Twisted Systems

From Center for Public Integrity

I’ve been in conversation with a nephew lately about what it means to be a man. He has hit puberty and is facing the road to adulthood with very mixed feelings. He was asking me – At what age can I drive? Get a job? Drink? Vote? Go to war? We of course then stumbled into the fact that different states have different laws about when to treat teens like adults. And it reminded me just how confused we are about adolescence, adolescents, rights and responsibilities.

The story of Selina Garcia in Raleigh, NC, age 17, brings it home. This young woman is simultaneously a minor and an adult – depending on which system you are talking to.  At child welfare, Selina is a minor.  However, in the legal system, she’s an adult. In North Carolina, once you are 16, kids are automatically directed into the adult legal system if charged with a crime.

On March 7, a school police officer decided to arrest her after a disturbance on the bus. She landed in jail (Wake County School District not having gotten the news that the school-to-prison pipeline should be closed).  She ended up staying there for three weeks in adult prison. Although the judge ordered her release on March 10, seems the foster care system thought that was the best placement for her.

There are so many advancements in aligning our public systems around youth development, but when you hear a story like this, it brings it home that we, our state governments, and state legislators have a lot more work to do.  It would be an interesting study wouldn’t it – how twisted are your state systems?