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<\/dt>\n- Members of the Louisiana House can keep most 17-year-olds out of adult prisons by leaving a Senate bill on their calendar to die.wvuefox8<\/dd>\n<\/dl><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
Unless it is somehow resurrected, a Louisiana Senate bill that has been returned to the calendar four times in order to be changed deserves to die there. Sen. Stewart Cathey Jr., R-Monroe, is sponsor of Senate Bill 418 that would repeal the state\u2019s 2016 \u201cRaise the Age\u201d law.<\/p>\n
The Senate approved Cathey\u2019s bill 29-8 on May 17. It was returned to the calendar three times before that to add amendments to the bill. The House got the bill the next day and it cleared the criminal justice committee with a 6-5 vote. It was scheduled for debate Friday but was returned to the calendar.<\/p>\n
Legislators have only today and Monday to wrap up their 2022 regular session. Senate bills were supposed to be debated in the House by 6 p.m. Friday and it would take a two-thirds vote of both chambers to debate Cathey\u2019s legislation.<\/p>\n
How important are Raise the Age laws? Only three states \u2014 Georgia, Texas, and Wisconsin \u2014 don\u2019t have those laws. Louisiana\u2019s law got overwhelming support in\u00a02016. It was approved 33-4 in the Senate and 97-3 in the House.<\/p>\n
The state\u2019s Office of Juvenile Justice in 2017 explained the importance of Raise the Age. \u201cRather than automatically sending 17-year-olds to the adult criminal system, as has been\u00a0the practice for decades regardless of their offense, the law will now send them to the juvenile justice system where they will have a greater opportunity for\u00a0rehabilitation,\u201d the office said.<\/p>\n
Cathey\u2019s bill would send some of those 17-year-olds back to adult prisons before their trials rather than letting a juvenile justice judge under current law make that decision. Those who testified against the legislation said putting those 17-year-olds in adult prisons exposes them to sexual assaults and suicide.<\/p>\n
The Office of Juvenile Justice said a\u00a0study commissioned in 2015 by the Legislature and conducted by the Institute for Public Health and Justice\u00a0 and LSU\u2019s Health Science Center determined the following:<\/p>\n
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- There is a growing consensus, based on a large body of scientific evidence, that 17-year-olds are developmentally different from adults and should be treated as such. They have a far greater potential for rehabilitation and are particularly influenced \u2013 for good or ill \u2013 by the environments in which they are placed.<\/li>\n
- The last several years of reform in the Louisiana juvenile justice system have created a capacity to accept, manage, and rehabilitate these youth in a manner that will predictably generate better outcomes than the adult system.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Legislative committees in 2016 heard testimony about that study. It said, \u201cCurrent behavioral research indicates that, compared to adults, most 17-year-olds are less capable of impulse control; more prone to risky behavior; less able to regulate their emotions; different in their approach to moral reasoning; less able to consider the long-term consequences of their actions; and more susceptible to peer pressure.<\/p>\n
Before the 2016 law was enacted, the Louisiana Center for Children\u2019s Rights said, \u201cAcross the country, 18 is usually considered the age of adulthood: 17-year-olds can\u2019t vote, join the military, or even buy a lottery ticket. But if they are arrested in Louisiana, they are automatically prosecuted and incarcerated as adults.\u201d<\/p>\n
Raise the Age changed all that, but two public officials want to repeal it. They are responsible for Cathey\u2019s legislation getting as far as it has. State Attorney General Jeff Landry, a lock-them-up-and-throw-away-the-key guy, made an impassioned plea for it before the Senate Judiciary B Committee.<\/p>\n
District Attorney Tony Clayton of the 18th<\/sup>\u00a0Judicial District (Pointe Coupee, West Baton Rouge, and Iberville parishes) said 17-year-olds who are committing serious crimes need to be treated as adults.<\/p>\n
Teenagers are committing more serious crimes, but current law gives juvenile judges authority to send them to adult prisons if that is where they think they belong.<\/p>\n
Rachel Gassert, policy director for the Louisiana Center for Children\u2019s Rights, testified against Cathey\u2019s bill. She said Clayton\u2019s real problem\u00a0 is that his parishes don\u2019t have an adequate detention center for juveniles and he doesn\u2019t want to have to pay to send them elsewhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe will continue to have this problem,\u201d Gassert said, even if the Raise the Age law is repealed. \u201cThat is not a reason to repeal a law that\u2019s going to impact the entire state \u2026 They are kids.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cathey\u2019s bill has been sitting on the House calendar since May 26. Those who are 17 and who get in trouble with the law will have a better chance of being rehabilitated if it stays there.<\/p>\n
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