A bill moved forward this week that would set a minimum age for juvenile delinquency in New Jersey at 14.

Now that's the age the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child set in 2019 and subsequently urged all countries to adopt as their minimum age.

New Jersey currently has no age minimum for juvenile delinquency, but a bill was introduced this year that adopts the 14 year old minimum.

It's had bipartisan support in the legislature, but it's not without controversy.

I'm joined right now by Yannick Wood, who recently testified in support of the bill in Trenton.

Yannick great to have you with us tonight.

Thanks for being here.

I want to start with what can you tell us about why the United Nations convention recently set the age of 14 for juvenile justice, delinquency.

Why that age?

Well, that age is a recognition of the very important developments in child psychology and brain science of the delayed development in for youth.

When it comes to impulse control, when it comes to decision making and being able to appreciate the consequences of one's actions.

I mean, we've all been young people who we've all been youth.

So we are we understand, you know, the mistakes that we've made in the past and for the longest time governments and different states have been criminalizing youth conduct and misbehavior when now there's a greater recognition that that youth misbehavior should just be treated simply as that misbehavior and not criminalized.

Yeah, I was surprised to see that some states have the age of six or seven actually set for the age that a youth, a child could be arrested for for some kind of behavior.

But here in New Jersey, as this bill was considered we heard some pushback from Republican lawmakers, including Senator Declan O'Scanlon and Assemblyman Brian Bergen, who say that they're concerned this law passing this bill could allow for gangs to encourage 13 year olds or younger to commit violent acts or could possibly leave victims out of assistance, funds and services.

What do you say to that?

Well, I have a few thoughts about that already as it is.

There are already mechanisms with which youth who have certain types of mental health issues or behavioral issues could be treated outside of the criminal context.

So I think it's a mischaracterization to say that a youth needs to be prosecuted in order for them to actually stop that that that misbehavior for them to actually get that treatment.

And they also had the option for out-of-home placements for those young people.

So I think it's really important for the viewers to know that if a young person does commit some sort of violent act, they're not just going to get away with it.

They are going to be given the services whether it be substance use, mental health services, if they can't be at home, there are out-of-home placements for them to protect the public, but also to protect that youth as well.

We all know that youth are impressionable.

They are susceptible to social pressures and they shouldn't be criminalized for that.

What can you tell us about the impact that making this change would have on racial disparities that exist right now in New Jersey's criminal justice system?

Yes, And I'm glad that you recognize the the racial disparities New Jersey.

We are a very we like to think of ourselves as a very progressive state.

But we had the worst racial disparities in youth incarceration in the whole country, where a black youth is 28.6 times more likely to be incarcerated.

Than the white youth.

So how this bill, if it's signed, if it's passed, signed into law, how this will help alleviate that is it's not going to be sending young, the youngest people, elementary age young people, into that type of system.

So hopefully, if we could prevent youth from entering into that system in the first place, then they can receive the treatment that they need in their own communities and not enter into that justice system, which ends up resulting in recidivism and then aging out of that system.

It's the adult incarceration and the problems later on in life.

Yannick Wood from New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, great insight.

Thank you.

Thank you.