Passage of Harsh Juvenile Laws Likely by 1996 General Assembly: An Early Review of the 1996 Legislative Session

• NCJ Number: 161327
• Journal: Advocate Volume: 18 Issue: 2 Dated: (March 1996) Pages: 15-17
• Author(s): H J Rothgerber Jr
• Date Published: 1996
• Length: 3 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Description
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Bills introduced in the Kentucky Legislature on or before January 24, 1996 are briefly summarized that pertain to the handling of juvenile offenders.

Abstract

The most sweeping and controversial bill, HB 117, reduces the age at which a juvenile may be transferred to adult court from 14 to 12 years for serious felonies. The bill also stipulates that a juvenile can be transferred to adult court for less serious felonies with only one prior felony adjudication and that the juvenile court can retain jurisdiction over persistent juvenile misdemeanants until 18 years of age. In addition, the bill eliminates confidential provisions of the Juvenile Code, creates the Department of Youth Services to operate juvenile facilities, establishes more stringent procedures for the appointment of indigent counsel, and makes juvenile records more easily admissible in adult criminal proceedings. Other bills introduced in the 1996 legislative session establish the status of violent felony offender for juveniles and mandates their transfer to adult court, authorize the sharing of juvenile court records related to drugs and violence with school officials, prohibit the expungement of felony offenses from juvenile records, and allow full attorney access to juvenile records when the attorney is representing children under the Juvenile Code or in adult criminal proceedings. Additional bills apply sex offender registration procedures to juveniles as well as adults, prohibit the Department of Corrections from requiring separate facilities for juveniles, prohibit jail standards and administrative regulations that permit single-cell bunking of prisoners in juvenile and adult facilities, authorize municipalities to enact juvenile curfew ordinances, create the crime of child endangerment, require local school boards to conduct unannounced canine drug searches, define habitual truants as children who have missed 3 or more days or who have been tardy nine times during a school year, permit corporal punishment in schools only with parental consent, require school districts to expel students who bring weapons to school for 1 year, and establish a Juvenile Justice Commission.