Kids You Throw Away: New Jersey’s Indiscriminate Prosecution of Children as Adults

Human Rights Watch conducted a study on New Jersey’s waiver mechanisms, finding that the state is effectively operating a prosecutorial waiver system that is disproportionately harming Black and Latine youth, sidelining judicial oversight, and prioritizing punishment over treatment. This report offers recommendations for a wide range of system professionals to ultimately end the prosecution of children in adult court. Outlining the harms of adult prosecution on youth, this report argues that waiver systems disregard adolescent development while exacerbating childhood trauma. This report offers a helpful framework to challenge prosecutorial discretion and waiver mechanisms using adolescent development research, local data on racial disparities and differential treatment, and youth perspectives on the harms of adult prosecution.