NCCD and National Youth Justice Awareness Month

October is National Youth Justice Awareness Month, and as it comes to an end NCCD hopes to raise awareness about youth prosecuted in the adult criminal justice system. Juvenile offenders are often treated as adults for serious crimes, placed in solitary confinement, and labeled as delinquents by law enforcement officials. Such practices are damaging to youth, especially those who have suffered childhood trauma, as their emotional and mental capacities are still developing.

October is National Youth Justice Awareness Month, and as it comes to an end NCCD hopes to raise awareness about youth prosecuted in the adult criminal justice system. Juvenile offenders are often treated as adults for serious crimes, placed in solitary confinement, and labeled as delinquents by law enforcement officials. Such practices are damaging to youth, especially those who have suffered childhood trauma, as their emotional and mental capacities are still developing. NCCD would like to wrap up Youth Justice Awareness Month with a special blog post urging states to change their practices and reject the myth that “adult crime” warrants “adult time.”

For more background, click here to read “Treating Youthful Offenders as Youth Benefits Everyone,” a recent blog by NCCD’s Vice President Kathy Park. And check out our 2007 report “Attitudes of U.S. Voters Toward Youth Crime and the Justice System.”