Sen. Braun: Juvenile Justice System Needs Serious Fine-Tuning

The unmooring of Washington's juvenile justice system demands serious corrective action, says State Sen. John Braun (R-Centralia).

Braun is the primary sponsor of S.B. 5278, which seeks to redress crowding and safety woes in facilities that house youth offenders. The bill passed the upper chamber unanimously on Tuesday.

At facilities like Green Hill School, the usual riff-raff is compounded by reforms allowing those convicted before 18 to stay in juvenile facilities until age 25. The result, Braun says, has been violence and mismanagement on an epidemic scale:

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The current system is failing both staff and inmates. Violent offenders are taking advantage of a system that wasn’t designed to hold them long-term, leading to dangerous conditions inside our juvenile justice facilities. JR-25 was well-intentioned, but our system was unprepared for the overcrowding that would happen.

JR-25 is the colloquial term for S.R. 6160, which Gov. Inslee signed into law in 2018. The bill's supporters would likely contend that it was more than a well-meaning Hail Mary; it was undergirded by neuroscience research. According to the NIH,

The development and maturation of the prefrontal cortex occurs primarily during adolescence and is fully accomplished at the age of 25 years. The development of the prefrontal cortex is very important for complex behavioral performance, as this region of the brain helps accomplish executive brain functions.

"Because of this," writes the Washington State Standard, "federal and state judges have ruled juveniles and young adults should be treated differently for their crimes than older adults."

But the facts on the ground unnerve Braun. He notes the prevalence of overcrowding - some facilities, he says, are totally discomposed, operating at twice over capacity.

S.B. 5278 grants the Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) the flexibility to transfer dangerous inmates over 18 to the Department of Corrections (DOC) and offers pathways for less-dangerous inmates to reintegrate into society through treatment, education or vocational support.

Alternatively, qualifying inmates can enroll in a DOC work-release program. Republican operative Tracy Ellis elaborates: "Eligible inmates would live in partial confinement while holding a job, attending college or participating in vocational training. However, their privileges could be revoked if they violate supervision conditions."