Tips for Educating Justice Stakeholders About Emerging Adults

Three juris­dic­tions test­ing a devel­op­men­tal approach for young adults involved in the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem are find­ing that expand­ing buy-in among judges, attor­neys and oth­er stake­hold­ers is essen­tial to imple­men­ta­tion success.

Emerg­ing adult jus­tice is a reac­tion to the dis­mal results for the age group. The lat­est nation­al data reflect long-term trends. Peo­ple aged 18 to 25 are over-rep­re­sent­ed through­out the crim­i­nal legal sys­tem, have the high­est recidi­vism rates and expe­ri­ence the most extreme racial and eth­nic dis­par­i­ties, par­tic­u­lar­ly in cor­rec­tion­al facil­i­ties. Too often, the jus­tice sys­tem fails to rec­og­nize the devel­op­men­tal needs of this pop­u­la­tion and treats emerg­ing adults in almost the same man­ner as old­er, ful­ly mature adults.

Fol­low­ing a com­pet­i­tive request for pro­pos­als in 2022, the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion award­ed grants and tech­ni­cal assis­tance from the Emerg­ing Adult Jus­tice Project to three juris­dic­tions — Mass­a­chu­setts, Nebras­ka and Wash­ing­ton, D.C. — to help test and refine the emerg­ing adult jus­tice devel­op­men­tal frame­work. The frame­work rec­om­mends shifts to prac­tices and poli­cies that sup­port young adults’ matu­ri­ty and tran­si­tion toward a law-abid­ing life. 

Expand­ing Buy-in

The pilot juris­dic­tions are expe­ri­enc­ing a com­mon chal­lenge: per­suad­ing judges, attor­neys, pro­ba­tion offi­cers and oth­er jus­tice stake­hold­ers to adopt a devel­op­men­tal approach for emerg­ing adults.

Edu­ca­tion Helps Stake­hold­ers See Emerg­ing Adults Differently

In Mass­a­chu­setts, the Com­mit­tee for Pub­lic Coun­sel Ser­vices (CPCS), the statewide pub­lic defend­er agency, has focused on edu­ca­tion to build sup­port for the devel­op­men­tal frame­work. Lawyers par­tic­i­pat­ing in the pilot share research on emerg­ing adult devel­op­ment with judges and incor­po­rate devel­op­men­tal sci­ence into their advocacy.

That effort has gained trac­tion fol­low­ing the Mass­a­chu­setts Supreme Judi­cial Court’s 2024 rul­ing in Com­mon­wealth v. Shel­don Mat­tis, which barred life-with­out-parole sen­tences for peo­ple who were ages 18 to 20 at the time of their offense. The court cit­ed a grow­ing body of research show­ing that emerg­ing adult­hood is a dis­tinct stage of development.

CPCS is also train­ing defense attor­neys to rep­re­sent emerg­ing adult clients in devel­op­men­tal­ly appro­pri­ate ways.“Having been in adult court, I saw that mag­i­cal­ly when some­body turns 18, they’re not treat­ed like an ado­les­cent any­more, even though their brain is still devel­op­ing,” said Har­ris Krin­sky, staff coun­sel in CPCS’ Youth Advo­ca­cy Division.

Data Can Help Address Skepticism

In Nebras­ka, lead­ers have found that data can be a pow­er­ful tool for expand­ing sup­port for the framework.

The pilot, led by the Admin­is­tra­tive Office of the Courts and Pro­ba­tion, has encoun­tered skep­ti­cism from some stake­hold­ers who view the devel­op­men­tal approach as being too lenient. Eric Maly, with Nebraska’s pro­ba­tion divi­sion, said some crit­ics equate the frame­work with ​“putting on kids’ gloves” when work­ing with young adults.

His response is straight­for­ward: Exist­ing approach­es are not pro­duc­ing bet­ter out­comes. Data show­ing his­tor­i­cal­ly high recidi­vism rates among peo­ple ages 18 to 25 has helped make the case for try­ing new strategies.

Nebras­ka lead­ers plan to con­tin­ue col­lect­ing and ana­lyz­ing infor­ma­tion from pilot sites, adapt­ing prac­tices based on what they learn and shar­ing those find­ings with jus­tice part­ners across the state.

Col­lab­o­ra­tion Is Essen­tial for Long-Term Change

Across the pilot sites, lead­ers have learned that last­ing change depends on engag­ing a broad range of stake­hold­ers rather than rely­ing sole­ly on ear­ly champions.

Whether through edu­ca­tion, data analy­sis or cross-sys­tem part­ner­ships, juris­dic­tions are find­ing that imple­men­ta­tion requires judges, attor­neys, pro­ba­tion offi­cers and ser­vice providers to share an under­stand­ing of emerg­ing adult­hood and its impli­ca­tions for pol­i­cy and practice.

What’s Next

The Foundation’s emerg­ing adult jus­tice pilot will con­tin­ue to answer two crit­i­cal ques­tions and share its bur­geon­ing knowledge: 

1. What if the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem rec­og­nized the dis­tinct devel­op­men­tal stage of emerg­ing adult­hood (ages 18 to 25)? 
2. What if pro­ba­tion offi­cers and defense attor­neys adopt­ed prac­tices and poli­cies that sought to sup­port emerg­ing adults’ healthy development? 

Relat­ed Resources

What is emerg­ing adult jus­tice? 
Three Juris­dic­tions to Test Jus­tice Frame­work for Young Adults
Review the appli­ca­tion call to par­tic­i­pate in the Jus­tice Frame­work for Emerg­ing Adults