This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

On Feb. 27, 2016, outside The Road Home homeless shelter in downtown Salt Lake City, a 17-year-old boy named Abdullahi "Abdi" Mohamed was shot by police.

The parties do not agree on exactly what happened, but police allege they witnessed a confrontation where Mohamed was hitting a man with a rake or mop handle. When Mohamed allegedly refused to stop, the officers shot him. He was charged with first-degree felony aggravated robbery and second-degree felony drug possession with intent to distribute.

This week a juvenile court held a hearing to decide whether Mohamed's case should remain in the juvenile justice system or be transferred to the adult system. He is now 19, but was 17 when the event occurred. The maximum penalty in the juvenile system is incarceration in a juvenile care facility until he is 21; the maximum penalty in the adult system is life in prison. That is quite a sentence for a young man whose judgment has not yet matured in a brain that has yet to fully develop.

As an expert witness noted in court, research shows prosecuting children in the adult justice system has little upside.

The Legislature recently passed a bill reforming the juvenile justice system to focus on rehabilitation rather than incarceration. The data revealed that youth were entering the justice system as low risk offenders and leaving the system as high risk offenders. Change was necessary.

Granted, these reforms were primarily aimed at first-offending youth with misdemeanor violations, but the principles still apply: maximize rehabilitation in at-home settings and minimize cost to the state. The bill was meant to free up resources to better deal with more-troubled youth.

More-troubled youth like Mohamed. He does have a lengthy juvenile record. But much of that record consists of contempt charges for failing to follow court orders once he was home. The court expert concluded the ideal place for Mohamed would be an outpatient treatment center. We agree.

The goal of the justice system should be to reduce recidivism. And after recidivism, we should hope that incarceration makes a person better, not worse.

At some point we have to take responsibility for the attractive nuisance we have allowed to swell in the downtown Rio Grande area.

Putting a young man in prison for the rest of his life may assuage our own negligent consciences, but it does nothing for him, his family or the state of Utah. Such a result will not serve justice.