New Haven Independent

Walker wasn’t referring to the drinking age, the voting age, or the so-called “age of consent.” She was calling attention to the way the law treats children who get arrested.

The Democratic state representative, whose district includes the Dixwell neighborhood and part of Dwight, wore the button to the annual meeting of Empower of New Haven at the Graduates Club, to promote a campaign she intends to press both at the Capitol and in New Haven starting in January. Walker wants the court system to try all people under 18 as youthful offenders, not adults. Connecticut is one of only three states nationwide that draw the criminal-justice line of adulthood at 16, Walker said. (The others: New York and North Carolina.) Most others draw it at 17 or 18.

“Children should be treated as children. We should work with them rather than incarcerate them,” said Walker, who in office has focused on the larger issue of all the older teens and young adults who pass in and out of jail and the courts without more productive alternatives.

Walker plans to introduce a bill to raise the age to 18 this coming session. She also plans to hold a breakfast meeting about the issue at Gateway Community College on Jan. 10.

She introduced the bill last session. It didn’t pass, but a compromise relegated kids under 18 to youthful offender status for minor crimes. Before that, many kids were getting locked up for offenses like violation of a court order or probation.