Louisiana GOP lawmakers want to make it easier to try juveniles as adults

Critics also argue the changes fail to confront the root causes of juvenile crime, namely poverty and underinvestment in education. Transferring juveniles into adult court would also prevent them from accessing age-appropriate rehabilitative services, criminal justice reform advocates and social workers testified during the legislative session.

“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.”

Some lawmakers said that juveniles committing violent crimes had been deprived of care from a young age and were past the point of rehabilitation, blaming their families as opposed to societal factors.

“Some of these kids are already lost when they’re 2 years old,” said Republican Rep. Tony Bacala in a House committee hearing.

Increasing the juvenile crimes transferable to adult courts would likely impact African Americans more than any other group. They constitute about one third of Louisiana’s population but represent 77% of inmates held in Louisiana’s juvenile detention system, according to the state’s Office of Juvenile Justice.

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.

The effect of the proposed constitutional change will be to open the door for Republican lawmakers to give prosecutors the power to hand down lengthy prison sentences to 14- to 16-year-olds, including for less severe crimes, said Bruce Reilly, deputy director of the Louisiana-based criminal justice reform advocacy group Voice of the Experienced.

The Louisiana District Attorneys Association and the Louisiana Sheriffs’ Association said they supported the measure.

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.

District Attorney Tony Clayton, who represents West Baton Rouge and two other parishes, said he would not try a juvenile as an adult for having “marijuana in his wallet,” but for violent crimes.

Violent crimes are on the decline nationwide according to the latest data from FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting. Since mid-2023, most violent crime has also been down in New Orleans, which in 2022 had the highest homicide rate among large cities nationwide.

Conservative lawmakers argued this was the result of tough-on-crime penalties passed this year and Republican Gov. Jeff Landry’s decision to send state troops to New Orleans.

Lawmakers supporting the amendment have focused on high-profile violent crimes by juveniles, such as a deadly New Orleans carjacking case committed by teenagers — who were charged as adults — in which an elderly woman was beaten and dragged to her death.

Louisiana is one of five states that classifies 17-year-olds as adults in the criminal justice system, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.