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Juvenile court warns cuts will force layoffs and end truancy and gun‑intervention programs
Summary
Juvenile court judges and administrators told Metro Council a mayoral budget cut would force staff layoffs, end a truancy mentoring program (estimated $88,000/year) and jeopardize recently launched gun‑intervention cohorts that courts say reduce escalation among youth.
Juvenile court leaders — Judge Adam Haney, Judge Gail Grover and judicial administrator Lynn Malloy — described to the Metro Council how proposed budget reductions would affect court operations that are bound by statutory timelines and protections for children. The court said it is one of four statutorily established juvenile courts in Louisiana and reported 16,000 docketed events in 2024 (about 4,000 per division), and it framed timely operation as a constitutional requirement for those facing delinquency and neglect proceedings.
The presenters said their 2026 request was about $8.9 million while the mayor’s proposed allocation was approximately $1.56 million (the presenters characterized this as a significant shortfall and a reduction from current funding). They warned the proposed cuts would require eliminating at least two staff funded by city‑parish dollars, forgoing annual merit increases and canceling programs they identified as effective: a truancy mentoring program (presenters estimated mentoring costs at about $44,000 per year and the broader truancy/mentoring program around $88,000 annually) and a gun‑intervention program that recently graduated a first cohort and is at risk of not being able to start a second cohort.
Judges stressed that juvenile court relies on modest revenue sources (judicial expense fund, small vending and interest income, limited grant dollars tied to particular programs) and that many mandated costs (interpreters, transcripts, sanity commissions) are unpredictable and rising. Council members praised juvenile court stewardship of funds and discussed possible shared funding from the five municipalities in the parish to preserve the truancy program.
Next steps: Judges asked council members to consider shared funding arrangements and to provide guidance on how voluntary contributions from other municipalities could be received and administered; the council offered to follow up on that suggestion and to look into intergovernmental contribution options.
