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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowAs members of the Indiana Coalition for Youth Justice, we work to achieve fair, equitable, and effective outcomes for children and emerging adults in the justice system. We believe it is time to reimagine the current system into one that utilizes a culturally responsive, trauma-informed developmental approach that is based on the science of brain development. Research has shown that such an approach lowers recidivism rates, promotes public safety, and leads to improved outcomes for children.
Senate Bill 449, currently up for second reading in the Indiana Senate chamber, would roll back much of the progress already made in Indiana’s juvenile justice system over the last decade. Over 40 organizations and concerned individuals testified in person or in writing when SB 449 was heard in the Senate Corrections and Criminal Code Committee. The bill passed out of committee, on a 4-2 vote, with amendments, but would still allow very young children to be waived to the adult system, and it would open the door to hundreds more 16- and 17-year-old children being automatically transferred to the adult system.
Many rehabilitative services offered within the juvenile system are not available once a child transfers to the adult system. In the juvenile facilities, rehabilitative, educational, life-skills oriented, and age-appropriate therapeutic treatment options can occur as courts supervise their care in secure confinement up to age 21.
According to the Equal Justice Initiative, children are five times more likely to be sexually assaulted in adult facilities than in juvenile facilities and nine times more likely to die by suicide.
Children who are tried in adult court experience much higher recidivism rates than children handled in the juvenile justice system. Research shows they are 34% more likely to commit additional and more violent offenses than those children treated in the juvenile system. Moreover, a felony conviction is a hard thing to overcome.
We stand together in opposition to Senate Bill 449 and we encourage all senators in the Indiana General Assembly to please vote no on this legislation.
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John Brandon
Marion County Commission on Youth president and executive director
Tony Mason
Indianapolis Urban League president and CEO
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