Addie Rolnick is an associate professor of law at the William S. Boyd School of Law.Professor Rolnick was interviewed for a March 25 article in the Las Vegas Review-Journal titled “Ayden McKinnon, charged with attempted murder at 14, is a boy among men in jail.”
The article discusses the case of a 15-year-old charged with attempted murder and the change in Nevada Revised Statutes regarding teens charged with felonies.
Professor Rolnick commented on the system and how it has reversed course on how to prosecute young defendants.
“The juvenile system in general is built around the idea that kids are more capable of rehabilitation, to correct wayward behavior as opposed to punish,” she said in the article. “A system that is mostly intended to provide services is a very different animal than a system that is mostly intended to punish. …With most kids, what’s going on with them is going to be better dealt with through treatment. Adult jails tend to turn kids into worse criminals. That’s not to say that you wouldn’t want to punish a kid. In a perfect world we would think more carefully about why we’re doing it.”
Professor Rolnick's scholarship focuses on bridging gaps between civil rights, Critical Race Theory, federal Indian law, and indigenous rights.
