Can We Reimagine Juvenile Justice for Gen Z?

Emerging Into Adulthood Is Hard for Everyone. Prison Makes It Nearly Impossible

“Emerging adult” is a new phrase for many of us, and a useful term for understanding a stage of human development that is too often overlooked. People between the ages of 18 and 25 aren’t kids, exactly, but they aren’t grownups either: a child does not magically transform into a fully mature human on their 18th birthday (an absolutely arbitrary point in time, agreed upon for such legal purposes as determining voter eligibility or conducting a military draft). Today we know that brain development continues through an individual’s mid-20s, with the …