Stricter Juvenile Justice Proposals Among Raft Of Criminal Policy Changes To Advance

By Greg LaRose, Louisiana Illuminator

April 26, 2023

9:51
News Story

• Uncategorized

Stricter juvenile justice proposals among raft of criminal policy changes to advance

Bills related to fentanyl, kratom, meth also reported favorably from committee

By: Greg LaRose - April 26, 2023 9:51 am

Rep. Debbie Villio has authored a bill that would create scaled penalties for fentanyl possession based on the amount detected and the number of previous offenses. (Greg LaRose/Louisiana Illuminator)

Approval of a bill that would stop treating 17-year-olds as youth offenders in Louisiana’s criminal justice system capped a six-hour hearing Tuesday that saw several proposals with enhanced restrictions advance.

The only legislation the House Committee on the Administration of Criminal Justice rejected on its lengthy agenda was a measure to decriminalize cannabis.

House Bill 208 by Rep. Alan Seabaugh, R-Shreveport, would reverse the Raise the Age Act Gov. John Bel Edwards signed in 2016 when it involves one of nearly 60 offenses state law defines as crimes of violence. They range from stalking to murder.

The Louisiana Association of District Attorneys supports Seabaugh’s bill, versions of which have been offered in years past. Sen. Stewart Cathey, R-Monroe, has sponsored a comparable version that has advanced from a Senate committee.

Meghan Garvey, president of the Louisiana Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, opposes the bill. It would steer accused youth offenders into an adult system that doesn’t offer the interventions available through the juvenile system, she told the committee.

“What we’re doing here is taking away our ability to deal with kids as kids,” Garvey said.

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New Orleans carjackings under spotlight

Also advancing was legislation from Rep. Laurie Schlegel, R-Metairie, would extend the time prosecutors have to determine whether to try juveniles as adults. House Bill 54 would extend the hold period from 30 to 60 days, although it would allow a judge to set bail for the accused.

Schlegel said she sponsored the bill in response to a 17-year-old who escaped from the Bridge City Center for Youth in July and allegedly shot a man in New Orleans during a carjacking. Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams missed the deadline to try Kendell Myles as an adult, leading a judge to drop the case against him.

Another Schlegel proposal that gained approval, House Bill 84, removed probation from the punishment options for juveniles convicted of carjacking, regardless of whether the crime involved a firearm. She cited as motivation the March 2022 death of 73-year-old Linda Frickey in New Orleans, an incident in which four teen minors forced the woman from her car but pulled away with Frickey’s arm still caught in her seatbelt.

Rep. Denise Marcelle, D-Baton Rouge, noted that prosecutors already have discretion to “layer charges” and pursue adult consequences for youth offenders, as Williams is doing with Frickey’s accused assailants. Schegel’s approach would result in lengthier prison time, which Marcelle said has not proven to be a deterrent to crime.

“This seems more like punishment going down the lines that we’ve done before in Louisiana, and it hadn’t made us any safer,” Marcelle said.

Other juvenile targeted bills the committee advanced include proposals to create juvenile justice districts in the Acadiana and River Parish regions. Their establishment would be the first step toward building juvenile detention centers for their respective geographies. The facilities would hold pre-trial detainees and provide services currently not available in the jurisdictions.

Rep. Stephanie Hilfterty, R-New Orleans, received approval for House Bill 160, that would give victims of juvenile crime, or a family member if the victim is a minor, access to the accused’s court proceedings. The proposal would allow victims to view a video feed from a courtroom, where available.

East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff Sid Gautreaux, left, consumes a packet of undisclosed content as Rep. Debbie Villio, R-Kenner, watches. Gautreaux testified in favor of Villio’s bill that calls for stricter punishment for people in possession of fentanyl. (Louisiana House of Representatives committee feed)

Drug-related proposals

Rep. Candace Newell, D-New Orleans, sought the legalization of cannabis in House Bill 24. When presenting her proposal, she attributed the original outlawing of marijuana to racist fears that Black jazz musicians would use the drug to entice white women.

Before Newell could seek a vote from the committee, Rep. Ray Garofalo, R-Chalmette, moved to involuntarily defer the bill. A majority of members supported Garofalo’s motion, effectively killing the proposal for the session.

Tuesday’s hearing opened with a lengthy discussion of Rep. John Stefanski’s bill that’s the bedrock of his campaign for attorney general. The Crowley Republican wants to punish anyone found with a detectable amount of fentanyl in at least 28 grams of a substance with life in prison. The committee approved that bill and one from Rep. Debbie Villio, R-Kenner, that includes scaled penalties for fentanyl possession depending on the amount and the number of previous offenses.

Stefanski hinges attorney general campaign on fentanyl crackdown

The committee also spent roughly an hour on House Bill 14, a proposal from Rep. Gabe Firment, R-Pollock, to make kratom a Schedule I controlled dangerous substance under state law. That designation would make what’s now a widely available product illegal to sell in Louisiana.

Proponents of kratom, derived from a plant in the coffee family native to southeast Asia, say it can be used to relieve pain as an alternative to opiates. Its critics say users are simply exchanging one addiction for another. Family members of people whose deaths were attributed to kratom use appeared at the committee hearing to support Firment’s bill, which was approved in the day’s closest vote, 8-7.

There was no opposition to House Bill 144, from Rep. Polly Thomas, R-Metairie. It would require persons convicted of making methamphetamines to report their whereabouts to local police once they’ve finished their prison sentence and are serving probation. Opponents called Thomas’ proposal redundant, given that offenders on probation already have to check in with probation and parole officials.

What’s next

More stringent anti-crime proposals are in store for the House Criminal Justice Committee Wednesday, but the agenda also includes a bill to eliminate the death penalty in Louisiana. Gov. Edwards has expressed his support for ending capital punishment, a stance that some Republicans around the country are gravitating toward to sync with their “pro-life” beliefs.

Even if many of the bills approved Tuesday advance through the legislature, it’s likely the governor will veto them. Edwards bills himself as a progressive on criminal justice issues, and this will be the final time he gets to reject bills before his term ends in January. Regardless of their fate, the Republicans behind them can still campaign as “tough on crime” candidates.

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The Louisiana Illuminator is an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization driven by its mission to cast light on how decisions are made in Baton Rouge and how they affect the lives of everyday Louisianians, particularly those who are poor or otherwise marginalized.