The nonprofit network for prosecutors Fair and Just Prosecution is urging new national standards for youth interrogation to end practices that are believed to be harmful to children and lead to false confessions of minors.

A recent report from the group recommends a number of changes to the current practices used by law enforcement to question minors suspected of criminal activity, including requiring that both a parent or legal guardian and an attorney are present with the child through the entire interrogation process, mandating video and audio recording of interrogations and limiting questioning to two-hour sessions with breaks.

FJP Executive Director Miriam Krinsky said in a statement accompanying the Jan. 27 report that the practices traditionally used for youth interrogation in the U.S. have led to wrongful convictions that rob innocent people of decades from their lives, compromise public safety and jeopardize the integrity of the criminal legal system.

"Coercive interrogation practices must be reformed across the board, but they are especially problematic with young people. We must treat children as children, and policymakers, police and prosecutors need to take a stand to end these cruel and dangerous practices," Krinsky said.

In the U.S., law enforcement often uses "adult-oriented tactics" to interrogate minors, such as threats, coercion, deceit and false promises of lenient punishment in exchange for cooperation, even though children are particularly vulnerable to external pressure from authority figures and the decision-making portion of the brain is not fully developed in kids, according to the report.

The consequences of these practices are that the vast majority of kids waive their Miranda rights to remain silent and have an attorney present during a law enforcement interrogation without understanding the full implications of this decision, the report said.

In addition, many minors under interrogation falsely confess to crime mistakenly thinking that other evidence will show their innocence, even though confessions hold more weight in a courtroom than physical evidence like DNA, according to the report.

Norman Reimer, global CEO of international criminal justice watchdog Fair Trials, said in a statement on the release of the report that the U.S. is "an international outlier in its failure to protect children during interrogations."

"America is the sole democratic country that allows children to be questioned by police without counsel and that permits police to use deception during interrogations. It's long past time for the U.S. to catch up with the world and ensure that the rights of all children are safeguarded," Reimer said.

Some states, including New Mexico, California, Illinois, Montana, New York and Oregon, have already implemented new legislation to protect children during law enforcement interrogations, the report said.

Last year, a law went into effect in California preventing minors from waiving their right to consult with an attorney before an interrogation, according to the report. Also last year, Illinois and Oregon passed legislation making minors' confessions inadmissible in court if a law enforcement officer knowingly used deception to obtain them.

A Maryland state Senate committee on Jan. 27 reviewed S.B. 53, or The Juvenile Interrogation Protection Act, which would require a law enforcement officer to notify a parent or legal guardian if a child is taken into custody and prohibit interrogation until a child has consulted with an attorney.

Marilyn Mosby, state's attorney for Baltimore, a supporter of youth interrogation reform, said in the report, "We all want to get to the truth in criminal cases, but interrogation — especially of young people — is a tool that should be wielded carefully."

However, the bill faces opposition from some groups. Allan Culver, state's attorney for Carroll County and representative for the Maryland State's Attorneys' Association, opposed the bill during the legislative hearing, saying the proposed law would prevent the interrogation of juveniles even for violent crimes like rape and murder and create "unnecessary logistical hurdles" for law enforcement.

"If the concern that produced this bill is that juvenile rights are being violated during custodial interrogations, then simply require that all juvenile custodial interrogations be audio and video recorded," Culver said.

Other reforms proposed in the FJP report include prohibiting evidentiary and trial statements from children under 14, the use of kid-friendly Miranda rights warnings and mandating that interrogations happen during waking hours and in noncoercive physical environments.

The report also recommends providing law enforcement officers with training on how to interact with children, prohibiting interrogators from using tactics crafted to elicit incriminating statements and having prosecutors ensure that minors' confessions are reliable before using them in trial or plea talks.

The report said that even though these reforms might prohibit law enforcement from interrogating minors, children too often falsely confess, leading to "miscarriages of justice, and tremendous harm to young people — all of which in turn undermine confidence and trust in the criminal legal system and thereby erode public safety."

--Editing by Marygrace Anderson.