No global data exists on the number of young adults in prison due to differences in definitions and data collection practices across countries.
While in demographic analysis, individuals between 18-25 years of age are considered young adults, there has tended to be no distinction between children and young adults in prisons and the wider criminal justice system.
In most countries, the minimum age of criminal responsibility ranges between 7-16 years and the adult criminal process is triggered at the age of 18. A limited number of jurisdictions, like Japan and South Korea classify those under 20 and 19 years respectively as children.
Some countries have adopted specialised approaches to the treatment of young adults in the criminal justice system. Such moves are prompted by research showing that the human brain continues to develop and mature until the mid-twenties and young adults who come into conflict with the law have distinct and complex needs. For instance, in Germany, young adults between 18-21 years are subject to proceedings before a specialised youth court, and judges have discretion to impose a sentence according to the juvenile law or a mitigated sentence according to adult criminal law.
More countries are adopting specialised approaches to the treatment of young adults in the criminal justice system due to their distinct and complex needs.
The Netherlands also has adopted an individualised model in trial and sentencing of young adults, either as adults or ‘juveniles’; the juvenile justice law can be applied to young adults between 18-23 years, and they may be supervised by juvenile probation services. This is meant to account for specific life trajectories and needs of young adults, though substantial discretion is provided to prosecutors on making the recommendation to apply juvenile criminal law. New Zealand permits designating persons between 18-19 years old as vulnerable young adults for the purpose of prison placement, and prison authorities must conduct a test within three days of the arrival of vulnerable young adults in prison to determine if they should be transferred to the youth unit. More recently, the state of California in the US has ordered the closure of the state’s youth prisons by 2023. Upon closure of the facilities, children and young people between 15-25 years old who are accused or convicted of serious offences, who are currently held in these facilities will instead receive community-based interventions.
Prison systems also take varied approaches on where young adults are detained. They may be housed either alongside adults, or as in the case of Morocco, entirely separated from other people in prison until 20 years and are held in rehabilitation and education centres or youth detention centres.
In Italy, children between 14-18 years old who are convicted are held in special prisons dedicated to youths under 21 year old, after which they are transferred to adult prisons. In Croatia, young adults under the age of 21 are separated from adults, their criminal records are confidential and the system focuses on educative measures and alternatives to imprisonment through diversion.
Overall, due to the absence of consistency across jurisdictions in the grouping of young adults as a separate population group, global data on the number of young adults in prison is not available. Where it is, it shows that the proportion of young adults among the prison population can be significant. In Argentina, 21% of the prison population are aged between 18-25 years, in England and Wales, 14.5% are between the ages of 18-24, while in Peru, it is close to 11%. In India, 44% of the prison population are in the age group of 18-30 years, and young adults between the ages of 18-25 years constitute around 5% of the prison population in Japan with a similar proportion in federal prisons of the US.
New research shows that many young adults, particularly in low-income countries, are imprisoned for petty offences including low-level drug offences committed when they were children, for which they may be detained into early adulthood and which are often committed under the threat of or actual coercion by adults. While the likelihood of their involvement in serious crime has been found to reduce by mid-twenties with the appropriate interventions, penal systems place excessive weight on punishment rather than specialised treatment, social protection, and rehabilitation.
Studies have found that children and young adults often come from backgrounds involving violence, abuse and exploitation. For instance, 45% of the children and young adults in a youth justice centre in New Zealand had been in child protection and came from backgrounds of trauma and neglect. The experience of young women coming into contact with the criminal justice system in England and Wales is also frequently underpinned by experiences of violence, abuse and exploitation, poor mental health, addiction, exclusion from education, poverty and having no safe place to call home.
High rates of violent incidents are reported among young adults imprisoned, likely connected to complex mental health and social needs. In youth justice centres in the state of Connecticut in the US which house boys between 15-21 years and operate similarly to a prison, high incidence of fights and violent assaults as well as mental health issues for the staff and boys have been recorded. In England and Wales, as of December 2019, 30% of all disciplinary adjudications in prisons were initiated with respect to young adults. Solitary confinement and restrictive regimes have been employed in Ireland and the US for young adults; it is reported they can spend almost 19-23 hours in solitary confinement without access to educational and recreational activities.
High rates of reoffending have been recorded for young adults, as for instance in Ireland, where official data shows that of people released from prison in 2015, 84% of those under 21 years re-offend within a period of three years compared to only 27% of those over 50 years. More countries are turning their attention to providing tailored rehabilitation opportunities for young adults in prisons to reduce risks of recidivism. Japan is encouraging young adults in prison to connect with their community and acquire technical skills that could lead to employment on release and Finland is working towards providing individual tutors to young persons in prison below 21 years old who missed their education.