Advocacy Resource Center State Legislative Options
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In the late 1980s and 1990s, nearly every State legislature passed laws placing more youth in the adult criminal justice system. As a result, approximately 200,000 young people are prosecuted as “adults” every year. Lawmakers have stepped up in states like CT, DE, and IL to make changes that reduce the harmful practice of trying youth as adults without compromising public safety. Below are success stories from states which outline the critical features of their successful effort. Each state’s inclusive and solution-oriented approach serves as an excellent template for other state legislatures seeking to enact widespread changes to their juvenile and criminal justice systems. Juvenile and criminal justice systems are locally controlled so state and local elected officials have an opportunity to shape those systems in ways that best serve the public and the youth who come in contact with them. Here is a basic overview of the areas where state legislatures can make a change and four steps to go about initiating an effort to reform the laws. Thanks to the work of the “Raise the Age CT” campaign coordinated by the Connecticut Juvenile Justice Alliance, and the Juvenile Jurisdiction Planning and Implementation Committee (JJPIC), a legislatively-mandated committee comprised of key stakeholders, legislation to raise the age of juvenile court jurisdiction in the state was approved in June 2007. The combined efforts of legislators – in particular legislative champions, Senators Toni Walker and Toni Harp, state agencies, law enforcement officials, judicial officers, advocacy and grassroots organizations, parents and family members, led the Connecticut state legislature to unanimously pass Public Act 07-4, returning 16 and 17 year-olds to juvenile court jurisdiction. Signed into law by Governor Jodi Rell, the expansion for 16-year-olds will be effective January 1, 2010.
Legislation Creating the JJPIC 2006 In 2003, the Delaware General Assembly approved a last-minute addition to a comprehensive criminal justice reform bill that inadvertently increased the number of youth in adult court. Shortly thereafter, initial observations suggested the new automatic transfer law was not being utilized as expected and was instead having an unintended and, ultimately harmful, impact. A majority of youth charged under the new provisions youth were ending up back in Family Court instead of Superior Court – often after being detained for long periods of time awaiting disposition. After two years of data collection and analysis, a Republican legislator in the Delaware Assembly stepped into a leadership role and brought fellow lawmakers, advocates, judges, prosecutors, public defenders and other juvenile justice professionals together in an effort to correct the injustices resulting from HB 210. In 2005, SB 200 was approved by the Delaware General Assembly, which strictly limits automatic transfer of HB 210 youth to adult court. Illinois has always been on the forefront of juvenile justice policy and has the proud distinction of establishing the first juvenile court in the world in 1899, which recognized the fundamental differences between youth and adults. However, in the early 1980s and 1990s, the state retreated from this leadership role by being one of the first states to pass laws to automatically try youth in adult court for a range of offenses, including drug offenses. The law was “the most racially biased drug transfer law in the Nation.” Fueled by concern over the growing number of minority youth in adult court charged with non-violent drug offenses, the Illinois General Assembly moved to revamp Illinois’ drug transfer policies. A legislative task force recommended that original jurisdiction over all drug laws be returned to juvenile court and on August 12, 2005, the Governor repealed Illinois’ nearly 20-year policy of automatically transferring youth charged with drug offenses to adult court. |
