider signing on to show your support of this issue.

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 March 21, 2007

National Organizations

State Organizations
Alabama
Southern Poverty Law Center

Arizona
Children's Action Alliance

California
Western Juvenile Defender Center
Youth Justice Coalition
Youth Law Center

Colorado
Pendulum Foundation

Connecticut
Connecticut Juvenile Justice Alliance

District of Columbia
Georgetown Juvenile Justice Clinic
The Center for Community Empowerment

Delaware
Delaware Center for Justice
Delaware Collaboration for Youth

Florida
Justice 4 Kids

Georgia
Georgia Parent Support Network, Inc.
Georgia's Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health
Barton Child law and Policy Clinic, Emory University

Idaho
Tribal Justice Programs

Illinois
Illinois Juvenile Justice Initiative
Juvenile Justice Institute
Loyola University School of Law

Indiana
Indiana Juvenile Justice Task Force

Louisiana
Families and Friends of Louisiana's Incarcerated Children

Maryland
Maryland Juvenile Justice Coalition

Massachusetts
Citizens for Juvenile Justice
Youth Advocacy Project

Michigan
Michigan Collaboration for Juvenile Justice Reform
Michigan Council on Crime and Delinquency

Mississippi
Mississippi Youth Justice Project

Nebraska
Voices for Children in Nebraska

New Jersey
Statewide Parent Advocacy Network of New Jersey

New York
Correctional Association of New York

North Carolina
Action for Children North Carolina

Ohio
Juvenile Justice Coalition
Ohio Defense Fund
Voices For Children of Greater Cleveland

Oklahoma
Oklahoma CURE

Oregon
Reclaiming Futures, Portland State University

Pennsylvania
Mental Health Association in PA (MHAPA)

South Dakota
Parents Who Care Coalition (PWCC)

Texas
Southwest Key Program
Texas Coalition Advocating Justice for Juveniles

Virginia
Just Children

Vermont
Office of the Juvenile Defender

Wisconsin
Wisconsin Council on Children & Families