Juvenile Justice Information Exchange (https://jjie.org/tag/legislation/page/22/)
The Runaway Youth Safety Act has passed out of subcommittee amid a continuing debate about the role of shelters and other facilities and how soon they must notify authorities they have given shelter to juveniles. The Judiciary/Non-Civil Committee must pass the bill, HB 185, before it moves to the House for a full vote. A hearing by the committee is likely later this week. Keep checking with JJIE.org for any changes.
We’re asking lawmakers to weigh in on issues affecting children and the juvenile justice system in Georgia. In this installment of the JJIE.org interview series, State Senator Jack Hill (R-Reidsville) weighs in on the new Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) commissioner and how the cash-strapped agency may effectively cut costs. Senator Jack Hill
Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee
Former Chairman of K-12 Education, Ethics and Higher Education Committees. JJIE: What do you consider to be some of the main pressing issues facing juvenile justice in Georgia? J.H.: I know that the budget cutbacks are a setback, but I’ve been impressed with [DJJ’s] plans for efficient delivery of services. I’ve been especially impressed with Commissioner Amy Howell’s work.
An era of prosecuting juveniles as adults may be coming to an end in numerous states as criminal justice officials face a growing recognition that many underage offenders have been mishandled in the adult system, details a story in Sunday’s New York Times. While states from Connecticut to Wisconsin have started to roll back the generation’s old policies, many other states remain resistant to the change, citing the higher cost of adding more people to the juvenile systems at a time of crushing budget problems, says the paper.
Since the Georgia House of Representatives passed the human trafficking bill HB 200, (which includes stronger penalties for the prostituting of children) I asked Kaffie McCullough, founder of JJF’s A Future. Not A Past. (AFNAP) for her thoughts. Kaffie, how does this bill differ from Bill 304 which you worked on a year ago? “It does some of those same things, and it’s a step forward, but it’s not as far as ultimately we’d like to go.
It seems that even the Georgia Legislature can have an off schedule week. First the House Children & Youth Committee meeting scheduled for Tuesday afternoon at the State Capitol got canceled at the last minute. According to the agenda, the topic was supposed to be a discussion about “a system-wide approach” to “children and youth with special needs.”
Then JJIE.org got tipped off that the Senate Judiciary Committee had scheduled a hearing Thursday on Senate Bill 105, which proposes to establish a three-person juvenile parole panel within the Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ). An hour-and-a-half into the committee’s meeting (following a lively discussion about the controversial immigration-focused Senate Bill 40) we learned that the parole board bill would not be heard that day. “The committee chairman has the authority to add or delete anything from the agenda,” explained SB 105 sponsor Sen. Emanuel Jones (D-Decatur).
A bill cracking down on human trafficking has passed the Georgia House of Representatives and will now move to the Senate for approval. The legislation, HB 200, increases penalties for those guilty of human trafficking, especially if the victims are less than 16 years old. Further provisions are made for victims who have suffered as a result of forced prostitution.
This bill will create new regulations for doctors who perform abortions on girls under 16 by requiring fetal tissue to be submitted to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Georgia’s long-awaited Juvenile Code rewrite— the first in four decades — is inching closer to completion. Some key stakeholders involved in shaping the legislation are scheduled to meet Friday afternoon to hammer out more details in Senate Bill 127, also known as the Child Protection and Public Safety Act. Many of the issues slated for discussion were raised at a Senate Judiciary Committee (SJC) hearing at the state capitol Monday. “We’ve had a positive start to the session and this hearing is just a part of finishing up the vetting of this bill,” said Sharon Hill, executive director of the Georgia Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, a non-profit helping to lead the rewrite effort. “Today was a good day.
Now that a bill allowing for more discretion among juvenile court judges has been filed with the Georgia House of Representatives, it may be an uphill battle for the sponsor of another bill pushing for the creation of a juvenile parole board. Nearly two weeks ago Sen. Emanuel Jones (D-Decatur), a Georgia Legislative Black Caucus member, introduced Senate Bill 105, which would establish a three-person juvenile parole panel within the Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ). “With limited financial resources and the severe overcrowding in our jails, we must begin looking at alternatives to incarceration,” said Sen. Jones of the measure, now awaiting review by the Senate Judiciary Committee. “This bill is aimed at juvenile offenders who have committed only designated felonies.”
The main challenge ahead for Sen. Jones may be the fact that another measure dubbed the “good behavior bill" pushing for more discretion among juvenile court judges was also filed late last week. House Bill 373, which has been formally endorsed by DJJ and the Council of Juvenile Court Judges, would allow judges to review the sentences of designated felons who have accomplished the terms of his or her sentence for consideration for early release. The measure, sponsored by Rep. B.J Pak (R-Lilburn), has been endorsed by Rep. Wendell Willard (R-Sandy Springs) and House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams (D-DeKalb)
Both bills were introduced on the heels of Governor Nathan Deal’s recent announcement of plans to assemble a new bi-partisan council to study criminal justice reforms and make recommendations to a joint legislative committee by next January.
The State Board of Education will be required to show the amount of money it spends to educate illegal and undocumented students each year if HB 296 passes. Required information would include, teacher student ratio, the number of students who are illegal or undocumented in each school district and expenditure per-illegal or undocumented student per year. The cost will then be factored into the state budget before it’s presented to the State House and Senate appropriations committees. The same requirements would also extend to hospitals, nursing homes and other health care facilities. Legal analysts point out that the constitutionality of the bill may be called in question due to a Supreme Court Ruling in 1982.