JC Member Spotlight: BJ Casey, Ph.D
Dr. BJ Casey is the Christina L. Williams Professor of Neuroscience at Barnard College – Columbia University and a world leader in the field of developmental neuroscience.
Her work is rooted in the understanding that healthy psychological and brain development is a human right; as such it requires both protections against harm and opportunities that allow for cognitive and emotional well-being as well as the development of the social skills necessary to mature into a healthy integrated member of society.
Q. How does the legal view of adulthood differ from neuro-developmental evidence?
According to the law, the age of majority is 18. Supreme Court rulings from the last couple of decades protect young offenders under that age from the death penalty and the sentence of mandatory life without parole. However, the age at which someone can be sentenced and treated as an adult varies dramatically by state, crime, and circumstances and can be substantially lower than eighteen.
From a neurodevelopmental perspective, the period of adolescence extends well beyond 18 based on scientific evidence of neurocognitive changes into the early to mid-20s. Although the brain has the potential for change (plasticity) throughout the life course, it is especially plastic in the first few decades of life. This development is regional in nature such that different brain regions develop at different time points. The prefrontal cortex that is involved in executive functions including response inhibition and emotion regulation shows significant functional changes into the 20s, while emotional circuitry in the brain shows peak changes earlier, by the mid- to late teen years. It is the continued refinement and strengthening of connections among these different brain regions and networks that show extended development with age and experience.
This development is manifested behaviorally in that youth have the capacity to make simple decisions by the teen years, but this capacity is diminished when making decisions in emotionally charged situations which involves communication among these different brain networks. Self-regulation and mature decision-making capabilities in emotionally arousing conditions continue to develop into the 20s. It is these emotionally charged situations in which young people most often come into the criminal legal system.
Q. You argue that healthy development is a human right. Can you explain how prosecuting, punishing, and detaining an individual with a developing brain can deny them opportunity for health development?
The 8th Amendment requires us to protect young people from cruel and unusual punishment, but it is also important to provide them with opportunities for learning and building the very social and cognitive skills they need for becoming a contributing member of society.
Many states still have policies in effect that deny youth the opportunity for healthy brain development including transfers to adult courts, solitary confinement—sometimes for their own “protection” – and bail laws that put youth behind bars as they await trial. In fact, 20 states have no minimum age for transfer to an adult court. Youth that are transferred are disproportionately those of color and from lower-income families. Transfer to adult court results in harsher, more punitive treatment than the juvenile system. These youth are exposed to violence and abuse on top of the stress of separation from their families and opportunities for engaging in or learning prosocial behavior is significantly restricted. As such their right to special protections from undue harm and right to opportunities to gain the skills they need for assuming prosocial adult roles are both violated.
Q. Can you describe some of the current practices in the US that are inconsistent with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (which the US hasn’t ratified)?
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child articulates that during the period of childhood—which they typically define as until 18 years old—children must be protected so that they grow, learn, play, develop, and flourish with dignity. The Convention is one of the most widely ratified human rights treaties in history, and even though US leaders helped to write it, we as a country have never signed it. The criminal legal system in the US violates the protections asserted in the treaty in a multitude of ways including separating youth from parents, incarcerating youth, denying youth education while in custody including the placement of youth in solitary confinement, which is particularly harming and denies them the opportunity to build social and emotional skills.
Q. What impacts can these practices have on brain development?
Many youth who enter our legal system already have had early life adversity. The conditions of confinement can exacerbate this psychological and neurodevelopmental harm more during this sensitive period of significant emotional and social development. So at a time when emotionally charged situations already negatively impact adolescent decision-making, we aggravate this further with chronic stress and isolation. Severe stress increases the production of neurochemicals in the brain that can basically take the prefrontal cortex offline further diminishing cognitive capacity which can lead to prolonged and heightened emotional reactivity and rumination. This increases their risk for mental health problems like anxiety, depression, oppositional defiant disorder, conduct disorder, and anti-social behavior. In other words, what they experience is the exact opposite of what is required for healthy development. That said, the brain is plastic and even youth who experience these adversities have the potential for change, especially with the right interventions.
Q. You have written that protecting the rights of the child not only includes special protections but the protection and promotion of opportunities for the child to master the skills needed to meet the challenges of adulthood. What does this look like in practice?
Youth can be held accountable for their actions to the community and victims they have harmed, while still having the opportunity for healthy development. To do this we need to shift our juvenile carceral system to focus on remediation and reentry to society—working on self-regulatory skills, having prosocial role models, and experiencing rewards for learning and helping others. We want to provide them with an education and opportunities to learn how to self-regulate and allow them to fail and recover in a safe, not retributive, environment. These opportunities are important throughout the extended period of adolescence.
One example of using a neurodevelopmental approach with young people in our criminal legal system is a special unit at Cheshire Correctional Institution in Connecticut for young adults called TRUE (Truthfulness, Respectfulness, Understanding and Elevating) Young Adult Unit. TRUE supports incarcerated young people during this extended period of adolescence (18-25 years) with prosocial mentoring and educational programs to prepare them for successful re-entry into society after release.
Q. What can be done at the federal or state level to protect the healthy development of youth?
Arielle Baskin-Sommers and I have been working with the American Psychological Association (APA) on writing amicus briefs and developing a toolset for lawyers arguing to extend the age of special protections of childhood in the courts from 18 to 21. Unfortunately, I don’t think the current US Supreme Court will raise the age of the death penalty and mandatory life without parole for youth offenders from 18, but several states are beginning to move in this direction. Arielle and I have been providing testimony and helping to write amicus briefs for extending the age of mandatory life without parole to the early twenties for various state cases. These efforts led to a recent increase in age from 18 to 19 years in Michigan, and although it is a baby step, it is at least moving our courts in the right direction based on the developmental science.
As new research informs us about how the brain develops, we need to educate judges (and voters) about the science in the hope that we can move towards a less punitive and more remediated system. This criminal legal transformation is about creating a fair and just society where young people who violate the law are held accountable, but also have the opportunities and conditions to become contributing citizens instead of a punitive system that does lasting harm costing people a healthy future.
Read more:
Healthy Development as a Human Right: Lessons from Developmental Science
Journal Article: Casey, BJ (2019)