Whereas the historical role of the juvenile court system is to rehabilitate and treat youthful offenders while holding them accountable and maintaining public safety, and is therefore better equipped to work with youth than the punitive nature of the adult criminal justice system; Whereas youth are developmentally different from adults and these differences have been documented by research on the adolescent brain and acknowledged by the United States and State Supreme Courts and many State and Federal laws that prohibit youth under age 18 from taking on major adult responsibilities such as voting, jury duty, and military service; Whereas youth who are placed under the commitment of the juvenile court system are able to access age-appropriate services and education, and remain closer to their families, all of which reduces the likelihood of future offending; Whereas an estimated 76,000 youth are tried, sentenced, or incarcerated as adults every year in the United States and most of the youth are prosecuted for nonviolent offenses; Whereas most laws allowing the prosecuting of youth as adults were enacted prior to research evidence by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention demonstrating that prosecuting youth in adult court actually decreases public safety as, on average, they are 34 percent more likely to commit future crimes than youth retained in the juvenile system; Whereas youth of color and youth with disabilities and mental health issues are disproportionally represented at all stages of the criminal justice system; Whereas it is harmful to public safety and to young offenders to confine youth in adult jails or prisons where they are significantly more likely to be physically and sexually assaulted and where they are often placed in solitary confinement