It’s Official — Transfer Backfires

Well, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) confirmed what lots of people already knew. In a report released this week (pdf), OJJDP says that transferring youth to the adult criminal system increases recidivism. It does not deter youth from committing crime. In short, it’s a public safety failure, and a failure to help youth become productive citizens.

The Campaign for Youth Justice news release gives this summary:

Key findings from OJJDP report:

– Laws to make it easier to transfer youth to the adult criminal court system have little or no general deterrent effect, meaning they do not prevent youth from engaging in criminal behavior;

– Youth transferred to the adult system are more likely to be rearrested and to reoffend than youth who committed similar crimes, but were retained in the juvenile justice system;

– Higher recidivism rates are due to a number of factors including the youth’s:

• Stigmatization/negative labeling effects of being labeled as a convicted felon;
• Sense of resentment and injustice about being tried as an adult;
• Learning of criminal mores and behavior while incarcerated with adults;
• Decreased access to rehabilitation and family support in the adult system;
• Decreased employment and community integration opportunities due to a felony conviction.

The New York Times chimed in with an editorial:

This country made a terrible mistake when it began routinely trying youthful offenders as adults. This get-tough approach was supposed to deter crime…..

Young people who commit serious, violent crimes deserve severe punishment. But reflexively transferring juvenile offenders — many of whom are accused of nonviolent crimes — into the adult system is not making anyone safer. When they are locked up with adults, young people learn criminal behaviors. They are also deprived of the counseling and family support that they would likely get in the juvenile system, which is more focused on rehabilitation. And once they are released, their felony convictions make it hard for them to find a job and rebuild their lives.

Nearly every state now has laws that encourage prosecutors to try minors as adults. The recent studies of this approach should lead legislatures to abandon these counterproductive policies.

Amen to that. Are you listening, legislators? Let’s get smart about our crime policies and step back from sending children to the adult criminal system.

— Liane Rozzell