How the Law Treats Kids Who Didn’t Grow Up Like Kavanaugh

Many American teenagers—especially low-income youth of color—who commit crimes end up in adult courts, jails, and prisons, suffering lifelong consequences for decisions made as kids. Those who end up with felony convictions face ongoing barriers to employment, housing, and voting. This is not the typical trajectory for white kids who attend prep school, as Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh did, and presumably have access to good lawyers, author Josh Rovner points out. A senior advocacy associate at The Sentencing Project, Rovner would like to use this moment of national reflection to suggest that all young people receive more leniency, based on research showing that most of them outgrow their propensity for criminal behavior. Read Rovner’s full article here.