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Lawmakers seek to expand juvenile felonies through Louisiana constitutional amendment

SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – A proposed change to the Louisiana State Constitution would allow the Louisiana Legislature to expand the list of juvenile criminal offenses leading to adult prosecutions. Advocates in the juvenile justice community oppose constitutional amendment 3, allowing legislators to remove the list of 16 crimes that already require automatic transfer from the juvenile to the adult judicial system and instead add and define felonies as they see fit. Under Louisiana law, if committed by juveniles, the following offenses cause a referral to criminal district court. Watch: Confronting the Plague of Juvenile Crime First-degree murder Second-degree murder Manslaughter Aggravated rape Armed robbery Aggravated burglary Aggravated kidnapping Attempted first-degree murder Attempted second-degree murder Forcible rape Simple rape Second-degree kidnapping A second or subsequent aggravated battery A second or subsequent aggravated burglary A second or subsequent offense of burglary of an inhabited dwelling A second or subsequent felony-grade violation involving the manufacture, distribution or possession with intent to distribute controlled dangerous substances Amendment 3 seeks to change Louisiana law to allow additions to that list with a two-thirds vote of the legislature rather than through a constitutional amendment. Youth justice advocates like Kristie Rome, the Louisiana Center for Children's Rights Executive Director, disagree. Rome explained that in her work with the public defense for juveniles in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, as well as other entities supporting youth offenders, she says that any amendment that ignores data and does not address the root issues related to juvenile offenses is not moving Louisiana in the right direction. Lawmakers say this is needed because the nature and frequency of crimes committed by juvenile offenders is expanding and becoming more brazen. They argue that removing the list from the constitution will allow them to address the changes in criminal behavior more swiftly and in alignment with what the public wants. 'We are so staunchly opposed to any proposed legislation that doesn't address root causes, doesn't get us towards solutions, but instead just continues to lock kids up without addressing what's happening in their lives,' Rome said. She believes that the legislature is attempting to rewrite the rules of engagement with limited public discourse, input or understanding. 'A drive-by shooting is an attempted murder, and I can tell you as someone who has practiced law for 14 years, that when a person commits a drive-by shooting, they are charged with attempted murder, and if there were 15 people out there, they are charged with 15 counts of attempt murder,' Rome said. With that level of specificity in the state's criminal law, Rome questions if lawmakers have considered the necessity of this change. 'I think your question goes to what the public's question really should be, and it goes to how we're continuing to see our legislature act with smoke and mirrors and not be transparent with us, and it's, it's, it's unclear whether it is just pure ignorance from our legislature or whether it is really intentionally hiding the ball from us.' Another consideration that lawmakers, in a rush to fulfill campaign promises, sometimes overlook is the unintended consequences of laws. Adding to the list of offenses because of political pressure, personal experience, prolonged media coverage of crimes, or other reasons could negatively affect police and sheriff's departments and our state court systems. 'I don't think that the voters understand or that it has been explained or even thought through well, and one major cost is going to be the cost of housing children. So under federal law, young people, when placed in an adult jail, must be sight and sound separated from other incarcerated adults,' Rome explained. Under federal law, teens should be segregated from adults in prison. If someone is under 18 in an adult prison, they must be on a separate tier. They cannot be held where adults are being held. 'The cost to our sheriffs, particularly our in our rural parishes, is going to be monumental,' Rome said. 'It is going to completely change how the sheriff's offices operate, and oftentimes in our rural parishes, our sheriff's offices are already strapped for cash and already underfunded. And so it's going to make it so that our local jails become so overpopulated with people that we likely won't have anywhere to place them.' Releasing offenders due to a lack of space in jails could mean probation or early release for potentially violent offenders before their cases are resolved. When asked what she sees as the end goal of the legislation, she said, 'It's unclear, and I think it hasn't been thought through. And before we go to the voters and ask the voters to change the constitution, we should have our legislators thinking through things and clearly letting us know if we're still questioning, well, why is this needed? Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.