The state Senate passed a provision to raise the age
as part of a criminal justice reform debate last session, but it was dropped in
negotiations with the House. Instead, legislators ordered up the task force
study, which is due to be completed July 1.
Criminal justice reform advocates say the “emerging
adult” population, which encompasses younger adults still in the midst of
neurological development, can be better served in the juvenile system than by
being sent into the adult prison population.
The task force is also looking at how to tailor the
adult criminal justice system to the science showing brain development
continues well into people’s 20s. Newly elected Suffolk District Attorney
Rachael Rollins, for example, points to a new program that the county’s sheriff
started at the South Bay House of Correction creating a cellblock with
programming structured around reducing recidivism for offenders under 25, with
corrections officers trained in intervening in conflicts before resorting to
traditional measures.
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