Honor Rep. Ballinger: Raise the age of criminal responsibility

Working in government affairs and media, you form many personal bonds with members of the Legislature. Not all of them last. Some officials leave public life, political differences can strain friendships and sadly some depart from this world far too young. This is what happened recently with the passing of Rep. Mandi Ballinger, R-Canton. 

She was the chair of the House Juvenile Justice committee and a force within the General Assembly. While she could be reserved and guarded, she treated me with kindness. Not long before her passing, she and I were scheduled to have dinner to discuss criminal justice reform—a favorite topic of hers—but she canceled due to an emergency. 

Now I understand what that emergency was, and she leaves a big void under the Gold Dome. Yet if lawmakers are judged by the people they hope to help, then Ballinger stands at the forefront. Her top priority—and the reason she and I knew one another—was working to keep more kids out of the adult justice system. The legislation that would have accomplished this never made it to the governor’s desk, but if lawmakers want to honor her memory, they should place it atop their 2026 agenda. 

Over the course of several years, Rep. Ballinger hosted a study committee on the matter and introduced numerous bills to raise the age of adult criminal responsibility. Georgia is one of only five states, including Texas, Wisconsin, Louisiana and North Carolina, that treats all 17-year-olds as adults in the justice system. Ballinger had hoped to bring the Peach State into alignment with nearly all other states and raise the age to 18, and for good reason.

“It is so much better for the state—better outcomes for offenders, lower overall costs, and lower recidivism rates. It’s just the right thing to do,” she said via email to me once. She was right, and it is also inconsistent with the rest of Georgia’s laws. You need to be at least 18 years old to buy a lottery ticket, get a tattoo or open a checking account, and you need to be 21 years old to purchase cigarettes or alcohol. The reason for this is that youths can be impressionable and are sometimes not mature enough to make decisions that might haunt them the rest of their lives.

There is plenty of science behind this too, but Georgia’s criminal code is incompatible with the truth about brain development. In fact, 17 year olds are still developing. They lack the cognitive maturity to more effectively process cause and effect and tame spontaneous impulses. Anyone who has ever been 17 years old understands this, but the lack of cognitive development calls into question how culpable youths truly are for their actions.

Despite this obvious reality, Georgia treats every single 17 year old as an adult in the justice system. As a result, minor mistakes made as a teenager can saddle youths with a permanent mark on their background that follows them for the rest of their lives. This can prevent them from ever obtaining good jobs, housing and even higher education. Suddenly a lapse in judgement as a youth starts to look as though it comes with a kind of life sentence.

Their actions can also land them in jail alongside career criminals, and the data behind this is highly concerning. Youths who are incarcerated in adult facilities are more likely to be the target of sexual and violent abuse and to commit suicide than those housed in juvenile facilities. What’s more, youths who spend time in adult facilities are more likely to recidivate, in part, because adult correctional centers do not have programming and counseling tailored for juveniles.

Georgia’s policy imperils youths and leads to more crime, but the policy may be even more wasteful than just this. Studies have shown that it might cost more taxpayer money as well. A Wisconsin study concluded, “For every 1,000 youth returned to the juvenile system there will be $5.8 million in direct savings each year through reduced law enforcement costs, court costs, and losses to victims.”

Rep. Ballinger recognized this, and she hoped to treat youths appropriately for their age and put Georgia on a safer footing. Her bills to raise the age of adult criminal responsibility to 18 would have done just this, but they wisely left open the ability to try certain youths accused of serious crimes as adults on a case-by-case basis.

With her passing, Rep. Beth Camp, R-Concord, replaces Ballinger as chair of the Juvenile Justice Committee. I hope she carries the mantle of reform proudly, and if the Legislature wants to honor the late Ballinger, they can start by working toward the passage of a raise the age bill and finish the passion project that she started years ago.