Kids Are Kids!

Decline & Automatic decline are Washington state laws that send juvenile defendants to adult court under certain criteria; however, they are disproportionately used for Black children. Kids are prosecuted as adults without consideration of adolescent brain development or the unique developmental process of young people when medical science is clear that brain development does not complete until age 25. Transferring youth to the adult system undermines public safety and ignores juvenile defendants' unique capacity for rehabilitation. At the same time, there is abundant evidence that is incarcerating adolescents in general, especially in adult prisons, is harmful to their well-being. For example, one study found that compared to offenders confined in juvenile facilities, juveniles in adult prison are eight times more likely to commit suicide, five times more likely to be sexually assaulted, and almost twice as likely to be attacked with a weapon by inmates and beaten by staff. Auto-decline laws thus subject troubled adolescents to harsher conditions of confinement and ignore the causal underlying mental health issues. These laws exacerbate the already-high level of trauma these young people contend with, undermine public safety, and waste enormous taxpayer resources. Imprisoning children is a cruel and racist practice we are working to abolish for good.