Rollback of reforms? Advocates express concerns with new NC juvenile justice proposal

A proposal that would require some 16- and 17-year-olds to be tried initially as adults in North Carolina’s courts took a step forward on Tuesday, despite concerns by some that it would roll back protections for youths.

Currently, juveniles under 18 are tried in the state’s juvenile court after a petition is filed.

If a 16- or 17-year-old juvenile commits a Class A through G felony, then the case must be transferred from juvenile court — after probable cause is found or the teen is indicted — to the state’s superior courts to be tried as an adult. A prosecutor may also decline to transfer certain felonies to superior court.

Class A-G felonies range from high-level offenses such as murder to mid-level felonies such as committing a robbery using threats or force.

But a new bill that has bipartisan backing would change this transfer process.

Changes under the proposal

House Bill 834, among other provisions, would modify the state’s definition of a delinquent juvenile to exclude 16 to 18-year-olds who commit Class A-E felonies.

This means these cases will now start in superior court.

The bill would make sure “that the proper cases, if they do exist, can be sent to juvenile court,” said Chuck Spahos, a lobbyist for the N.C. Conference of District Attorneys, a state-funded association that lobbies the legislature.

Critics said these changes would reverse criminal justice reforms, including provisions passed into law in 2017 and implemented in 2019 known as Raise the Age.

Proponents, however, called it a procedural change that would streamline processes.

‘Raise the age’ concerns

The Raise the Age law pulled 16- and 17-year-olds accused of misdemeanors and low-level felonies like larcenies, break-ins and other nonviolent crimes, from the adult system into the juvenile justice system.

Under the law, all criminal cases for juveniles up to age 18 begin in juvenile court, with a requirement that higher-level felonies be transferred to adult court following a hearing or indictment..

“We are kind of reversing the order of operation we have now,” Sen. Lisa Grafstein, a Raleigh Democrat said Tuesday during a committee hearing at the General Assembly.

“This seems to be a fairly significant rollback of ‘Raise the Age,’ which I think we made a broad commitment to. I just wanted to highlight this because it’s concerning,” Grafstein said.

Spahos said there are “less than 500 cases a year that are transferred now to superior court. This is not a mass undoing of Raise the Age.”

“These are the cases that end up in superior court anyways, and it’s agreed by everyone that’s been involved in this,” including the state Division of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, “that this is just cutting some of the procedural parts of that out while making sure that the proper cases, if they do exist, can be sent to juvenile court,” Spahos said.

Sen. Danny Britt, a Robeson County Republican, echoed this, saying “the majority of these violent crimes are actually being processed in superior court anyways.”

“When you have a district like Robeson County, for example, what you have is an extreme backlog of juvenile court cases in the juvenile court that are there unnecessarily longer than what they should, bogging down the docket,” he said.

Kerwin Pittman with social justice advocacy group Emancipate NC echoed Grafstein’s concerns on the rollback of Raise the Age and said ”this isn’t just a procedural change.”

This will put “juveniles essentially in a position where they will no longer be able to regain a sense or restorative justice for them because it’s gonna take them to an adult setting.”

Tara Muller with Disability Rights North Carolina said this bill will affect children with disabilities who make up the vast majority of the youth in the criminal justice system.

The bill — which has already passed the House — was approved by a Senate judiciary committee following amendments and now moves to the rules committee, where bills often go prior to moving to the floor for a vote, if approved.