Emerging adults – individuals aged 17 to 24 – experience arrest and conviction at higher rates than their older peers. While extensive research suggests several explanatory reasons for this, emerging neuroscience suggests the greatest explanatory reason may be from brain development. Neuroscience suggests these individuals are cognitively distinct because their brain development, especially that which regulates decision making, emotional control, executive functioning, and impulse control, is still developing.

Currently, many corrections agencies, like prisons and jails, are responsible for the care of individuals aged 17 to 24 and providing support for this group to eventually move back home to their communities. This emerging science suggests the most responsive care corrections agencies can provide to this group is developmentally appropriate programming which cognitively meets them where they are.

JSP, in partnership with Dr. Faye Taxman from George Manson University, is assisting with implementation of the DREAM program in county jail in Rockdale, Georgia. The program addresses the cognitive and development needs faced by emerging adults transitioning from the Rockdale County jail to the community. JSP will evaluate the effectiveness of the program across key behavioral (e.g., housing, employment) and perceptual (e.g., self-control, emotional regulation, decision-making) outcomes. Implementing and evaluating this model will advance evidence toward effective supervision strategies for emerging adults and aims to develop best practices that center individuals who remain entangled in the criminal legal system.