Adapting Practices in the Justice System for Emerging Adults

Author’s note: Lael Chester, a con­sul­tant to the Foun­da­tion, co-wrote this post.

A crit­i­cal ques­tion for the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s emerg­ing adult jus­tice pilot has been: What if pro­ba­tion offi­cers and defense attor­neys adopt prac­tices and poli­cies that seek to sup­port emerg­ing adults’ healthy development? 

Answers are emerg­ing from sev­er­al pilot juris­dic­tions, known as Emerg­ing Adult Jus­tice Inno­va­tion Sites, which include the Nebras­ka Pro­ba­tion Depart­ment and the Mass­a­chu­setts Com­mit­tee for Pub­lic Coun­sel Ser­vices (CPCS). Since 2024, they have been imple­ment­ing a new devel­op­men­tal frame­work for youth mak­ing the crit­i­cal tran­si­tion from ado­les­cence to adult­hood from ages 18 to 25. They are dis­cov­er­ing some sim­ple but impact­ful ways to adapt their prac­tices to be more devel­op­men­tal­ly appro­pri­ate and effective. 

Sup­port Exec­u­tive Func­tion­ing Skills 

As the pre-frontal cor­tex of the brain con­tin­ues to devel­op into the mid-20’s, exec­u­tive func­tion­ing can be a chal­lenge for emerg­ing adults. This affects their abil­i­ty to plan, orga­nize, pri­or­i­tize, meet dead­lines and man­age com­plex tasks. So, when emerg­ing adults are faced with a myr­i­ad of tasks, such as the lengthy to-do lists often involved with a crim­i­nal court case, they may miss impor­tant appoint­ments — court appear­ances, sched­uled drug tests and the like — and some­times even dis­en­gage from the whole process. 

As Duci Goncalves, deputy chief coun­sel of the Mass­a­chu­setts Youth Advo­ca­cy Divi­sion at CPCS explained, ​“We know that many young peo­ple strug­gle to keep track of appoint­ments, whether they are involved in the crim­i­nal legal sys­tem or not. But the stakes are so much high­er for our clients.” The attor­neys find that even small things, such as pro­vid­ing extra reminders for court dates and help­ing their clients meet dead­lines, are con­tribut­ing to more suc­cess­ful case outcomes. 

Use Plain Lan­guage and Avoid Legalese

The Mass­a­chu­setts pub­lic defend­ers’ office has been col­lect­ing infor­ma­tion about the edu­ca­tion expe­ri­ences of their emerg­ing adult clients, includ­ing whether they have ever been diag­nosed with a learn­ing dis­abil­i­ty. Ear­ly and avail­able data show that about half of the emerg­ing adult clients do. As a result, the modes of com­mu­ni­ca­tion can be important. 

“It makes sense to try to use plain lan­guage and avoid or at least take extra time to explain the legalese,” said defense attor­ney Har­ris Krin­sky. ​“How can we expect our young clients to par­tic­i­pate in their own defense if they don’t under­stand what’s going on?” 

Take Time to Build Rapport

Emerg­ing adults are par­tic­u­lar­ly sen­si­tive to respect, as laid out in a 30-page report by researchers at Tem­ple Uni­ver­si­ty. Yet many aspects of the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem can feel dehu­man­iz­ing and insen­si­tive, mak­ing it dif­fi­cult for a pro­ba­tion offi­cer or defense attor­ney to con­nect with the young per­son they are try­ing to sup­port. As an inno­va­tion site, the Nebras­ka Pro­ba­tion Depart­ment decid­ed to change its prac­tice guide­lines to not only enable but also encour­age spe­cial­ized pro­ba­tion offi­cers to get to know the young peo­ple they are super­vis­ing. They are tak­ing the time to ask: What are your inter­ests? What are your goals? 

“If you take a lit­tle bit more time with an 18-year-old to build rap­port, to build a rela­tion­ship, to build trust, that’s going to go a lot fur­ther than just our tra­di­tion­al, ​‘here’s your pro­ba­tion order, and I’ll see you next week at drug test­ing,’” explained Eric Maly, who is with Nebraska’s pro­ba­tion division.

Get more tips on how prac­ti­tion­ers can more effec­tive­ly sup­port emerg­ing adults

Relat­ed Resources: 

What is Emerg­ing Adult Justice? 

Jus­tice Frame­work for Emerg­ing Adults