Louisiana lawmakers consider making it easier to sentence more minors to adult prisons • Louisiana Illuminator

In a special lawmaking session focused on tax policy, Louisiana lawmakers are also quietly moving legislation that could lead to more underage youth being sent to adult prisons.

The Louisiana Senate’s Judiciary C committee voted 4-1 Thursday in favor of a state constitutional amendment to remove limitations on the number of crimes for which youth under the age of 17 could be sentenced as if they are adults. 

Senate Bill 2 would allow legislators to craft new laws that expand the court’s ability to send minors – 14-, 15- and 16-year-olds – to adult prisons. The proposal alarms advocates for children, who believe it further erodes protections for youth.

It also comes on the heels of a new law passed earlier this year that treats all 17-year-olds as adults when it comes to the criminal justice system. The measure took away discretion from district attorneys to put 17-year-olds through the juvenile justice system instead of adult courts. 

In Louisiana, 15- and 16-year-olds, and in more limited circumstances 14-year-olds, can already face adult prison sentences, though only for limited crimes. These include murder, attempted murder, manslaughter, rape, armed robbery, kidnapping, aggravated battery, a second or subsequent burglary of an inhabited dwelling and a second or subsequent violation of some drug crimes.

The constitutional amendment, proposed by Sen. Heather Cloud, R-Turkey Creek, would strike that specific list from a juvenile justice provision in the constitution. Instead, she wants to insert language allowing a minor to be charged like an adult for “any crime” as long as lawmakers pass new laws to do so. 

Any of those new laws would face a higher threshold for approval than most statutes — a two-thirds majority of both legislative chambers, not just a simple majority — before they could take effect. 

The amendment on its own also faces some hurdles before it can be enacted. Two-thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives have to vote in favor of it. Voters then have to approve it through a statewide election, which would either be scheduled for late March or November of 2025.

At Wednesday’s hearing, Cloud characterized her amendment as a minor adjustment that is “not going to change the law.” Advocates for children and incarcerated people strongly disagreed with that sentiment. 

“It’s a real profound social failure when we have to give up on kids,” said Michael Cahoon, speaking on behalf of the Promise of Justice Initiative advocacy organization, which opposes the legislation. 

Cloud and Gov. Jeff Landry’s administration, which supports the amendment, were vague Thursday about the new types of crime they might want to use to transfer minors to adult court. 

At the hearing, Cloud initially mentioned concerns that minors couldn’t currently be charged as adults with carjacking but later told her colleagues to avoid focusing on carjacking  as the reason she has filed the legislation. 

Chris Walters, who handles criminal justice policy for the governor, told legislators that the current constitutional restrictions make it difficult to punish teenagers appropriately for drive-by shootings, property damage and assaults that take place at state juvenile justice facilities. 

But Kristen Rome, executive director for the Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights, said district attorneys who want to transfer teenagers to adult courts for the crimes Walters and Cloud listed at the hearing can already do so.

Terry Landry Jr., a lobbyist with the Southern Poverty Law Center, urged legislators to hold off on moving the constitutional change until more was known about the effects of automatically transferring 17-year-olds to the adult criminal system.

Landry Jr., who is not related to the governor, cited a recent article by ProPublica and Verite News that showed nearly 70% of 17-year-olds arrested as if they were adults under the new law in East Baton Rouge, Jefferson and Orleans parishes were accused of nonviolent crimes.

Louisiana sheriffs are already struggling to accommodate 17-year-olds moved from juvenile facilities into the adult system as the result of the law the Legislature approved earlier this year.

While Louisiana state law may consider a 17-year-old an adult for criminal justice purposes, the federal government does not. In order to comply with federal law, sheriffs have to keep anyone under age 18 separate from adult detainees and provide them with educational services.

Sheriffs have complained they don’t have the space in their jails or resources to meet these federal requirements. Many are spending money to house the 17-year-olds at a special facility in Jackson Parish in order not to run afoul of federal or state mandates. 

It’s not clear how local law enforcement feels about Cloud’s proposal.

In an usual move, the Louisiana District Attorneys Association and Louisiana Sheriffs Association did not testify or attend Wednesday’s hearing on Cloud’s bill. As two of the more powerful lobbying groups at the Capitol, they typically weigh in on most criminal justice proposals that directly affect their respective memberships.

Despite its uncertainty, Cloud’s bill gained approval from the Senate committee that Republicans dominate. Democrats make up about a third of the Louisiana Senate but account for only one of the seven senators on the Judiciary C committee. 

Sen. Regina Barrow, of Baton Rouge, is the committee’s only Democrat and was the lone no vote against Cloud’s legislation. She expressed concern over the “law and order” approach to disciplining youth.

“I do not believe kids are born bad. I just don’t,” she said.