This week, Gov. Roy Cooper is weighing HB 834, ‘Juvenile Justice Modifications,’ sent to him by the state legislature on Thursday, June 6. Should this bill become law, it would repeal some of the reforms enacted in the ‘Raise the Age’ bill of 2017. Specifically, this bill expands the offenses for which 16 and 17-year-olds are tried as adults. 

Cooper has ten days from when the bill is presented to him to sign or veto the law. 

“If a juvenile was 16 years of age or older at the time the juvenile allegedly committed an offense that would be a Class F or G felony if committed by an adult, the court shall transfer jurisdiction over the juvenile to the superior court for trial as in the case of adults unless the prosecutor declines to prosecute in a superior court…” reads the bill

Critics of the reforms say it rolls back some of the protections for 16 and 17-year-olds accused of crimes, but supporters say it streamlines the process and keeps the more violent offenders in custody.

“A lot of prosecutors and law enforcement officers have been complaining that too many dangerous 16 and 17-year-old offenders are being released back onto the streets,” Jon Guze, senior fellow of legal studies at The John Locke Foundation, told the Carolina Journal in an email. “This bill responds to those complaints by rolling back the “Raise the Age” reforms enacted in 2017. In particular, it expands the range of offenses for which 16 and 17-year-old offenders will be prosecuted as adults rather than juveniles.”

The Division of Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention (DJJDP) and the North Carolina Department of Public Safety (NCDPS) acknowledge in their statement that the bill does provide an avenue to transfer some cases back to the juvenile division.

“The Department of Public Safety worked with interested stakeholders to amend HB 834 to its present form,” said William Lassiter, deputy secretary of the DJJDP. “Specifically, the Department sought to add components to the bill that will allow juveniles to be removed from adult court and transferred to juvenile court if all parties involved believe that is the best option to protect public safety and in the best interest of the juvenile involved.”

However, Lassiter acknowledges in the remainder of his statement that juveniles would be tried in adult court for the most serious infractions. 

“This bill reflects what the Department originally agreed to under the Raise the Age compromise with stakeholders: that the most serious offenses and violent 16- and 17-year-olds would be transferred to adult court,” continued Lassiter.  “This bill expedites the process to put these cases in adult court but also, due to the Department’s influence, provides the possibility to move these cases to juvenile court. The Department also pushed to add a provision (which is included) to charge adults who influence youth to commit crimes with the exact same crime as the juvenile. This was put into place to try and stop older adults from using youth to commit crimes for them.” 

House Bill 834 had bipartisan support in the state legislature. It passed House in June with seven Democrats in favor, and just one Republican opposed. It passed the Senate in May with all Republicans and 11 Democrats on board. However, Guze warns that there is more work needed, like addressing staffing shortages in public safety.

“While I understand why the General Assembly did what it did, my own view is that these changes are unlikely to solve the problem and could even make things worse,” he said. “Research has shown that the best way to deter crime isn’t to increase the severity of punishment; it’s to make punishment more swift and more certain. Furthermore, in a development that’s almost certainly related, police staffing levels have declined, too. If we really want to deal with juvenile crime—and crime in general—we need to find the money to hire more police officers and pay them higher salaries. We also need to elect judges and district attorneys who will use their authority to detain potentially dangerous offenders regardless of their age.”