Testimony on Colorado SB25-043, “An Act Concerning Juvenile Law-Reform Deflection Supports Justice-Involved Youth”

Testimony on SB25-043, “An Act Concerning Juvenile Law-Reform Deflection Supports Justice-Involved Youth”

Logan Seacrest, Resident Fellow, Criminal Justice and Civil Liberties, R Street Institute

February 24, 2025

Colorado Senate Judiciary Committee

Chairwoman Gonzalez and members of the committee,

Thank you for the invitation to testify today. My name is Logan Seacrest, and I am a fellow at the R Street Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, public policy research organization based in Washington DC. Our mission is to engage in policy research and outreach to promote free markets and limited, effective government.  

Embracing juvenile deflection to keep kids out of the system is a smart, pragmatic step forward for Colorado’s justice system.

Contact with the juvenile justice system is harmful for youth. And by contact, I mean ANY contact. The research on this is clear – even a single arrest can have a ripple effect, resulting in lower educational attainment and higher rates of delinquent behavior.^[1] Taking a child out of their home, away from school and dropping them into an unfamiliar setting significantly increases the risk of negative life outcomes. In fact, once a youth becomes entrenched in the system, they are up to three times more likely to be convicted of a crime as an adult.^[2]

Deflection programs flip the script. Instead of treating a schoolyard fight as a law enforcement matter, deflection prioritizes a human response, rather than a state-led response. Deflection programs recognize what decades of research tell us—most youth will naturally desist from delinquent behavior over time. Our job is to provide them the support they need to get there.^[3]

R Street is a free-market think tank, so a metaphor comes to mind. When it comes to CJ policy, focusing resources on young children has about the best return on investment (ROI) you’re going to get. Take compound interest: the earlier you start investing, the more time your investment has to grow. Albert Einstein is said to have called this process “the most powerful force in the universe.”^[4] 

The principles of compound interest can be applied just as powerfully to human lives, particularly in the realm of juvenile justice. The compounding effect of early intervention is a form of “social compound interest,” where each youth deflected from the system reduces future system costs, generating outsize returns over the long-term in both safety and economic activity.

Every dollar spent on deflection and rehabilitative programs saves taxpayers far more in future incarceration costs.^[5] Denver and other cities have already seen success with community-based deflection such as Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) which have produced real public safety benefits and reductions in recidivism.^[6] Expanding and codifying juvenile deflection in state statute will ensure that more young people receive the support they need without being pulled unnecessarily into the formal justice system.

Criminal justice policy should make society safer. Decades of data tell us that locking up kids for low-level offenses is counterproductive to this fundamental goal. One of my hometown heroes, Warren Buffet, likes to say he’s not the world’s best stock picker, he just got started early.^[7] By embracing juvenile deflection, Colorado has an opportunity to “start early,”  setting an example for other states looking for effective, compassionate, limited-government juvenile justice solutions.

Thank you for your time, and I’m happy to answer any questions.

[1] Marc Hyden and Steven Greenhut, “How juvenile justice ‘deflection’ programs reduce crime and save money,” R Street Institute, September 12, 2022, https://www.rstreet.org/research/how-juvenile-justice-deflection-programs-reduce-crime-and-save-money/

[2] Logan Seacrest, “Data-driven deflection: A systems approach to reducing juvenile arrests,” R Street Institute, June 8, 2023, https://www.rstreet.org/research/data-driven-deflection-a-systems-approach-to-reducing-juvenile-arrests/

[3] Andrea Csik et al, “Differentiation of the age-crime curve trajectory by types of crime,” American Research Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences 1:4 (2015) p. 1–12, https://www.arjonline.org/papers/arjhss/v1-i4/1.pdf

[4] Allan Roth, “Compound interest: The most powerful force in the universe,” CBS News, July 7, 2011, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/compound-interest-the-most-powerful-force-in-the-universe/

[5] Logan Seacrest, “Intervention over incarceration: A limited government approach to youth violence,” R Street Institute, June 25, 2024, https://www.rstreet.org/research/intervention-over-incarceration-a-limited-government-approach-to-youth-violence/

[6] Lonnie Schaible et al, “Colorado law enforcement assisted diversion (LEAD) pilot programs: Final evaluation report,” Colorado Behavioral Health Administration, June 30, 2022, https://bha.colorado.gov/sites/bha/files/documents/Colorado Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) Pilot Programs- Final Evaluation Report _PDF version.pdf

[7] Warren Buffett, “2022 Letter to sShareholders,” Berkshire Hathaway Inc., 2022, https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/2022ltr.pdf