Juvenile Justice System

Guest: Nadia Mozaffar, Senior Attorney, Juvenile Law Center, Co-Writer, National Report "Credit Overdue" The US has a different justice system for children who commit crimes. They’re locked up separately from adult offenders and typically face different punishment. The underlying idea being that kids are still developing–their brains, their behaviors, and the hope would be that after detention, a teen could turn his or her life around. Education is foundational to that theory–so kids in the juvenile justice system spend a lot of their time taking classes so they don’t fall behind. But too often, that time studying behind bars turns out to be wasted for youth in the juvenile justice system.