BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana's plans to raise the age of adult prosecution will be delayed slightly.
Lawmakers gave final passage with a 31-0 Senate vote Thursday to legislation postponing a plan they approved in 2016 to stop automatically routing 17-year-olds through the adult criminal justice system when arrested.
The juvenile justice system was supposed to start handling 17-year-olds charged with non-violent crimes July 1. Offenders charged with more serious or violent crimes join two years later.
Under the bill, those charged with non-violent crimes will move to the juvenile justice system on March 1, 2019. Those charged with more serious crimes will be moved on July 1, 2020, as previously planned.
Thursday's vote sent Republican Sen. Ronnie Johns' bill to Gov. John Bel Edwards, who supports the change.
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Senate Bill 248: www.legis.la.gov
