North Carolina still jails children, even for minor offenses.
It’s one of only two states whose penal system for children remains a relic of the past. Color of Change says that “of the thousands of minors processed in NC’s adult system, 80% are accused of minor crimes.”
However, this month North Carolina may vote to change this. If passed, the bill will raise the age of adult criminal prosecution to 18 for minor offenses.
Money has been the main excuse for opposition to the bill. However, research presented last year by Vera Institute of Justice shows the $71 million needed to transfer the already 31,000 incarcerated children to the juvenile system would be outweighed by $123 million in annual benefits.
Amnesty International says punishing minors as adults “ignores the differences between adults and children—differences we accept as a matter of common sense, and which science fully recognizes.”
We ask North Carolina to recognize the science, use common sense and stop jailing children.
We, the undersigned, ask North Carolina to stop punishing children as adults.
It is heartbreaking to read of Amnesty International’s 2005 Executive Summary citing the 2,225 youth offenders serving life without parole in the United States. But it encouraging to learn that the US Supreme Court, that same year, recognizing the “salient differences between adults and young offenders, abolished the death penalty for juvenile offenders.
Also according to AI’s 2005 report, “The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the world’s most universally ratified human rights treaty…. unequivocally prohibits sentencing children to life sentences without parole. Article 37(a) states: “Neither capital punishment nor life imprisonment without possibility of release shall be imposed for offenses committed by persons below eighteen years of age.”
So even if passed, NC’s bill would not do enough to protect children from unjust punishment. However it is a much needed start and way past time for action on this issue.
While most states have set the minimum age for adult prosecution as 18, North Carolina has lagged behind all others but New York in keeping it at 16.
Please delay no further any effort to put an end to jailing children.
