Monica Smith and Darryl Lockett

Hours after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968, Robert F. Kennedy climbed onto the back of a pick-up truck in Indianapolis and spoke the following words, “We can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand and to comprehend, and to replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand with compassion and love.”

Yet 52 years later, a bill being considered by the Indiana House of Representatives would require us to abandon those principles, instead incarcerating our children in adult jails and prisons.

The measure — Senate Bill 449 — would drastically increase the number of Indiana children prosecuted in adult court, a practice, which statistics show, dramatically increases their exposure to violence and sexual abuse, as well as their chances of committing suicide while incarcerated in adult facilities.

Ignoring the fragility of youth, the bill would only trap more of Indiana’s children in the adult criminal legal system without developmentally appropriate alternatives to incarceration, a cornerstone of the juvenile justice system. That means fewer opportunities for education, social and emotional learning, family support programs, mentoring, and other forms of community investment — rehabilitative measures that give children a much greater chance of exiting the criminal justice maze.

Plain and simple, prosecuting children in the adult system overlooks common sense approaches to community safety, work we’ve become involved in as we seek to celebrate, honor and further both Kennedy and King’s legacies.

Indianapolis teachers have used Speak Truth to Power, a human rights education tool, for six years. Last year, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights partnered with the Kennedy King Memorial Initiative to train a cohort of 30 educators with plans of expanding the program statewide. A key component is social and emotional learning, built into lesson plans and monthly educator development sessions. Learning to manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions can help these youths avoid the criminal justice system altogether. Programs like this are proven alternatives to incarceration. They’re also a smart investment costing far less than it would to incarcerate a child.

Children are best served in a humane, developmentally appropriate system of justice, focused on rehabilitation. The adult criminal justice system is no place for children and prosecuting children in the adult system actually leads to higher rates of recidivism. By identifying and investing in proven alternatives to incarceration such as Speak Truth to Power, mentoring, and community capacity building we can build safer, stronger communities where all members are treated with understanding, compassion, and love.

We urge the members of the Indiana House of Representatives and Gov. Eric Holcomb to defeat SB 449 and invest in Indiana.

Monica Smith is a program officer at Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, a nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization that has worked to achieve Robert Kennedy’s dream for a more just and peaceful world since 1968. She was previously a public defender in Kentucky, an attorney for children in Louisiana, and the director of court advocacy for a nonprofit in New York.

Darryl Lockett is the executive director of the Kennedy King Memorial Initiative, a 501(c)3 organization based in Indianapolis that works to commemorate the historic speech delivered by Sen. Robert F. Kennedy on the night that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.