Jul 26, 2026 · 7 min · 9 segments
When a teenager is sentenced as an adult, the punishment doesn’t stop at the prison gate — it ripples through families, friendships, and futures. Host **Joel Wilborn** explores what happens when youth…
Joel WilbornHost
When a system tries a teenager as an adult, it pretends their brain is fully developed, like they've got the same impulse control and judgment as a grown man.
The decision-making part of the brain isn't fully developed until around age twenty-five.
So what happens when you drop a kid into an adult prison? Well, they're five times more likely to be sexually assaulted, twice as likely to be beaten by staff, and thirty-six times more likely to die by suicide.
When a system tries a teenager as an adult, it pretends their brain is fully developed, like they've got the same impulse control and judgment as a grown man.
The decision-making part of the brain isn't fully developed until around age twenty-five.
So what happens when you drop a kid into an adult prison? Well, they're five times more likely to be sexually assaulted, twice as likely to be beaten by staff, and thirty-six times more likely to die by suicide.
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