Louisiana GOP lawmakers want to make it easier to try juveniles as adults

(AP) BATON ROUGE, LA On Friday, the Republican-controlled Louisiana Legislature passed a constitutional amendment that would increase the number of offenses for which minors between the ages of 14 and 16 could face adult trials.

According to the state constitution, prosecutors can address 15 serious adolescent offenses in adult courts, including rape, murder, and armed robbery. Voters must approve any revisions to that list of offenses.

However, a constitutional amendment proposed by Republican Senator Heather Cloud would give lawmakers the authority to decide which juvenile offenses can be moved to adult courts by a two-thirds majority vote, provided that the proposal is approved by voters in elections on March 29.

It’s a part of a larger effort by Republican Governor Jeff Landry to enact strict anti-crime laws in Louisiana, which already has the second-highest incarceration rate in the nation, after Mississippi. Since taking office in January, Landry has enacted legislation that enables surgical castration as a penalty for some sex crimes against children, essentially abolishes parole, and treats 17-year-olds as adults in the criminal justice system.

Proponents of the bill, which is only supported by Republican politicians, claim that it will offer lawmakers more freedom to provide prosecutors with the resources they need to improve public safety by making it simpler to prosecute adolescents as adults. On November 14, Cloud stated on the Senate floor that Louisiana’s ability to adapt to the constantly shifting reality of juvenile crime has been hindered by the constitution’s vesting authority.

To maintain this power in the hands of voters, opponents, who included Democrats, social workers, and proponents of criminal justice reform, argued that some offenses that send minors to adult courts should continue to be included in the constitution.

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Democratic Senator Katrina Jackson-Andrews stated, “We’re taking away the people’s voice over how children should be treated in this state.”

Critics further contend that the reforms ignore poverty and inadequate educational funding, which are the main contributors to adolescent delinquency. During the parliamentary session, social workers and supporters for criminal justice reform testified that transferring juveniles to adult court would also deny them access to age-appropriate rehabilitation resources.

On the Senate floor, Democratic Senator Royce Duplessis stated, “I can only see this as giving up on children.” We will claim that we will simply treat them all like adults and that we will not address the issues that society and lawmakers are failing to address. This will not prevent crime in the slightest.

Some lawmakers blamed their families rather than society for the violent crimes committed by young people who had been neglected from an early age and were beyond the threshold of rehabilitation.

During a House committee hearing, Republican Representative Tony Bacala stated that some of these children are already lost by the time they are two years old.

African Americans would probably be the group most affected if juvenile offenses were made transferable to adult courts. According to the state’s Office of Juvenile Justice, they make up roughly one-third of Louisiana’s population, however they account for 77% of the state’s juvenile detention system’s inmates.

According to state law, juvenile defendants can only be imprisoned until they turn 21 unless they are moved to an adult court.

According to Bruce Reilly, deputy director of the Louisiana-based criminal justice reform advocacy group Voice of the Experienced, the proposed constitutional amendment will allow Republican lawmakers to grant prosecutors the authority to sentence 14- to 16-year-olds to lengthy prison terms, even for less serious offenses.

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The legislation was endorsed by the Louisiana Sheriffs Association and the Louisiana District Attorneys Association.

However, Susan Hutson, the sheriff of New Orleans, expressed her concern that the legislation will likely put more burden on the jail system’s already limited staff. Children under the age of 17 are still classified as juveniles under federal law and must be housed apart from adult prisoners.

Tony Clayton, the district attorney for West Baton Rouge and two other parishes, stated that he would try a minor as an adult for serious crimes rather than simply possessing marijuana in his wallet.

According to the most recent data from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting, violent crimes are declining across the country. New Orleans, which had the highest homicide rate among metropolitan cities in the country in 2022, has likewise seen a decline in violent crime since the middle of 2023.

Republican Governor Jeff Landry’s decision to send state troops to New Orleans and the tough-on-crime laws that were passed this year, according to conservative politicians, were to blame.

High-profile violent crimes perpetrated by minors, including the fatal carjacking in New Orleans that involved youths charged as adults and in which an elderly woman was battered and dragged to her death, have drawn the attention of lawmakers who favor the amendment.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, Louisiana is one of five states that consider 17-year-olds to be adults for the purposes of the criminal justice system.

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Brook is a member of the Statehouse News Initiative’s Report for America/Associated Press corps.A nonprofit national service initiative called Report for America places reporters in local newsrooms to explore topics that aren’t often covered. Follow Brook at @jack_brook96 on social media site X.

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