Can kids go to prison? A legal expert explains how young people can be tried and sentenced as adults

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com.

Can kids go to prison? – Artie, age 10, New York City

The United States has a special justice system for people under age 18. But youth can be tried in adult courts and go to adult jails and prisons for certain crimes.

The youth justice system was created because young people are different from adults. The part of the brain that helps control emotions and actions doesn’t finish developing until your mid-20s. Research shows that most people who commit crimes in their youth grow out of this behavior as they mature.

For this reason, juvenile courts and detention centers are designed to protect young people and help them return to normal life. That’s supposed to be balanced with holding young people accountable in ways that reflect their age and degree of maturity.

The Supreme Court has recognized that children are not little adults. It ruled in 2005 that sentencing a person under 18 to death violated the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishments.

In 2010 the court reached the same conclusion about sentencing someone under 18 to life in prison without the possibility of parole for crimes other than murder. And in 2012 it ruled that states could not mandate life without parole for people under 18 even if they committed murder.

Juvenile court is not ‘kiddy court’

Many young people who end up in court are accused of delinquency – actions that break the criminal law, such as stealing a car or breaking into someone’s house. If they are found guilty, the consequences can be serious.

They may be put on probation and supervised in their community. But they can also be placed in residential programs or committed to locked juvenile facilities until age 18, or 21 in some states.

Young people can also be charged with what are called status offenses – actions that are illegal for people under age 18, such as skipping school, running away from home or being unable to follow the rules at home. Status offenders can be sent to foster care or group homes, where they are not locked up. They are not supposed to be placed with delinquents in juvenile facilities.

Children in court

The U.S. is more willing than many other countries to try young children in the criminal system. This is true even though the Supreme Court ruled in 1960 that no person should be prosecuted in any court system unless they have a factual and rational understanding of the charges they face and can effectively communicate with their lawyer.

Many youth under age 14 lack these abilities and are not legally competent to stand trial. This was an important reason Massachusetts, where I served as a juvenile court judge, raised the minimum age of juvenile court jurisdiction for all offenses to 12 in 2018.

However, 24 other states and four U.S. territories have no minimum age for trying children in juvenile court. Among the 26 states that do have a minimum, that age is 10. Fourteen states and four territories allow children of any age to be detained or locked up.

The American Bar Association recommends that 14 should be the minimum age of prosecution. That’s the most common standard in other countries.

Trying young people as adults

In every state, cases that involve serious offenses, such as armed robbery or rape, can be moved to the adult criminal system. Generally, youth can be transferred to adult courts at age 14 for certain offenses. Some states allow transfer of people as young as age 10.

This can happen for different reasons. Some states allow prosecutors to ask juvenile court judges to waive jurisdiction after a hearing on the case. Other states let prosecutors directly file cases in the criminal system. Still others have laws that automatically send youth to the criminal legal system solely based on the offense charged.

The Supreme Court ruled in 1966 that transfer to adult court should not occur without a statement of findings or reasons by a judge. When judges considered these requests, the court held, they should take into account the nature of the offense, the impact on the victim, and the offender’s age, maturity, prior history and prospects for treatment.

But in states that automatically steer cases to adult court, or let prosecutors choose to file charges there, hearings don’t occur.

Where you live matters

Today, 28 states and Washington, D.C., have provisions for automatically sending youth to the adult criminal system. Data shows that this policy mainly affects people of color.

Between 2009 and 2024, for example, 80% of Maryland youth charged as adults were Black. In 2017, 84% of Alabama youth charged as adults were Black. And in Nebraska in 2024, 36% of youth transferred to the adult system were Black and 20% were Latino.

Florida prosecutes children as adults for serious crimes and sends juvenile offenders to adult prisons at higher rates than any other state. From 2009 through 2019, more than 16,000 children – some as young as 10 years old – were prosecuted as adults in Florida.

Transferring young people to adult prisons interrupts their education and social development. It also exposes them to high rates of violence by adult inmates.

What’s more, it doesn’t make the public safer. Studies show that youth who are transferred to the adult justice system are 34% more likely to commit new crimes after release than offenders who stay in the juvenile system.

Many of my fellow lawyers believe that trying young people as adults isn’t being smart on crime. In our view, the best way to keep the public safe and rehabilitate young offenders is to treat them in ways that reflect their age. That means channeling fewer young offenders into adult courts and not allowing youth who are transferred to be locked up with adults.

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