Alabama proposes juvenile intervention, limits to lockups

MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- Alabama lawmakers this session will consider an overhaul of the state's juvenile justice system, which advocates contend locks up too many kids for low-level offenses.

The bill, which seeks an emphasis on intervention and to limit which juvenile offenders get sent to lockup or moved to adult court, is expected to get a joint hearing by the House and Senate judiciary committees later this month.

"We need to be careful about sending kids into lockup facilities. These are juveniles. These are people who are generally anywhere from 13 to 16," said state Rep. Jim Hill, a former juvenile judge and a Republican sponsor of the bill. Hill said kids are often sent to lockups for relatively low-level offenses because there is not an alternative.

"Too many of our counties, and this is especially true in our rural counties, simply don't have the programs and the resources that they really need to work with those children at a local level as opposed to sending those children into a lockup facility," Hill said.

Sharon McClendon Price of Guntersville said her 15-year-old daughter had "issues with defiance and truancy, things of the nature." After police found her at a house where there were drugs, Price agreed to put her on probation, in the hopes of getting her help.

Probation violations for failed drug tests and skipping school landed her in lockup in September: first at a detention facility and then a residential facility, Price said. She is still there.

"Instead of finding out what was going on, they decided to lock her up," Price said.

The legislation is the result of recommendations from the Alabama Juvenile Justice Task Force. According to the task force, nearly two-thirds of referrals to Department of Youth Services' custody in 2016 were for children who didn't commit a felony.

The bill would require a formal risk and needs assessment for juvenile offenders, limit the offenses that subject a child to placement with the Department of Youth Services, and limit punishment for probation violations to briefer detention stays.

Alabama allows children as young as 14 to be tried as adults. Teens 16 and older are currently automatically placed in the adult system if they are charged with capital offenses, class A felonies and other crimes, such as an assault on a teacher or a school principal with a "dangerous instrument."

The bill would limit which cases automatically get moved to adult court to capital offenses, murder, rape with a deadly weapon and robbery with a deadly weapon.

District attorneys oppose that provision of the bill, arguing the violent older teens should be in the adult system.

"We do not want these dangerous violent offenders incarcerated with nonviolent property offenders. That's what will happen if we don't make some changes," said Barry Matson of the Alabama District Attorneys Association.

The bill's sponsors, Hill and Sen. Cam Ward, emphasize the bill is a work in progress.

"We've got a lot of changes coming," Ward, a Republican, said. "We want a smart system. We don't want a juvenile offender to become a lifelong burden on the state."

A Section on 02/20/2018

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