BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) – Louisiana’s Republican-controlled Legislature on Friday approved a constitutional amendment that would allow them to expand the number of crimes in which youth between the ages of 14 and 16 can be tried as adults.
The state constitution currently defines 15 violent juvenile crimes, such as rape, murder and armed robbery, that prosecutors can handle in adult courts. Any change to that list of crimes must be approved by voters.
But the constitutional amendment sponsored by Republican Sen. Heather Cloud — which would require voter approval in the March 29 election to take effect — would give lawmakers the power to decide with a two-thirds majority which juvenile crimes can be transferred to adult courts.
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It’s part of a broader effort in Louisiana, which already has the second-highest incarceration rate in the country after Mississippi, to implement tough-on-crime policies under Republican Governor Jeff Landry. Since taking office in January, Landry has passed laws to treat 17-year-olds as adults in the criminal justice system, largely abolishing parole and allowing surgical castration as punishment for certain sex crimes against children.
Supporters of the measure to make it easier to expand the prosecution of juveniles as adults — backed only by Republican lawmakers — say it will give lawmakers more flexibility to give prosecutors the tools they need to increase public safety. Establishing authority in the Constitution “has prevented Louisiana from addressing changes in an ever-changing juvenile crime landscape,” Cloud said on the Senate floor Nov. 14.
Opponents, including Democrats, social workers and criminal justice reform advocates, said specific crimes that send juveniles to adult courts should remain part of the Constitution to keep that power in the hands of voters.
“We are taking away the people’s voice on how children in this state should be treated,” said Democratic Senator Katrina Jackson-Andrews.
Critics also argue that the changes fail to address the root causes of youth crime, namely poverty and underinvestment in education. Transferring youths to adult court would also prevent them from accessing age-appropriate rehabilitative services, criminal justice reform advocates and social workers testified during the hearing.
“I can’t look at this any other way than giving up children,” Democratic Sen. Royce Duplessis said on the Senate floor. “We’re going to say we’re just going to treat them all like adults, and we’re not going to do our part as a society, as policymakers, to address something that’s really failing. something to deter crime.”
Some lawmakers said youth who committed violent crimes were deprived of care at an early age and beyond the point of rehabilitation, blaming their families rather than societal factors.
“Some of these children are lost by the age of two,” Republican Rep. Tony Bacala said during a House committee hearing.
Unless transferred to adult court, youth tried in juvenile court can only be jailed until age 21 under state law.
The effect of the proposed constitutional amendment will be to open the door for Republican lawmakers to give prosecutors the power to impose long prison sentences on 14- to 16-year-olds, including for less serious crimes, said Bruce Reilly, deputy director of the Louisiana-based criminal justice reform 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 put further strain on “our already stretched staff” in the jail system. Federal law still considers 17-year-olds and younger to be 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 try a minor as an adult not for having “marijuana in his wallet” but for violent crimes.
Violent crimes are on the decline nationwide, according to the latest data from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting. Since mid-2023, violent crime has also declined in New Orleans, which had the highest homicide rate among major cities nationwide in 2022.
Conservative lawmakers argued that this was the result of the harsh penalties imposed this year and Republican Governor Jeff Landry’s decision to send state troopers to New Orleans.
Lawmakers who supported the amendment have focused on high-profile violent crimes by young people, such as a deadly carjacking case in New Orleans 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 classify 17-year-olds as adults in the criminal justice system, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
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Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Brook on social platform X: @jack_brook96
