More than 100 years ago, Illinois became the first state to create a separate court for juveniles. Now, Illinois is once again changing the way it treats young offenders. Read the three part series here.

A sometimes overlooked part of the justice system is the one which deals with defendants under the age of 18: juvenile justice. And though the United States has made great progress in how we treat errant teenagers, there are still problems, particularly with providing young defendants with adequate — or any — counsel. On the 50th anniversary of the case which enshrined a juvenile’s right to counsel, top Justice Department officials Karol Mason and Lisa Foster write about the work still to be done.

Too often, girls end up in Maryland's juvenile justice system not because they are a danger to society but because society is a danger to them. The are far more likely to have suffered physical, sexual or emotional abuse than boys who are committed to juvenile facilities, yet they tend to receive harsher punishments for lesser offenses — and get fewer chances for rehabilitation and education. When they act out in anger, fear or frustration at circumstances they did not create and cannot control, they are too often treated as criminals, not victims, a self-fulfilling prophecy that puts them at even greater risk.

In Missouri, large institutions were replaced with small facilities, closer to offenders' homes. Teens live in pods of 10 with two counselors. They wear their own clothes, sleep in dorm-style rooms and address the staff by first names.

Mark Steward, retired Director of the Missouri Division of Youth Services and founder Missouri Youth Services Institute. (Photo: Missouri Youth Services Institute)

The doors are locked for the high-risk offenders, but no matter the setting, the focus is on therapy instead of controlling the youth, said Mark Steward, one of the architects of the Missouri system. They are reporting a much higher success rate than Wisconsin

The National Collaboration for Youth, which represents national youth serving organizations around the country such as YMCA’s, Girls and Boys Clubs, Generations United and my organization, Youth Advocate Programs, recently released the report, Beyond Bars: Keeping Young People Safe at Home and Out of Youth Prisons. The report promotes a new community-solutions oriented approach for justice-involved young people, and makes the case that systems and communities should close youth prisons and develop an array of strong community supports for young people in conflict with the law.

The 2012 Supreme Court decision in Miller v. Alabama held that mandatory sentences of life without parole for juveniles were unconstitutional.

The court’s 2016 decision in Montgomery v. Louisiana said the Miller decision was retroactive, meaning that everyone sentenced to life without parole as a juvenile is entitled to have their sentences reconsidered.

The next legal question for juvenile lifers that could potentially come from the United States Supreme Court is whether a jury or judge should be the one to consider and impose the new sentences.