Children who are confined to adult jails are at greater risk of being raped, battered or pushed to suicide. They also are more likely to become violent criminals than children handled through the juvenile justice system. When Congress reauthorizes the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974, it should press the states to end this barbaric practice.

The juvenile justice law provides federal aid to states that agree to humanize their often Dickensian systems — and to refrain from placing children in adult jails. The bargain worked well enough until the 1990s, when there was an outbreak of hysteria about so-called super predators and an adolescent crime wave that never materialized.

States classified ever larger numbers of young offenders as adults. Today, laws in more than 40 states permit adult courts to try children as young as 14. Perhaps as many as half the young people who are transferred into the adult system are never convicted as adults — and some are never convicted at all. But by the time the system is finished with them, many will have spent more than six months in adult jails, according to a report by the Campaign for Youth Justice, an advocacy group based in Washington.

Not surprisingly, these young people are much more likely to harm themselves in adult jails than in juvenile facilities. Those who survive often return to their communities as damaged people who are much more likely to commit crimes and return to prison.

The current system is counterproductive and inhumane. Congress could remedy this with one simple fix. It should require all states that receive federal juvenile justice aid to refrain from housing people under the age of 18 in adult jails, except for those accused of the most serious crimes like rape and murder.

“Children in Adult Jails” (May 23, 2008). N.Y. Times Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/23/opinion/23fri3.html?ref=opinion

In a related article, the Washington Post recounts the case of Gary Durant in He’s a Man, as Charged. Durant, a Washington, D.C. youth, is being tried as an adult for conspiracy and murder for actions committed while he was still 17.

He was 17 the night of the shootout, a varsity athlete and a coach to youngsters in the city recreation department. A child under the law, he was charged as an adult with multiple counts, including conspiracy and murder, and taken to the D.C. jail. Sixteen months later — now an adult at 18 and, along with three other defendants, still awaiting a trial date — he idles behind bars with older inmates.

Laura Sessions Stepp, He’s a Man, as Charged: But Should Emerging Brain Science Affect Courts’ Handling of Young Defendants?, Washington Post, May 6, 2008 at HE01.

Abstract: Juvenile delinquency adjudications are increasingly considered to be criminal convictions for purposes of sentencing enhancement in subsequent adult proceedings, leading to a renewed call for extension of the right to a jury trial in the juvenile court so as to legitimize the use of adjudications. Such an extension is troubling, however, because regardless of the factfinder, it is improper to equate juvenile delinquency adjudications with criminal convictions for several reasons. First, the juvenile court remains distinct from the criminal court in its purpose and procedure. Second, the prevalence of juvenile pleas raises questions about whether juveniles defend against delinquency charges with the same vigor as they would against criminal charges. Finally, the necessity for a system of transfer into adult criminal court is questionable if the adjudications can ex post facto be considered convictions. Although fairness dictates that juvenile adjudications should not be considered convictions, if they are consistently used as such, the infancy defense should be available in the juvenile court.

Download the full article here: What’s in a Name? The Worrisome Interchange of Juvenile “Adjudications” with Criminal “Convictions” (.pdf)

Another notable aspect of the case, is the participation of a group of University of Texas law students, who filed the petition, along with other local lawyers, as part of that school’s Supreme Court clinic.

There’s a discussion started here on the Pittman v. South Carolina Topic on our Discussion Forum.

• University of Texas Law School: Law School Clinic Asks U.S. Supreme Court To Hear Major Juvenile Justice Case
• University of Texas Law School: Download the U.S. Supreme Court Certiorari Petition and appendix documents
• SCOTUSBlog: Long sentence for juvenile challenged
• Controversy Over Giving Teen Killers the Possibility of Parole?
• NY Times: Lifers as Teenagers, Now Seeking Second Chance
• Sentencing Law & Policy Blog: Evolving images of a killer and the evolving Eighth Amendment
• National Law Journal: Law school clinic asks high court to hear case of juvenile who killed at age 12

Since state and local authorities declared war on juvenile crime in the 1990s, Harris County courts consistently have prosecuted more underage teens as adults than four other major Texas counties combined.

Houston Chronicle: More youths are tried as adults in Harris County