It s the place men and women come after they have been arrested, and where they can be incarcerated for up to a year. Forty boys, ages 13-17, live here, too. They are accused or convicted of crimes ranging from murder to computer fraud. They are adults in the eyes of the law. For a decade, Duval County has been at the forefront of a national movement to shift violent teenagers away from the juvenile justice system into the adult courts and jails.
Many people believe that s where they belong.
I m grateful we have the ability to punish them. Jacksonville has no shortage of cases in which young men commit crimes so heinous it s difficult to imagine granting them leniency. Yet kids who commit crimes do not become adults merely because the community is afraid of them. They remain trapped within the confines of their underdeveloped minds, forced to reckon with the adult penalties for their childish behavior. Juveniles transferred to adult court cannot use their immaturity as a mitigating circumstance and, according to some observers, their new adult status offers little opportunity for redemption.