Committee discusses waiver rules and catch-all changes to detention, parole and good-time credits

The Juvenile Justice Committee reviewed two interrelated drafts: LC037 (waiver-hearing procedures) and LC374 (a catch-all draft addressing detention criteria, probation violations, Parole Board authority and incentives).

A staff speaker said he had circulated a draft waiver procedure to solicitors and public defenders and that both parties identified gaps in timing, cross-examination rules, the role of private evaluations and response timeframes. "There was consensus between both parties that the process doesn't have guardrails in terms of timing," the staff speaker said, and reported ongoing work with the ad hoc group and court stakeholders. Committee members asked that the Prosecution Coordination Commission, the Indigent Defense Commission and DJJ provide feedback before the bill is filed.

The catch-all draft (LC374) includes several provisions members debated: a proposed cap that a child may not be committed for more than 180 days in certain circumstances, changes that would limit Parole Board jurisdiction to violent felonies, and language preserving good-time credit as an incentive for positive behavior while at DJJ. DJJ staff and some members cautioned that parole-board language and probation-violation limits may interact and that it might be prudent to split Parole Board changes into a separate bill to avoid bogging down other reforms.

Members raised additional technical concerns — for example, the waiver statute currently contains a line that allows judges not to impose the mandatory minimum for certain General Sessions convictions; committee members said they would need to study how proposed changes interact with existing mandatory-minimum language. The committee agreed there is room for amendment and that the drafts would be refined through the subcommittee and judiciary process.