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Bill to bar fines, fees for offenses committed as minors draws floor opposition over consequences, community-service cap
Summary
A measure to prohibit assessing fines, fees or court costs against people adjudicated for offenses committed while under 18 prompted floor opposition from Representative Garcia and questions from other members about limits on court-ordered community service.
Representative Garcia spoke in opposition to a measure described on the floor as prohibiting the assessment of fines, fees or court costs against a person adjudicated for an offense committed while the person was a minor.
Garcia said removing all fines and fees for minors would eliminate consequences and instead urged alternatives already available under current law. “This push to remove all fees and fines for anyone just because they’re a minor is simply ridiculous, in my opinion,” Garcia said, adding that judges may order community service when families cannot pay and that such options should remain available.
Representative Riazona said he had a narrower concern about a specific limit in the measure: the transcript records a question about the provision that court-ordered community service for a minor not exceed 72 hours. Riazona said he “only has an issue with the court ordered community service for a minor to be no more than 72 hours.”
Other members indicated reservations or recorded “no vote” entries in the transcript during the floor discussion. The transcript does not record a final roll-call result for this individual measure in the provided excerpt, and the floor record here does not show the bill number.
The floor discussion distinguished members’ substantive objections (loss of financial penalties and consequences) and technical concerns about how alternatives such as community service would be limited by the measure’s language. The transcript indicates further action on bundled committee reports later in the session, but does not specify the final disposition of this single measure in the excerpt provided.
