should a child under the age of 14 be subject to criminal arrest prosecution and punishment for illegal activity that's a question the United Nations recently took on and their answer was no the U.N has called for all countries to set a minimum age of 14 for a child to face criminal responsibility citing the science of brain development that shows kids younger than 14 experience trauma in juvenile detention but New Jersey is one of 24 states that has no age minimum and as Ted Goldberg explains several State lawmakers want to change that Calvin bass says he was 10 years old during his first run-ins with the law he says after a few arrests the threat of prison wasn't much of a deterrent for him I was a little nervous because I was young and I heard a lot of bad things and once I went through the first time being incarcerated it became like a rite of passage for me like I went through it I know everybody know I was and nobody tried me a new bill in Trenton would have kept him out of juvie for another four years State lawmakers have advanced a bill that would set New Jersey's minimum age of criminal responsibility at 14.

New Jersey is one of 24 states that don't have a minimum age for children to be arrested or prosecuted as a criminal from 10 years old four years four years difference you're no longer adolescent you're a teenager so you can think a little bit it's consistent with the recommendations of the United Nations committee on the rights of the child and it's consistent with the most common minimum age of criminal responsibility uh internationally Bill sponsor Raj Mukherjee says this doesn't mean kids are let off the hook for committing crimes it just means their punishment would be doled out in a family court setting rather than a prison setting it could mean that there's programs or substance abuse programs or whatever but the path to Rehabilitation doesn't go through the stigma of the permanent label even if sealed of delinquency and it doesn't put kids into Juvenile Detention settings cognitively they do not reach full developmental or cognitive capacity until they are at least 14 and actually somewhere between 14 and 16. with regard to their judgment their decision making the executive functioning that allows them to make good decisions criminal justice Advocates say if New Jersey doesn't pass the law it could lead to more troubled kids becoming career criminals the system erects barriers to education it causes economic hardships causes physical harming and disruption mental and spiritual wellness and development of our young people the harms that attach to having to be fingerprinted having to be photographed having to go through the arrest process are enormous and potentially lifelong while bass is happy about this new bill he's not sure how much of a difference it would have made in his life he thinks the state should do more to help rehabilitate minors when they get arrested and do a better job of helping the formerly incarcerated reacclimate to society and we would do more evaluations mental evaluations of the young people that's going to uh Juvenile Detention halls and things and set up certain programs you know maybe academic programs vocational programs and get the opportunity to really evaluate these young individuals what we really need to see in running parallel to this legislation are um significant investments in uh things like restorative justice and violence Interruption hubs investing in safe and secure housing for our our young people and their families originally the bill set the minimum age at 12 but that was bumped up in committee to 14. for NJ Spotlight news I'm Ted Goldberg