The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee this week passed a bill that will encourage states to improve their youth justice systems by keeping minors away from adult offenders, not incarcerating juveniles for minor offenses, and more. Our state leaders, too, should draw a lesson from the federal improvements to the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act — while the rest of the nation fine-tunes juvenile justice systems, North Carolina continues to charge children as adults.

Our state remains the only one in the nation that automatically prosecutes all 16- and 17-year-olds as adults — regardless of the severity of the crime and without any recourse to be remanded to the juvenile system. More than 30,000 of North Carolina’s children are currently involved with the adult criminal justice system, and more than 85 percent of these youth have committed minor crimes. Yet, for many, a single adolescent bad decision will determine the trajectory of their lives.

North Carolina should follow the data, which show that when minors are handled in the juvenile system, fewer of them go on to commit another crime. And that means lower costs to society and more youth growing up to become successful, productive citizens.

Mandy Ableidinger
Raleigh

The author is director, policy and budget analysis, Action for Children North Carolina.