On May 25, Governor Bill Ritter quietly signed into law House Bill 1413. In contrast to the fanfare around other criminal rehabilitation bills and the governor’s energy package there has been little to no mention from the Governor’s office of reforms to Colorado’s direct file system. While the bill is a small step, it brings Colorado closer to policy standards in other states for treating juveniles as adults. This badly needed reform will ultimately reduce juvenile recidivism (the number of children returning to prison) and lower the long-term cost to Colorado’s taxpayers.

More than a dozen studies show that adolescent brain development inhibits a child’s ability to make deliberative decisions. Children, therefore, cannot be held fully culpable for their crimes. And yet, even under the new act, children can be direct filed as adults (with no hearing before a judge) at ages as young as 14.

A report by the Sentencing Project published in the year 2000 states, in summary, that:

The move to send more children into the adult criminal justice system is a radical rethinking of the traditional view that delinquent children need help to turn their lives around and belong in a system that focuses primarily on rehabilitation rather than punishment. Remarkably, the nationwide transformation to this more punitive approach is taking place despite the continuing, multiyear, decline in juvenile crime.

As the number of juvenile cases heard in criminal court increases, more people involved in the system are recognizing that adult courts are inappropriate and unjust settings for children whose developmental immaturity puts them at a disadvantage at every stage in the system. There is mounting evidence of the long-term and damaging consequences suffered by children who are imprisoned in adult prisons and jails. Furthermore, the imposition of adult punishments, far from deterring crime, actually increases the likelihood that a young person will commit further criminal offenses.

The transfer of increasing numbers of children from juvenile to criminal courts is continuing in the face of mounting evidence of the harm it does both to the children and to public safety – once again “tough on crime” politics undermines good public policy.

Thankfully, the trends identified in the report seem to be reversing. The passage of House Bill 1413 is proof positive that good public policy will no longer be held hostage by “tough on crime” politics. Colorado’s district attorneys would do well to recognize that fact by giving their power to file adult charges back to impartial judges.