Brief⁽¹⁾

The bill would make a number of changes to statutes concerning juvenile offenders and the Juvenile Justice Authority. The major changes are summarized below.

Organization and Management

The bill would:

• �Enact a new statute authorizing the Commissioner of Juvenile Justice to appoint deputy commissioners, assistant commissioners, a public information officer, a chief attorney and other attorneys, and a personal secretary all of which would be in the unclassified civil service.

• Under existing law, the Commissioner is authorized to employ a Deputy Commissioner to head each of the four statutorily created divisions of the Juvenile Justice Authority. Those Deputies are in the unclassified civil service. That provision would be repealed by the bill. Also under existing law, the Commissioner is authorized to appoint any assistants and employees necessary to carry out the duties of the Authority. Those positions are in the classified civil service.

• �Replace the requirement that the Commissioner establish specific divisions within the Juvenile Justice Authority with a provision that all of the functions described in current law be addressed in the agency.

• Under existing law, the Commissioner is required to establish four divisions: Operations, Research and Prevention, Contracts, and Performance Audit. The function of each division is described in statute. The bill would not change those functions.

• �Include juvenile correctional facility staff among those persons who may apply for a court order to have another person tested for HIV if the staff person has come into contact with or been exposed to the transmission of bodily fluids of the other person. The procedures for the request and test would be the same as in existing law.

• Under existing law, corrections officers, emergency services employees, or law enforcement employees can request that a court order an HIV test of another person.

• �Include juvenile correctional facility staff among the categories of state employees who may be subject to drug screening tests after they have been offered employment.

• Under existing law, pre-employment drug screening is authorized for persons who have been offered employment as a law enforcement officer authorized to carry firearms, state corrections officers, heads of state agencies who are appointed by the Governor, and members of the Governor's staff. The Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Attorney General are subject to similar provisions.

• �Provide that drug test results would be confidential and not subject to public disclosure except in a Civil Service Board hearing.

• Under existing law, all drug screening results are confidential.





• Provide that all persons employed in a correctional institution or in a juvenile correctional facility could be subject to drug screening based upon reasonable suspicion of illegal drug use.



• Under existing law, drug screening, based on reasonable suspicion, is authorized for law enforcement officers authorized to carry firearms, state corrections officers, the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, heads of state agencies who are appointed by the Governor, and members of the Governor's staff.

Juvenile Offender Prosecution and Placement

The bill would:

• �Repeal a provision that allows prosecutors to request, at any time prior to sentencing, that the court designate the proceedings against a juvenile as an adult prosecution or an extended jurisdiction juvenile prosecution. Those requests would be allowable only prior to the beginning of the evidentiary hearing. The bill also would clarify that if a juvenile is prosecuted as an adult, but ultimately convicted or adjudicated of a lesser included offense, sentencing would be as a juvenile offender.



• �Place a 28-day limit on the length of time that juvenile offenders between the ages of 18 and 23 who have violated probation could be committed to a county jail. Any such commitment would have to be reviewed after seven days.

• Under existing law, those same limitations are placed on commitment of younger juveniles to a sanctions house.

• �Specify that an adjudication under the Juvenile Offender Code as it existed prior to July 1, 1997 would be a criterion for placement in a juvenile correctional facility.



• �Provide that after July 1, 1999 judges could place juvenile offenders in juvenile correctional facilities in accordance with a statutory placement matrix.



• �Require a court to find that all appropriate community placement options have been exhausted only prior to placing a chronic offender III, escalating misdemeanant in a juvenile correctional facility.

• Under existing law, a court must find that community placement options have been exhausted is required in all cases covered by the placement matrix.

• �Allow, in addition to situations covered by existing law, juveniles to be detained in adult jails if: they have had a detention hearing, prosecution as an adult or extended jurisdiction juvenile has been authorized, or they were previously convicted as an adult.

• Under existing law, juveniles can be housed in adult jails on a temporary basis under certain circumstances as long as a motion has been filed requesting prosecution as an adult.

• �Prohibit the admission to juvenile correctional facilities of juvenile offenders who have been convicted as adults or are under extended juvenile jurisdiction unless the juvenile is under 16 at the time of sentencing and has been placed in the custody of the Secretary of Corrections.

Background

The bill was requested for introduction by the Commissioner of Juvenile Justice. As introduced, the bill was similar to H.B. 2861 which was not acted upon by the House Committee on Judiciary prior to the deadline for bills in the first house.

The Commissioner of Juvenile Justice presented background on the bill to the Senate Committee on Federal and State Affairs. A representative of the County and District Attorney's Association presented suggested amendments prepared by the Geary County Attorney. No opponents of the bill presented testimony at the Senate Committee hearing.

The substitute bill incorporates changes that were suggested by the Commissioner of Juvenile Justice and by the Geary County Attorney. Other changes in the substitute bill are technical and clarifying in nature.

The fiscal note prepared by the Division of the Budget for the introduced version of the bill indicates that the Juvenile Justice Authority anticipates that any fiscal impact of the bill could be absorbed within the agency's existing resources. The fiscal note does not address the impact of changes incorporated in the substitute bill that were not included in the original bill.

1. *Supplemental notes are prepared by the Legislative Research Department and do not express legislative intent. The supplemental note and fiscal note for this bill may be accessed on the Internet at http://www.ink.org/public/legislative/fulltext-bill.html.