Louisiana's GOP-dominated Legislature approved a constitutional amendment on Friday that would allow lawmakers to expand the number of crimes in which juveniles between 14 and 16 years old could be tried as adults.
FILE - Vehicles enter at the main security gate at Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, La., Aug. 5, 2008. BATON ROUGE, La. — Louisiana ’s Republican-controlled Legislature approved a constitutional amendment on Friday that would allow them to expand the number of crimes in which juveniles between 14 and 16 years old could be tried as adults.
Supporters of the measure to make it easier to expand prosecution of juveniles as adults — backed only by Republican legislators — say it will grant lawmakers more flexibility to give prosecutors the tools they need to increase public safety. Vesting authority in the constitution “has hamstringed Louisiana from being able to address changes in an ever-changing juvenile crime landscape,” Cloud said on the Senate floor on Nov. 14.
“I can view this in no other way than just giving up on children,” Democratic Sen. Royce Duplessis said on the Senate floor. “We’re going to say we’re just going to treat them all as adults, and we’re not going to do our part as a society, as policymakers, to address what’s really failing — this is not going to do a single thing to deter crime.”
Unless they are transferred to an adult court, young people tried in juvenile court can only be imprisoned until age 21 according to state law. But New Orleans Sheriff Susan Hutson said she was concerned the measure would “almost certainly further strain our already short staff” in the jail system. Federal law still considers 17-year-olds and younger as juveniles and requires them to be kept separate from adult inmates.
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