House Judiciary Committee advances package of school-safety, criminal justice and family-law bills

The House Judiciary Committee on Oct. 26 advanced a group of criminal‑justice, school‑safety and family‑law measures, voting to report several bills favorably and adopting amendments on others.

Representative Baker, presenting House Bill 232, said “this bill would be referred to as a school notification, in regards to juvenile delinquents bill,” and secured an amendment that narrows mandatory notice and clarifies who must be told in serious cases. The amendment lists specific violent offenses and makes notification to school officials mandatory for those crimes, while converting some downstream dissemination language from “shall” to “may” to preserve juvenile confidentiality in other cases. The committee adopted the amendment and then gave the bill a favorable report as amended.

The committee also approved House Bill 360, which Representative Robertson said “would change the name of drug courts to accountability courts and would expand the scope of whom the court would serve and include offenders with mental illness and offenders who are veterans.” Members approved an amendment replacing references to the Alabama Supreme Court with the Administrative Office of Courts (AOC) to administer policies and procedures for the new court structure, then gave the bill a favorable report as amended.

On sentencing, a substituted proposal presented by committee members to enhance penalties for noncitizen defendants convicted of crimes against minors was approved. A committee…