Georgia judges tell Arkansas committee that presuming unsupervised —family time— and open juvenile courts speed reunification

Two retired Georgia juvenile judges told the Arkansas Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday that Georgia's overhaul of its juvenile code, which includes a presumption of unsupervised parental —family time— and a move to open juvenile court hearings, sped reunification for many families and helped surface relatives and community supports earlier in cases.

Judge Peggy Walker and Judge Diana Johnson described a multi-year, statewide revision process that rewrote statutes, recruited an expert —brain trust— of academics and practitioners to draft changes, and built champions among judges and legislators to sustain reforms. Walker said the effort aligned state statutes with evidence-based enhanced resource and juvenile-justice guidelines so courts could apply child-development science to practice.

—We brought in the research and we translated it into practice,— Walker said, describing training, iterative —cleanup— amendments after enactment and a year of legislative-authorized preparatory training before implementation.

Johnson framed the presumption of unsupervised visitation as a question courts must ask at early hearings…