Georgia Juvenile Code Overhaul Clears State House

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After five years of work, a 243-page overhaul of Georgia's juvenile code passed the state House of Representatives unanimously on Wednesday. The bill -- endorsed by judges, prosecutors, defense lawyers, state agencies and child advocates across Georgia -- now moves to the Georgia Senate. House Bill 641 creates a broad array of programs for neglected children and for children who leave the foster-care system at age 18; strengthens protections for children in juvenile court; clarifies when the state may remove a child from home or seek to terminate parental rights; and adopts best practices from across the country for handling deprivation and delinquency cases. "People will quite often address us as elected House members and say, 'Why do you do that? Why do you run for office?"

Effort at Parental Rights Amendment in Georgia Stalls

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Georgia parents could no longer put their children in time-outs or impose other discipline if the U.S. Senate ratifies an international treaty on children's rights. Or so says state Rep. Jay Neal (R-LaFayette) and other backers of a proposed Parental Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Neal asked state House colleagues Tuesday to call on Congress to back a constitutional amendment declaring that parents -- not the government -- have the right to direct their children's upbringing and education. But the clock ran out during a time-shortened meeting of the House Children and Youth Committee, and Neal's resolution was tabled, quite possibly killing it for this year's legislative session. The motion to table passed on a 9-7 vote.

Juvenile Code Overhaul in Georgia Could be Doomed Without Proper Funding

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A proposed overhaul of juvenile justice laws could revolutionize the way Georgia treats abused and delinquent children, local officials told a state legislative panel Thursday. But, they cautioned, the reforms are doomed to failure without proper funding. The state House Judiciary Committee on Thursday unanimously approved a 243-page rewrite of the state's juvenile code, but only after hearing dire warnings from prosecutors and a defense lawyer about the consequences of underfunding. The bill, among many other provisions, would require that local district attorneys prosecute cases in juvenile courts. It does not state, however, who would pay the bill.

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Funding for New Youth Detention Center in Georgia Moving Through Legislature

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Georgia state Senate budget writers signed off Tuesday on $3.35 million in immediate funding to open and staff a youth prison in south Fulton County. The new 80-bed Atlanta Youth Development Campus, the first in North Georgia, could open as soon as April, helping to ease pressures at the state's six other prisons for juveniles. Several of those facilities saw violent disturbances in 2011, culminating in November in the beating death of a 19-year-old in his cell at the Augusta YDC. Plans call for housing youths from metro Atlanta in the new YDC, DJJ spokesman Jim Shuler said. The department is not currently considering Juvenile Justice Commissioner Gale Buckner's suggestion, reported last month, to transfer the instigators of disturbances at the other facilities to the Atlanta YDC, he said.

Georgia Bill Would Make Smuggling Cell Phones, Cigarettes Into Youth Detention Centers a Felony

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Smuggling cellphones or cigarettes into a Georgia youth prison would become a felony under a bill approved without opposition Thursday by the Georgia Senate. It's already a crime to provide weapons, drugs or alcoholic beverages to youths in the custody of the state Department of Juvenile Justice. Senate Bill 366, sponsored by Sen. Johnny Grant (R-Milledgeville), expands that ban to other items that have turned up in quantity recently as investigators made surprise visits to each of the state's 26 youth detention centers. Authorities showed off a large box of confiscated cellphones next to tobacco products, handmade weapons and other contraband at the most recent meeting of the board of the state Department of Juvenile Justice. Also on display was what appeared to be a youth's handwritten business plan calculating the sums of money that could be made selling cigarettes and amphetamines to other offenders.

ga state house square

New Georgia Juvenile Code Advancing in State Legislature

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A long-planned overhaul of Georgia's juvenile justice code got its first official nod of approval Wednesday, but backers still haven't figured out how to pay for it. An estimated $15 million price tag is attached to the proposed Child Protection and Public Safety Act, sponsored by state Senate Judiciary Chairman Bill Hamrick (R-Carrollton), whose committee gave the bill a "do-pass" without dissent. Gov. Nathan Deal did not include that cost in the coming year's budget so, Hamrick said, supporters pushed the effective date of the bill back a year -- to July 2013 -- to buy the time to find funding for it. "We have got to work on that with the House and the governor," Hamrick said. Some government agencies were objecting to taking on new programs that they couldn't pay for, he said, "so now it really seems to be how are we going to fund it."

Mom, Teen Daughter Claim Guards Complicit in Attack at Georgia Detention Center

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Haley Bonds says she did everything she could think of to protect her 16-year-old daughter from the beatdown she was expecting at a youth jail in Northwest Georgia. Yet, just 20 minutes after a supervisor assured her her daughter would be safe, another called to say her daughter was "bleeding out" and being rushed to the emergency room. At the hospital, Bonds said, doctors told her daughter's nose had been "crushed" and she would need corrective surgery and dental work. The daughter had just told a supervisor that two guards had bribed her and another girl to attack a third girl the night before, according to a written record of the complaint obtained by JJIE. The guards, she charged, threatened to "put out a hit on her" if she told anyone about it.

New Study Finds Georgia Foster Kids are Over-Medicated

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Georgia's foster children are being over-medicated, often to sedate them or control their behavior rather than treat a medical condition, a new study confirms.

The question is: What should Georgia do about it? One solution being considered by state legislators calls for oversight of medications given to adjust the mood or behavior of thousands of foster children in Georgia. The bill calls for written standards for the dosages and combinations of psychotropic drugs given to those children, as well as an independent clinical review to assess all such medications and related treatments twice a year. But some child psychiatrists, worrying about second-guessing and lengthy delays in treatment, told state lawmakers last week that they object to a provision that would require the state's pre-authorization for certain medications or unusual doses. They also cautioned about the consequences of language that would require the informed consent of children 14 and older before taking a new psychotropic drug.

Audit Shows New Georgia Children’s Agency Serving Fewer Children

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In 2008, Georgia combined two state offices serving troubled youth in the name of effectiveness and efficiency. Now, an audit says the newly created office has resulted in little savings on overhead while managing to serve only about one-third as many children. The analysis found “no evidence” that the Governor’s Office for Children and Families (GOCF) is more efficient, state Auditor Russell Hinton said. Administrative costs remain about the same as before the merger, he reported, and a new grant-making philosophy built in another layer of bureaucracy that may well cost taxpayers more. Hinton also found that the office was carrying over unspent money from one year to another, rather than returning it to the state treasury as required by law.

Firings and Contraband at Georgia’s Troubled Youth Detention Centers

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The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is wrapping up its criminal investigation at the state’s youth prison in Augusta and plans to present its findings to Richmond County prosecutors by mid-February. The Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) is pulling together its own findings after unannounced visits to Augusta and the state’s 25 other jails and prisons for youth offenders in recent weeks, DJJ Commissioner Gale Buckner said Thursday. Those findings -- which have already led to disciplinary actions and policy changes -- have been shared with leadership at each institution and should be consolidated into a single report, also by mid-February, for Gov. Nathan Deal and DJJ board members. “We’ve had a lot of personnel changes at Augusta, and it’s not over,”

Buckner told the DJJ board during a meeting of its members on Thursday. At least a dozen staff members have already lost their jobs at Augusta in the aftermath of the Nov.