ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews some of the continuing consequences of punitive policies and also identifies developments that reaffirm juvenile justice. It contends that states have not sufficiently afforded youth due process guarantees as anticipated by Gault. Despite California's initiative to restore discretion to judges in determining who gets waived or transferred to adult court, and Vermont's ending direct file, 12 other states and the District of Columbia retain policies that invest considerable authority in prosecutorial discretion. As punitive statutory provisions regarding age, offense, and jurisdiction resulted in more youth prosecuted as adults and incarcerated in adult correctional institutions, initiatives have emerged to "get children out of adult courts, jails, and prisons" and to "raise the age" of juvenile court jurisdiction. Federal and state initiatives have attempted to address the disproportionate number of racial and ethnic minority youth in the system. In Gault the justices determined that the right to appeal in juvenile proceedings would be left to individual states to decide.
