Why we must prosecute Louisiana's 17-year-old offenders as children
In 2016, Louisiana legislators passed the widely popular, bipartisan Raise the Age Act to include 17-year-olds in the state’s juvenile justice system. This marked a long overdue step forward for Louisiana, which is one of the few remaining states that automatically prosecute 17-year-olds as adults.
Raising the age, which takes partial effect in July 2018, has benefits for both kids and our communities at large: Youth prosecuted in the juvenile system are less likely to re-offend because they receive protections and supports that are unavailable in the adult system.
As explained in a recent Times article, this means that Shreveport will now need to accommodate more children in the juvenile justice system without more space to detain them. The only clear solution is to detain fewer children.
Fortunately, this is exactly what Shreveport and every other jurisdiction across the state should be doing.
Research shows that the more contact a child has with the juvenile justice system, the more likely he is to commit another crime in the future. Incarceration is particularly ineffective at reducing recidivism and can even increase re-offending, especially for low-risk children.
Raising the age in Louisiana presents a unique opportunity to tackle this problem head-on. By reducing its detention population, Shreveport can not only accommodate 17-year-olds, but can also reduce its recidivism rate and save taxpayer dollars. That means greater public safety for the Shreveport community and better outcomes for all children in the justice system.
The director of Caddo Parish Juvenile Services, Clay Walker, has already identified the most crucial step to safely reduce the population: stop detaining children who are not a public safety threat and support them in the community instead.
Last quarter, at least one-third of the children admitted to Caddo Parish’s juvenile detention center were arrested for misdemeanors. If law enforcement and the courts divert these low-risk youth from the system, they can focus their resources on the most serious cases, rather than on minor misbehavior that can be better addressed at home or in the community.
Shreveport also can use this opportunity to rethink its response to children who violate the terms of their probation. Rather than detain these children, probation officers should examine why a child is out of compliance. Sometimes probation obligations are overly onerous; sometimes a young person simply slips up. If officials understand why a child went off course, they can help guide kids toward better decision-making.
Nine states over the past decade have raised the age at which juveniles are automatically tried as adults. When Connecticut, Illinois and Massachusetts did so, crime and detention plummeted — proof that we can improve public safety without increasing the use of detention.
As Mr. Walker rightly points out, Shreveport will have to maximize resources available in the community to meet the needs of vulnerable children. Community-based programs are proven to be more effective at getting kids back on track than incarceration. By connecting children to quality programs instead of funneling them into confinement, we can help young people thrive in their families and communities.
Raise the Age has presented Louisiana with a unique opportunity to re-evaluate and retool its approach to juvenile justice. Shreveport should seize this opportunity by right-sizing its use of detention and prioritizing its use of community supports. If it does, we will see better futures for at-risk young people, and more safety for the Shreveport community as a whole.
Vincent Schiraldi is an adjunct professor at the Columbia Justice Lab, former commissioner of New York City's probation department and former juvenile justice director for Washington, D.C. Bart Lubow is a senior consultant to the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
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