Louisiana
Should it be easier to send teens to adult prison? Louisiana voters will decide. • Louisiana Illuminator
Louisiana voters will decide whether to make it easier to send younger teenagers to adult prisons in a constitutional proposal next spring.
The Louisiana Legislature approved Senate Bill 2 Friday with a 70-25 vote in the House of Representatives and 28-10 vote in the Senate. The measure will be on the March 29 ballot that will also feature a major rewrite of state financial policy.
It would remove constitutional limits on crimes that can get people under age 17 sentenced as adults. Legislators would then have to enact new laws outlining how courts could send those minors to adult facilities.
Republican Gov. Jeff Landry backed the proposal and sat in the Louisiana House of Representatives as legislators debated and voted for the bill Friday. Still, it barely made it through the legislative process. The proposal only received 70 votes in the House, the exact number it needed to advance to voters.
Ahead of the narrow victory, Republican leaders appeared anxious to get through the House vote quickly and moved to cut off debate and questioning early. House Speaker Phillip DeVillier, R-Eunice, also told Rep. Denise Marcelle, D-Baton Rouge, she had missed a deadline to amend the legislation and refused to let her bring up her proposed change for debate or a vote.
One of the sponsors of the legislation, Rep. Debbie Villio, R-Kenner, also made a last-minute change to the bill to limit the offenses for which youth could be moved to adult prisons to just felonies, in part to address reservations lawmakers had about moving more young people into adult facilities. Prior to that change, the amendment would have allowed the Legislature to draft new laws to move minors to adult prisons for “any crime.”
Fifteen- and 16-year-olds, and in more restricted circumstances 14-year-olds, already face adult prison sentences for limited crimes without the constitutional amendment. Those offenses 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.
Youth advocates have said the broadening of that list to new offenses would do lasting harm to young teens caught up in the criminal justice system.
YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.
Teenagers transferred into adult prisons are at much higher risk for sexual abuse from other inmates and don’t receive the same counseling and educational services available in the juvenile system. Adult sentences are also often years or even decades longer than what youth in juvenile facilities serve, advocates said.
Supporters of the constitutional amendment, which include the Louisiana District Attorneys Association and Louisiana Sheriffs’ Association, have said prosecutors need a larger list of crimes in order to hold younger teens accountable.
Villio and Sen. Heather Cloud, R-Turkey Creek, the sponsors of the legislation, mentioned a few crimes they think should be added to the list.
Cloud said she would like to make the law applicable to carjacking, drive-by shootings and human trafficking. Villio said she was interested in adding fentanyl offenses.
Attorneys who represent youth in criminal matters said many of those offenses can be used to transfer teenagers to adult prison under current law.
They also questioned why human trafficking was being brought up as a concern because prosecutors rarely charge adults with that crime. Any teens accused of the offense are also likely being trafficked themselves, advocates said.
In an interview Friday, Villio said her intention is to get more crimes that “involve serious bodily injury” added to the list. Youth in the juvenile justice system who attack security guards and other workers at those facilities should receive harsher punishment, she added.
Villio’s proposal comes on the heels of another law that greatly expands the transfer of teens to adult facilities. Earlier this year, Landry and lawmakers passed legislation that treats all 17-year-olds as adults in the criminal justice system. The measure took away discretion from district attorneys to put accused 17-year-olds through the juvenile justice system instead of adult courts.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
(KSLA) — Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry froze hiring across all state government departments and agencies Wednesday (April 2).
Executive orders are gubernatorial mandates issued to implement procedural aspects of state government.
So who does Gov. Landry’s executive order affect?
“… It’s not supposed to affect local government, just state agencies,” political analyst Royal Alexander said.
There are 36 state agencies in Louisiana, including the Education Department and the Department of Transportation & Development, just to name a couple.
“What he’s doing is saying ‘We’re gonna leave things where they are right now; we’re just freezing it.’ And he thinks that we’ll probably save up to $20 million, which will make it possible for the state not to have to cut healthcare or education,” Alexander said.
Some politicians disagree.
The “hiring freeze is unnecessary,” District 4 state Rep. Joy Walters said. “The freeze is nothing but the governor’s pride. Let’s be real, to have amendments that fail and more than 60% around the state. This is retaliation for that.”
The timeline of the hiring freeze is unknown.
Gov. Landry said the freeze is to save $20 million to safeguard the future of our state and to prevent cuts to healthcare and education.
