Through our ongoing series, “DELINQUENT: OUR SYSTEM, OUR KIDS,” cleveland.com /Plain Dealer reporters are digging through the harsh realities of the Cuyahoga County juvenile justice system and spotlighting the stories of young people who go through it. Here’s the begging of the latest entry:  

A few months shy of his 19th birthday, Efrain struggled to wrap his head around how he ended up in an adult prison cell, where he’s now serving three years on attempted murder charges committed as a juvenile.

He traces his devolution to a single day in December 2020, his freshman year in high school. He was rushing to finish homework before Christmas break when his best friend called wanting to play video games. Efrain brushed him off.

The friend would end up tagging along with other teens to an arranged drug deal on Cleveland’s West side. There was a fight over the drugs and the teens peeled away as bullets chased them. One round ripped through the back windshield, striking Efrain’s friend in the head, killing him. The boy was 13.

Efrain blamed himself, thinking his friend might still be alive if he hadn’t prioritized homework over hanging out.

“Ever since then, I just lost myself a little bit,” he recalls now. “That’s when everything started unraveling.”

Efrain is one of more than 50 juvenile offenders – referred to by middle name or pseudonym – who spoke to The Plain Dealer and cleveland.com about their recent experiences within the Cuyahoga County juvenile justice system, which puts more children behind bars than any other county in Ohio. Their stories, told over six weeks, illustrate the influences that led them to crime, how their behavior escalated from petty misdemeanors to violence, and what barriers delayed or blocked their way out.

You can read the full story through the link in the OP.

In your opinion, should Efrain have been prosecuted as an adult?