Committee reviews H.2 changes: raises juvenile entry age, delays raise-the-age implementation and adds disputed custody authority

Draft 3.1 of H.2 was the focus of a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that walked through three principal changes to juvenile delinquency law: raising the initial age of family-division jurisdiction from 10 to 12; lengthening how long a youth can remain under family-division jurisdiction; and postponing the April 1 implementation of the Raise-the-Age provisions that would bring 19-year-olds into family-division jurisdiction until July 1, 2027. The draft also adds a contested new option allowing a disposition order to direct the Department for Children and Families (DCF) commissioner to take "physical custody" of people who have attained 18 but are under 22.

The bill’s drafter, Eric Fitzpatrick of the Office of Legislative Council, told the committee that sections 1 and 2 amend family-division jurisdiction by changing the starting age from 10 to 12 and by extending the court’s ability to keep youth under juvenile jurisdiction for an additional year beyond current practice. Fitzpatrick summarized the Raise-the-Age portion as striking the draft’s current April 1 effective date and replacing it with a two-year pause that would set implementation on July 1, 2027. He also described a new reporting and transition-planning requirement tied to that delayed implementation: three required progress reports (December this year, July next year, and December next year) to Judiciary and Justice Oversight bodies, and a mandated transition plan for cases that began in criminal court shortly before the new juvenile implementation date but would have started as family-division cases after…