JUVENILE JUSTICE MATTERS: A NEW JUVENILE CODE FOR GEORGIA

In 2008, the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice reported that it processed 50,594 intake cases. One of the 21st century approaches to prevention, intervention and rehabilitation in this proposed juvenile code revision is a new article Children in Need of Services (CHINS).

"The proposed Children In Need of Services (CHINS) article of Senate Bill 292 - The Child Protection and Public Safety Act will provide more immediate support services and intervention to at-risk children and their families, without formal court involvement. By doing so, these children can be treated in a non-punitive, non-criminalizing way. The purpose is to recognize that a child may not always be responsible for problematic behaviors. By providing appropriate service-focused interventions, a child is more likely to be deterred from future delinquency and involvement in the juvenile and criminal justice systems," reported Julia Neighbors, project manager for JUSTGeorgia."
 
ICM sees the measures included in the CHINS article as necessary and logical steps to building stronger families and reducing the overwhelming number of Georgia's children entering the juvenile justice system.  As a member of the JUSTGeorgia coalition, ICM will continue to travel across Georgia to encourage faith communities to become informed and educated about the proposed juvenile code legislation and the state of Georgia's children in the juvenile justice system and to help faith communities get engaged in becoming part of the solution.

Use this link to find a summary of the key objectives of this legislation: SB 127 (formerly SB 292) Key Objectives.
 
Read Senator Hamrick's editorial in the June issue of waveLength, the Voices for Georgia's Children newsletter.

Read Georgia Appleseed's:  Common Wisdom: Making the Case for a New Georgia Juvenile Code