SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- A new report puts some weight behind arguments that young adults should not be prosecuted in adult court in Illinois.

The findings from the Juvenile Law Center confirmed youth incarceration rates have fallen in recent years, as officials recognize the developmental differences between adolescents and adults.

But incarceration rates haven't declined among young adults, ages 18 to 24.

Katrina Goodjoint, staff attorney for the Juvenile Law Center and the report's co-author, explained members of this age group are treated legally as adults, despite sharing some adolescent behaviors.

"They have poor decision-making, they're impulsive, they're susceptible to peer pressure and they're engaging in risky behavior," Goodjoint reported. "So, when we talk about raising the age, we talk about better ways to be more forgiving and supportive of 'emerging adults' rather than punitive."

The report calls for raising the age above 18 for juvenile court. In Illinois, emerging adults are overrepresented in the justice system, accounting for 15% of the adult population. They also account for 33% of all adult arrests, despite a 47% decrease in the number of arrests for this age group in the past decade.

Lael Chester, director of the Emerging Adult Justice Project at Columbia University Justice Lab, noted Illinois incarcerates emerging adults who are Black at one of the highest rates in the country.

"So, at a time when we're at sort of a national reckoning on racial disparities, emerging-adult justice reforms - and in particular, 'raise the age' - should be at the very top of the to-do list for legislators," Chester contended.

The Juvenile Law Center report highlights local reform initiatives in Illinois, including a young -adult court restorative justice program in North Lawndale, and Cook County's young adult pilot project for 18-to-26-year-olds charged with nonviolent offenses.

Goodjoint added community supports are also key.

"Housing, employment, education, mental health and behavioral health services; having better supports for those can actually lead to a decrease in recidivism," Goodjoint stressed. "So actually making communities safer and better supportive of emerging adults."

Vermont recently became the first state to raise the age for juvenile court to over 18. Chester noted it will gradually increase to include 20-year-olds by 2024, as emerging adults are directed to diversion programs.

"The fear that so many states have 'Oh we can't do this, the sky will fall' doesn't happen," Chester asserted. "Incorporating 18-year-olds has been a very smooth process."

In Illinois, Senate Bill 239 calls for a tiered approach to raising the age, starting with sending misdemeanor cases involving older teens to juvenile court, rather than adult court.

A class action lawsuit has been filed on behalf of young people with disabilities serving time in the Illinois Department of Corrections.

The nonprofit legal advocacy group Equip for Equality suggested state legislation passed in 2006 has largely been ignored. It mandates young people ages 18-22 who are incarcerated take classes to earn a high school diploma.

Olga Pribyl, vice president of the special education clinic at Equip for Equality, said anyone in the age group who was, or currently is, eligible for special education services is affected.

"There's a number of individuals who entered the Illinois Department of Corrections who are within this age range, and who had previously been receiving special education services at their prior educational institution," Pribyl explained. "But once they entered The Department of Corrections, they didn't receive any education."

Pribyl described four years of negotiations on the issue as unsuccessful, which led to the lawsuit being filed against the Illinois Departments of Corrections and Juvenile Justice, and the Illinois State Board of Education.

The group worries young people with disabilities are not getting essential support or accommodation for their schooling while they are incarcerated. It said the consequences are far-reaching in terms of future schooling, vocational training and employment opportunities upon their release.

Pribyl argued getting a diploma can turn young lives around.

"When they exit the system, they're ready to be employed and can be participating members of the community and not go back into the system," Pribyl emphasized. "Statistics show that without an education, the rate of recidivism is a lot higher for these individuals."

Youth in custody can receive GED preparation. Pribyl added her group would like to see them receive high school credit-bearing courses instead. The Illinois Juvenile Justice Commission listed 446 juveniles in the state's 16 detention facilities as of this spring.

The number of youth held in juvenile justice facilities in California and across the U.S. dropped 75% between 2000 and 2022 - according to a new policy brief from the Sentencing Project.

Researchers say it reflects big declines in youth offending and arrests - and lower rates of incarceration during the pandemic.

Josh Rovner, director of youth justice with the Sentencing Project, said this contradicts frequent assertions by politicians and commentators that youth crime is out of control.

"It's surprising to many people in the country that believe that things are always getting worse," said Rovner, "that believe that this generation of kids is worse than any generation that came before it, when the evidence doesn't back that up at all."

California has been on the forefront of juvenile justice reform.

The state closed the last of its youth prisons last year, moving to a county-based model to keep children closer to family and community-based programs.

The state also banned almost all prosecution of children under age 12, and ended the transfer of 14- and 15-year-olds to adult court.

Rovner said youth are much less likely to re-offend when they are spared incarceration - and instead enter programs that emphasize mentoring, family therapy, and restorative justice.

"Some people argued drops in incarceration would only lead to increases in offending," said Rovner. "The opposite happened. In fact, by locking up fewer kids, offending continued to drop. So successes can build upon successes, but there is still so much work to do."

State data show that the number of youth in California juvenile facilities stood at almost 2,800 in 2023 - a dramatic drop from just over 11,000 in 2002.




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A Grand Island-based organization is offering a diversion program cited in a new report as one of the most effective with at-risk youths.

The intervention program is Multi-Systemic Therapy, or MST, which the Mid-Plains Center has offered for more than 20 years. In The Sentencing Project's report, MST is identified as having contributed to the 75% decline in youth incarceration between 2000 and 2022.

Chase Francl, president and CEO of MidPlains, explained the approach is to involve all of the "systems" contributing to or affected by a youth's dysfunction.

"You can work with the child, great, but if he still has the same peers that are driving this, you need to be working with the family and help them," Francl asserted. "How do you set limits on this? Your child's sneaking out at night; let's look at what that does. Let's look at how it's impacting school performance. Let's be talking with the teachers."

Mid-Plains therapists work in Kearney, Grand Island, Hastings, York and Lincoln. Francl noted youths are typically involved with therapy for 12 weeks, and the program has decreased long-term rearrests by more than 70%.

Josh Rovner, director of youth justice for The Sentencing Project, said it is not surprising incarceration has some of the worst outcomes for young people who get into trouble.

"Among the things that matter most for young people to achieve is to have a positive peer group and to have the support of their parents and other caring adults in their lives," Rovner outlined. "Sending kids away from home into locked facilities provides neither of those things."

Francl added keeping the youth at home is a major goal for the majority of the young people and families they serve.

"Typically, where we get called is, 'This situation's on fire; this is our last chance at putting it out. Would you guys come in and see if you can salvage the situation?'" Francl observed. "If we can't be successful with this, this youth is getting placed out of the home, whether that's a group home, whether that's detention."

The Mid-Plains MST program has had more than 90% of youths remain at home while enrolled, and more than 97% have had no new arrests. Francl stressed although the majority of referrals come from the court system, court involvement is not a requirement. He added he has been told there would be enough youths to fill the program if they doubled their staff tomorrow.


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