North Carolina is discussing an issue of age — and it’s not the drinking age.

The state may soon allow 16- and 17-year-olds to be tried in the juvenile justice system.

North Carolina is the most strict for young offenders, trying those at or above age 16 in the adult system, Judge Marcia Morey of Durham County District Court said.

The issue will go to the N.C. General Assembly in 2011, she said.

“If you can’t drink and you can’t vote and you can’t get a library card or enlist in the army or be out without parental permission at the age of 16, then why should you get charged as an adult,” she said.

Supporters suggest there may be many benefits in raising the maximum age.

“Juvenile probation is much more intensive to help kids get off substance abuse, get mental health treatment and check in with court counselors,” Morey said.

She also said young adults tried in juvenile court are less likely to end up getting in trouble with the law later in life.

Not only will this change help young people become creative, productive citizens of society, but it will also provide relief for the adult criminal court system and reduce current costs in the system, said N.C. assistant public defender Philip Penn.

It will ultimately keep these young offenders out of the adult criminal system, he said.

“It will give kids a chance to move forward in their lives at a time when their brains are still developing,” he said. “It will unclog a lot of the adult criminal court system with cases that don’t really belong there.”

In the present court system, 16- and 17-year-olds receiving adult convictions are locked out of educational and job opportunities, as charges stay on their records for the rest of their lives, Penn said.

But supporters of the change might face obstacles in their attempts to raise the legal age.

The political reality, Penn said, is that most legislators don’t want to be seen as being soft on crime.

Necessary improvements to the juvenile system might also be costly if these ages are included.

N.C. Rep. Alice Bordsen, D-Alamance, said fearmongering is another hurdle. The voices of law enforcement officers who say offenders might do so repeatedly have prevailed. The situation, she said, is that officers are referring to a segment of violent crime that composes only about 5 percent of offenders.

Another benefit to including 16- and 17-year-olds in the juvenile system is that the system involves parents, while parents are not even contacted by the adult system, Bordsen said.

Since the current age of juvenile jurisdiction was established in 1919, there have been several initiatives for change, Bordsen said. She added that though every past attempt has failed, each one has been bigger. There is too much data and research showing how damaging it is to put 16- and 17-year-olds in the adult system to dismiss the issue any longer, she said.

“If we can’t pass this in 2011, then shame on the state of North Carolina,” she said.

“Why are our kids so bad that we have to treat them more harshly? And we don’t even try to make them better.”

Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.