FILE - Vehicles enter at the main security gate at Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, La., Aug. 5, 2008. (AP Photo/Judi Bottoni, File)

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana's Republican-controlled Legislature approved a constitutional amendment on Friday that would allow them to expand the number of crimes in which juveniles between 14 and 16 years old could be tried as adults.

The state's constitution currently outlines 15 violent juvenile offenses, such as rape, murder and armed robbery, which prosecutors can handle in adult courts. Any changes to that list of crimes must be approved by voters.

But the constitutional amendment sponsored by Republican Sen. Heather Cloud — which require voter approval in March 29 elections to take effect — would allow legislators the power by a two-thirds vote to decide what juvenile crimes can be transferred to adult courts.

It's part of a wider push in Louisiana, which already has the second-highest incarceration rate in the country behind Mississippi, to implement tough-on-crime policies under Republican Gov. Jeff Landry. Since taking office in January, Landry has passed laws to treat 17-year-olds as adults in the criminal justice system, largely eliminate parole and allow surgical castration as punishment for certain sex crimes against children.

Supporters of the measure to make it easier to expand prosecution of juveniles as adults — backed only by Republican legislators — say it will grant lawmakers more flexibility to give prosecutors the tools they need to increase public safety. Vesting authority in the constitution "has hamstringed Louisiana from being able to address changes in an ever-changing juvenile crime landscape,” Cloud said on the Senate floor on Nov. 14.

Opponents, including Democrats, social workers and criminal justice reform advocates, said specific offenses routing juveniles to adult courts should remain part of the constitution to keep this power in the hands of voters.

“We’re taking the people’s voice away over how children should be treated in this state,” Democratic Sen. Katrina Jackson-Andrews said.

Critics also argue the changes fail to confront the root causes of juvenile crime, namely poverty and underinvestment in education. Transferring juveniles into adult court would also prevent them from accessing age-appropriate rehabilitative services, criminal justice reform advocates and social workers testified during the legislative session.

“I can view this in no other way than just giving up on children,” Democratic Sen. Royce Duplessis said on the Senate floor. “We’re going to say we’re just going to treat them all as adults, and we’re not going to do our part as a society, as policymakers, to address what’s really failing — this is not going to do a single thing to deter crime."

Some lawmakers said that juveniles committing violent crimes had been deprived of care from a young age and were past the point of rehabilitation, blaming their families as opposed to societal factors.

“Some of these kids are already lost when they’re 2 years old,” said Republican Rep. Tony Bacala in a House committee hearing.

Increasing the juvenile crimes transferable to adult courts would likely impact African Americans more than any other group. They constitute about one third of Louisiana’s population but represent 77% of inmates held in Louisiana’s juvenile detention system, according to the state’s Office of Juvenile Justice.

Unless they are transferred to an adult court, young people tried in juvenile court can only be imprisoned until age 21 according to state law.

The effect of the proposed constitutional change will be to open the door for Republican lawmakers to give prosecutors the power to hand down lengthy prison sentences to 14- to 16-year-olds, including for less severe crimes, said Bruce Reilly, deputy director of the Louisiana-based criminal justice reform advocacy group Voice of the Experienced.

The Louisiana District Attorneys Association and the Louisiana Sheriffs' Association said they supported the measure.

But New Orleans Sheriff Susan Hutson said she was concerned the measure would “almost certainly further strain our already short staff” in the jail system. Federal law still considers 17-year-olds and younger as juveniles and requires them to be kept separate from adult inmates.

District Attorney Tony Clayton, who represents West Baton Rouge and two other parishes, said he would not try a juvenile as an adult for having “marijuana in his wallet,” but for violent crimes.

Violent crimes are on the decline nationwide according to the latest data from FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting. Since mid-2023, most violent crime has also been down in New Orleans, which in 2022 had the highest homicide rate among large cities nationwide.

Conservative lawmakers argued this was the result of tough-on-crime penalties passed this year and Republican Gov. Jeff Landry's decision to send state troops to New Orleans.

Lawmakers supporting the amendment have focused on high-profile violent crimes by juveniles, such as a deadly New Orleans carjacking case committed by teenagers — who were charged as adults — in which an elderly woman was beaten and dragged to her death.

Louisiana is one of five states that classifies 17-year-olds as adults in the criminal justice system, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

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Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Brook on the social platform X: @jack_brook96

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