Social services director wary of Minnesota law barring criminal prosecution of children under 13

In August, a law changing the age for criminal prosecutions in Minnesota went into effect. The law bars children under 13, no matter how serious the crime, from being prosecuted.

It's unclear what will happen to kids now accused of these crimes.

Shattered glass windows in Minneapolis and the recent arrest of a 12-year-old and 11-year-old put the new law into focus.

Only two other states in the country have similar laws, and both New Hampshire and Maryland allow for exceptions. Minnesota has no exceptions.

Anne Broskoff, the social services director for Brown County and an officer with the Minnesota County Association of Social Services, said, "We were given absolutely no funding to do so. For us to accomplish this work, counties may have to expand resources and do more. It may, unfortunately, result of that expansion, fall on county taxpayers to help make up that difference."

State figures show that, in 2023, 747 children under 13 were arrested. Of those, 423 went to court. Under the new law, many accused kids will be sent home.

"I think folks have to be ready for, you know, what they would normally experience is the youth who commits a very violent crime, you know, gets into a locked facility; sometimes those youth may be going home," Broskoff said.

WCCO said to Broskoff, "But if a child at the age of 10, or 11 or 12 has committed a felony offense, a felony level offense, one has to wonder where the parents are in the first place. So sending them back to the parents, obviously people are going to be concerned about that."

Broskoff replied, "But more often than not, I think we're gonna be really, you know, talking with families and parents and saying, you know, 'What's your ability to make sure that you're properly supervising your youth?"

Some kids, Broskoff warns, will fall through the cracks.

"I think that we have to recognize that there are going to be times and situations where we're not going to be able to mitigate those community safety issues or the safety of the youth themselves," she said.

Broskoff added that she and other county officials went to the Minnesota Legislature last year to try and get them to create exceptions, allowing for the prosecution of more violent children. She said they got "nowhere," but plan to ask the legislature again during their next session, which starts in January 2027.