The issue of adjudicating children and young people to the adult system for behavior they allegedly engage in while legally still children is an issue of injustice in all 50 US states. There is no evidence that this ghastly legal trickery is effective at anything except increasing suffering. 

Melissa Marini Švigelj is a Cota-Robles fellow and Doctoral Candidate at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is also an award-winning, retired public high school teacher. Extending upon the advocacy and activism she engaged in during her career as an educator- her scholarship, research, and art engage the entwined vines of healing, educating, and storytelling.