Young Adult Court in SF Magazine

San Francisco's newest collaborative court, Young Adult Court (YAC), was featured in San Francisco Magazine last month. Superior Court Judge Bruce Chan presides over YAC.

Judge Bruce Chan, San Francisco Superior Court

As the article describes, YAC is "an attempt to combine emerging neuroscience with social justice, changing the fate of young felons in the process. A growing body of neuroscience research suggests a need to prosecute 18-to-25-year-olds differently than older adults, but Young Adult Court is one of the only alternative courts in the country to provide such an option."

"The idea for San Francisco’s Young Adult Court was first conceived in 2013, when District Attorney George Gascón and then–chief probation officer Wendy Still participated in a criminal justice program at the Harvard Kennedy School. They were inspired by recent research showing that the prefrontal cortex—the part of our brains that manages impulsive decisions, peer pressure, and risk taking—is still rapidly developing until our mid-20s. As a result, the late teenage years and early 20s are the time in life when risky behaviors peak. Rates of unintended pregnancy, binge drinking, and crimes of opportunity are all highest at this age, precisely the time when our legal system says we should know better. While still a relatively recent development in the science world, this matches what most of us already know to be true on a gut level: that 18-to-25-year-olds, while legally adults, don’t always act like them."

Click here to read the full article.