More young offenders are ending up in Florida adult courts

By Martin Merzer on 10/22/2010 @ 10:00 AM

We know that investing in early childhood programs enhances the health, education and well-being of children and gives them a better chance of fulfilling their full potential, but here's new evidence that early investment also saves money for taxpayers:

Criminal justice officials say that a rising number of Florida youths are committing crimes so violent or otherwise so serious that they are ending up in the adult court system, where many spend their rest of the lives.

In an article in the Orlando Sentinel, University of Central Florida criminal-justice professor Kenneth Adams says the juvenile-justice system is oriented toward rehabilitating children, so it offers few alternatives for punishing young offenders who pose serious threats to the community. Other experts agree.

"We try to keep them in the juvenile system as much as we can because exposing them to prison life is almost a guarantee they will be back." Carrie Lee, director of the Juvenile Justice Center at Barry University School of Law, told the newspaper

The cost in enormous, in terms of lost human potential and squandered public resources.

Studies show that $1 invested in high-quality early childhood programs can save society at least $4 in costs associated with more prisons, more police and prosecution, more remedial programs, higher health-care obligations.

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