Proposed law to raise age of ‘juveniles’ in court

Missouri should join 40 other states and raise the age for juveniles being handled by adult courts, as proposed in a Senate bill.

“Currently, Missouri charges all 17 year-olds as adults, no matter what the offense — misdemeanor or felony,” sponsor Wayne Wallingford told the Senate’s Judiciary committee this week. “This bill changes the definition of ‘child’ to include all children under 18 years of age.

“The bill also prohibits the pre-trial detention of youth under 18 in adult jails, unless the child is certified to the adult system through the judicial process.”

Wallingford, R-Cape Girardeau, said Missouri’s model juvenile justice system already has reduced the numbers of young people accused of crimes.

“In 2013, there were approximately 20,000 youth between the ages of 10 and 17 with delinquent behavior,” he told the committee. “Compare this with 2011, and approximately 29,000 youth were charged with delinquent behavior.

“So, (there’s been) a drop of one-third.”

He argued Missouri is “one of only nine states in this country that has failed to recognize what research and science have confirmed — children are different from adults.”

And he noted, “The overwhelming majority of youth were arrested for misdemeanor offenses.”

Changing 17 year-olds to juveniles instead of adults for criminal case purposes has several benefits, Rachel Greathouse, of Empower Missouri, testified.

“We already have a great, individualized rehabilitation program for our juveniles, so allowing 17 year-olds to get part of this is very important, as well as allowing them to have educational opportunities,” she explained.

“When they go into adult facilities, prisons and jails, they don’t have the educational opportunities that someone has when they are in a juvenile facility,” Greathouse added. “So they lack continuing going to 10th, 11th and 12th grades.

“So, that’s very important to re-enter society.”

Even where teens have been charged with serious crimes, Wallingford said, “The model juvenile justice system is better-equipped to handle them because of the individualized rehabilitation services provided.”

Wallingford also said changing the state law would bring Missouri into compliance with a 2013 federal law, the Prison Rate Elimination Act, or PREA, which “requires separation of youth and adults in adult jails and prisons. And, the federal law defines youth as anyone under 18 years of age.

“State after state has said that the cheapest and most effective way to come into compliance and not face federal penalties is to remove youth under 18 years from the adult facilities.”

Lobbyist Steve Carroll, representing M and R Strategic Services, a Washington, D.C., “think tank/lobbying firm that is heading up the national effort of Raise Your Age,” told the committee Tuesday afternoon: “In the last five years, since they started this national program, 30 states have made changes. …

“It seems to be working in other states — and certainly is helping rehab many of these youth.”

The only group speaking against the bill was the Missouri Juvenile Justice Association, which serves the state’s juvenile officers.

“We definitely support the concept of raising the age, as long as it is adequately funded and researched,” lobbyist Michael Grote testified. “What we would like to see is if there’s a way to do a study to see what some of those costs and allocation of resources are going to be over time.”

Specifically, Grote mentioned concerns over whether the compulsary age of school attendance would need to be changed to meet the guidelines.

Juvenile officers want to make sure the change wouldn’t damage existing programs.

“We want to make sure were able to adequately serve the existing population, as well as any new population that would come in,” Grote said.

“The other concern is the fiscal notes don’t currently address the impact to single-county circuit budgets,” such as Cole County’s, “as they are responsible for funding the full-time staff necessary to handle delinquency issues.”

Grote said his group is anxious to work with Wallingford and others to address the problems.

That could mean this week’s discussion is the opening for more work in the 2017 legislative session.

The Judiciary committee could vote today to recommend the proposal for floor debate in the Senate.

But it still would have to clear the Senate and House with only three weeks to go in this year’s session.

Lawmakers say that still is possible, although they acknowledge time is running short for bills to clear both houses before the General Assembly must end at 6 p.m. May 13.