Twenty-five. That’s the age that researchers tell us that the decision-making part of a person’s brain fully develops. Twenty-five. Hopefully that offers some consolation to every flabbergasted parent or teacher whose ever dumbfoundedly asked a kid “What in the world were you thinking?” after they’ve made some seemingly insane choice, and had that kid look back at them, equally amazed, and answer just as earnestly as you please, “I don’t know.” Well, here’s your answer . . . part of it, anyway. Twenty-five.
Youth don’t think like adults. It’s not that they don’t want to. (Most—if not all—of them think that they are way more mature than they actually are.) The truth of the matter is that they don’t have the capacity to think like adults and won’t until they’re about twenty-five years old. The juvenile justice system is founded on the understanding that kids are not miniature adults. They’re kids. While we don’t use their age to make excuses for their behavior when it’s inappropriate, we definitely take their age into consideration when determining how to respond to their improper actions, which is why we’ve developed an entirely different system—completely separate from the adult system—to deal with young offenders.
The purpose of the CSS Restorative Justice Program is to provide diversion programs that hold youth who’ve committed offenses accountable for their actions while steering them away from the criminal justice system. But what happens when that’s not possible? What happens when a youth is formally charged with an offense and subsequently found responsible, landing them smack dab in the midst of the juvenile justice system? What happens then? Hopefully, that youth will get the support they need to get their lives back on track. That’s what Juvenile Court Counselor Steven Tadlock says he’s committed to seeing happen.
Every youth whose found responsible (the word “guilty” isn’t used in the juvenile justice system) for an offense and placed on probation is assigned a juvenile court counselor. According to Court Counselor Tadlock, his job is to supervise and mentor juveniles. He does that by locating and referring the juveniles to mental health services, community intervention programs, and placements that best suit the needs of each individual kid. The aim, Court Counselor Tadlock says, “is to help them be successful.”
