Bryan Stevenson

And I just think that's a mistake.

I think what distinguishes children from adults is that they're in a constant state of change.

They are not who they are going to be.

In a decade, physically, emotionally, psychologically, biologically, we change as we go through adolescence.

And in many states, we don't permit that change to take place.

We have 13 states in the United States that have no minimum age for trying a child as an adult.

So I represent eight and nine-year-old kids sometimes who are facing 50- and 60-year prison sentences.

Eight and nine-year-old children.

We have these 13 states where there's no minimum age.

When these laws took effect about 40 years ago, I started getting calls from parents

of five- and six-year-old children who were being put in handcuffs in kindergarten for behaviors.

It was this kind of zero tolerance, this mindset that children can just be crimes.

And I think what you're saying about the capacity for change is most dramatic in that population for me because one of the things I quickly learned is that when I represent young kids, I can't just be a lawyer.

I've got to be a parent.

and a brother and a counselor and a friend, because children in these really hostile, violent environments are still yearning for affection.

They're still yearning for something that makes them feel valuable.

And so one of the things I quickly realized is that my young plants were constantly wanting me to visit them, like every week.

And they'd be in prisons, you know, hundreds of miles away.

And I was like, you know, I can't.

So I started doing this thing where I would say, I'm going to send you a book.