“Yes, it’s a scare tactic,” Walters said. “I don’t want to have to cut healthcare or public education.”
April 14 marks the start of the next legislative session. We should learn more then.
Copyright 2025 KSLA. All rights reserved.
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry issued a statewide hiring freeze Wednesday as the state faces a budget shortfall and voters rejected a proposed amendment that would have generated funding for teacher pay raises in next year’s spending plan.
Landry said he hopes the hiring freeze will generate $20 million in annual savings for the state’s general fund.
“To ensure the long-term fiscal health of Louisiana and protect essential services for our most vulnerable citizens, we must take decisive action now to address revenue shortfalls,” Landry said in a statement. “By implementing a temporary hiring freeze, we will reign in spending, saving an annualized $20 million.
“This is a necessary step to give the Legislature more options, to prevent deeper cuts to healthcare and education and to safeguard the future of our state.”
Republican House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jack McFarland of Winnfield said the hiring freeze is a prudent step to help address the state’s projected $194 million budget shortfall going into the next fiscal year.
McFarland leads the committee that crafts the state budget and is holding ongoing budget hearings to prepare for next year’s spending plan.
“It gives us the opportunity to find savings where we can to avoid or minimize cuts to critical services,” McFarland said in an interview with USA Today Network.
McFarland said it’s his understanding that some jobs that are considered critical could still be filled after a review from the administration.
Greg Hilburn covers state politics for the USA TODAY Network of Louisiana. Follow him on Twitter @GregHilburn1.
Ruling is seen as a win for Khalil but does not guarantee he will be moved out of the detention facility in the southern state of Louisiana.
A United States federal court judge has ruled in favour of pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, allowing him to challenge the legality of his arrest in New Jersey rather than in Louisiana, where he is being held at a detention facility without charges.
The decision by US District Judge Michael Farbiarz on Tuesday marked the second time the President Donald Trump administration’s legal team was unsuccessful in moving the Columbia University student’s case over to the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Louisiana – the country’s most conservative appeals court – to get Khalil deported.
Khalil’s lawyer, Baher Azmy, said his team was grateful the court understood the government’s “transparent attempt” to manipulate the jurisdiction of US courts to shield their “unconstitutional” and “chilling” behaviour.
Dr Noor Abdalla, Khalil’s pregnant wife who is a US citizen, said she was relieved by the decision but that “there is still a lot more to be done”, to release Khalil, whose green card was revoked by US authorities.
Although Tuesday’s case was a win for Khalil, it only settled the jurisdictional dispute of which court would be able to hear his attempts to challenge the legality of the Trump administration’s efforts to deport him – a dispute that originated when Khalil was held in a New Jersey detention facility for several hours following his arrest in Manhattan on March 8, before being moved across state lines to Louisiana.
Khalil’s case is seen as a test of Trump’s efforts to deport pro-Palestinian activists who have not been charged with any crime.
The Trump administration said it has revoked the visas of hundreds of foreign students it says took part in demonstrations that swept college campuses across the US, protesting against the government’s military support for Israel’s war on Gaza.
Lawyers say the Trump administration has improperly targeted people for holding particular political views.
Khalil’s lawyers have also asked Judge Farbiarz to release their client from detention in Louisiana as efforts to deport him in a separate case before an immigration court play out and, in part, to allow him to be with his wife for the birth of their son.
A doctor’s letter filed in court estimates that the baby is due on April 28.
Racial Wealth Gap Is Ballooning In New Jersey, Study Finds
Georgia man sentenced for murder of 79-year-old man at New Mexico rest stop
NC education officials ask feds to restore $17M in federal Covid relief funds
2025 North Dakota State Football Schedule
Ohio’s voter registration deadline is approaching for May election
-
News1 week agoTrump Is Trying to Gain More Power Over Elections. Is His Effort Legal?
-
News1 week agoWashington Bends to RFK Jr.’s ‘MAHA’ Agenda on Measles, Baby Formula and French Fries
-
World1 week agoAt least six people killed in Israeli attacks on southern Syria
-
News1 week agoCompanies Pull Back From Pride Events as Trump Targets D.E.I.
-
Technology1 week agoTrump officials planned a military strike over Signal – with a magazine editor on the line
-
Technology1 week agoThe FBI launched a task force to investigate Tesla attacks
-
World1 week agoNo, Norway and Sweden haven't banned digital transactions
-
Culture1 week agoAnalysing Jamal Musiala’s bizarre corner goal for Germany against Italy