In Part 1 of our two-part weekly perspective series on youth justice, we talked about the different paths a kid may take through the system. We also discussed the science of why kids are different than adults and should be treated as such by our laws. This fact was underscored in 2012, when the Supreme Court’s ruling in Miller v. Alabama found that mandatory life sentences without the possibility of parole for juveniles convicted of homicide are unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment. Despite the Supreme Court’s ruling, Missouri has been slow on the uptake. To comply with the Supreme Court’s decision, the Missouri legislature passed a bill in 2016 allowing individuals sentenced to life as juveniles to petition for parole after serving 25 years. However, the parole review process has created many obstacles that have minimized the impact of this policy. Approximately 20 of the 100 incarcerated individuals sentenced to life sentences as children have been released to date.
Raise the Age
Raise the Age is one of the most familiar youth justice policy issues from recent years. Raise the Age campaigns have focused on raising the age for which children are automatically treated as adults by the criminal legal system. In 2018, the Missouri legislature passed Raise the Age legislation, after years of advocacy from Empower Missouri and others throughout the state. This bill changed the standard age at which teenagers can be tried as an adult, raising it from 17 to 18 years old. Before this bill was enacted, all 17-year-olds in Missouri were treated as adults by the criminal legal system. Unfortunately, due to a technical error with the bill, it was not fully enacted until the legislature approved the additional funding for juvenile court and detention services in 2021.
In contrast to older kids, the lower end of the age spectrum (the “floor” versus the “ceiling”) has received relatively little attention from policymakers. All states have transfer provisions that allow juveniles to be prosecuted as adults for more serious offenses, regardless of their age. In Missouri, children can be prosecuted as adults for certain offenses as young as age twelve.
Recently Passed Policies
SB 754, a criminal legal omnibus bill passed during the 2024 legislative session, included several provisions related to juveniles in the system. These included increasing the general minimum age for juveniles to be certified as adults from twelve to fourteen, and setting a minimum age for certification for a specific list of serious felonies as twelve. Before this law, there was no minimum age for certification for serious felonies for Missouri children. SB 754 also created a new requirement for OSCA (the Office of State Court Administrators) to collect and share data on juvenile certification, which we believe will help us advocate more effectively to raise the age for certification even higher in future sessions. A provision in SB 754 requires the DOC to provide treatment and rehabilitation programs for juveniles who are certified as adults, including a high school equivalency program. Despite some positive steps forward, SB 754 also added Armed Criminal Action to the list of offenses for which a child can be certified as an adult, a move sure to increase the already growing number of kids being certified.
Future Policy Reforms
There are many promising directions for future juvenile justice reforms in Missouri. From changes to sentencing policy on both the front end and the back end, to addressing pieces of the legal process that are entrenched with inequities, there are endless opportunities for policy change. Policies that would require special consideration to be taken for emerging adults have been gaining traction in other states: these policies are based on the understanding that individuals in their later teen years and twenties still face many of the same developmental challenges that make adolescents less culpable for their crimes. Second look sentencing takes the same approach from the back end, requiring that those serving lengthy sentences for crimes committed as young people (say, under the age of 25) receive “second look” resentencing after serving a certain amount of time. Reforms to the certification process, such as requiring an evidentiary hearing to be held for all youth certifications, would go a long way to help ensure equity in who is certified. On the other end of the spectrum, reforms to the parole process are needed so that those who already qualify for consideration of release for crimes committed under age eighteen are given an actual shot at release.
Specific policy changes that advocates in Missouri are fighting for include:
- Probably Cause Hearings: Advocates support creating a new requirement for probable cause hearings any time a child is facing incarceration, whether in the juvenile or adult systems. This is not the current standard practice in the state. Having a probable cause hearing early on in the process would lead to faster case resolutions and the reduced use of detainment for children.
- Anti-Shackling Legislation: The use of shackles on youth in court proceedings is also still common practice, and youth justice advocates have pushed for a shackling ban. You can read our testimony in support of anti-shackling legislation here.
If you would like to join a newly formed working group focused on youth justice issues, or otherwise connect on this topic, please contact Criminal Justice Policy Manager Gwen Smith-Moore at [email protected].
You can also click here to RSVP for our upcoming free town hall event, “Kids Deserve Better: A Discussion of Youth Justice Policy Beyond Raise the Age” on Wednesday, October 29th, 6:00 – 7:30 p.m. at the Deaconess Center for Child Well-Being in St. Louis.
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