In Louisiana policy makers believed the only way to stop violent teenagers was to prosecute all 17-year-olds in adult court, regardless of the offense, and lock them up in prison, reported Verite News and ProPublica. Law enforcement officials from around the state made similar arguments. Legislators quickly passed a bill that lowered the age at which the justice system must treat defendants as adults from 18 to 17.
But according to a review of arrests in the five months
since the law took effect, most of the 17-year-olds booked in three of the
state’s largest parishes have not been accused of violent crimes. Verite News
and ProPublica identified 203 17-year-olds who were arrested in Orleans, Jefferson
and East Baton Rouge parishes between April and September. A total of 141, or
69%, were arrested for offenses that are not listed as violent crimes in Louisiana
law, according to our analysis of jail rosters, court records and district
attorney data.
Just 13% of the defendants — a little over two dozen — have
been accused of the sort of violent crimes that lawmakers cited when arguing
for the legislation, such as rape, armed robbery and murder. Prosecutors were
able to move such cases to adult court even before the law was changed.
The larger group of lesser offenses includes damaging
property, trespassing, theft under $1,000, disturbing the peace, marijuana
possession, illegal carrying of weapons and burglary. They also include
offenses that involve the use of force, such as simple battery, but those are
not listed in state law as violent crimes either, and they can be prosecuted as
misdemeanors depending on the circumstances.
In one case in New Orleans, a boy took a car belonging to
his mother’s boyfriend without permission so he could check out flooding during
Hurricane Francine last month, according to a police report. When the teen
returned the car, the front bumper was damaged. The boyfriend called police and
the teen was arrested for unauthorized use of a vehicle. In another case, a boy
was charged with battery after he got into a fight with his brother about
missing a school bus.
In July, a 17-year-old girl was charged with resisting
arrest and interfering with a law enforcement investigation. She had shoved a
police officer as he was taking her older sister into custody for a minor
charge resulting from a fight with another girl. None of those defendants have
had an opportunity to enter a plea so far; convictions could result in jail or
prison time of up to two years.
In juvenile court, teenagers facing charges such as these
could be sentenced to a detention facility, but the juvenile system is mandated
to focus on rehabilitation and sentences are generally shorter than in adult
court, juvenile justice advocates said. And in the juvenile system, only
arrests for violent crimes and repeat offenses are public record. But because
these 17-year-olds are in the adult system, they all have public arrest records
that can prevent them from getting jobs or housing.
Rachel Gassert, the former policy director for the Louisiana
Center for Children’s Rights, said there was one word to describe what she felt
when Verite News and ProPublica shared their findings: “Despair.”
Eight years ago, Gassert and other criminal justice
advocates convinced lawmakers to raise the age for adult prosecution from 17 to
18 years old, pointing to research that shows that
the human brain
does not fully develop until early adulthood and that youth are more likely to reoffend when
they are prosecuted as adults. The law enacted this spring was the culmination
of a two-year effort to reverse that.
“The whole push to repeal Raise the Age was entirely
political and all about throwing children under the bus,” Gassert said. “And
now we are seeing the tire treads on their backs.”
Gov. Jeff Landry’s office, Clayton and state Sen. Heather
Cloud, R-Turkey Creek, who sponsored the bill to roll back Raise the Age, did
not respond to requests for comment. The Louisiana District Attorneys
Association, which supported the bill, declined to comment.
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