Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CAMBRIDGE, MA – March 20, 2025 – The Nebraska Legislature should soundly reject lowering the age that children could be tried as adults from 14 to 11, Strategies for Youth Executive Director Lisa Thurau declared in a letter to legislators Wednesday.

Strategies for Youth, a national training and policy organization dedicated to ensuring the best possible outcomes for youth who interact with law enforcement, provided a detailed account of why the arguments made in support of LB556 are mistaken.

“LB556 will not reduce the recent uptick in juvenile crime,” wrote Lisa Thurau, executive director of Strategies for Youth. “In fact, it is likely to have the opposite effect.”

In the letter, Thurau described how SFY has trained several hundred law enforcement officers in Omaha, Lincoln, and additional agencies across Nebraska, as well as across  the country, equipping officers with developmentally appropriate and trauma-informed strategies for juvenile justice.

LB556 would both fail to prevent aggressive behavior and would likely result in inadmissible coerced juvenile confessions, Thurau shared with legislators.

“When similar proposals to transfer children to adult courts were promoted nearly 20 years ago, their strongest critics were the American Correctional Association and the American Probation and Parole Association,” Thurau wrote. “Both organizations noted that their facilities are not able to accommodate children, and the risk of rape, attacks and suicide make it impossible to protect youth or keep them alive. These outcomes are neither preventative nor interventional.”

Read Strategies for Youth’s full letter.