At the Foster's Daily Democrat offices Casey Conley has slowly realized that there is no true self, no world, no suffering. Dispelling all illusions, she runs her fingers over the glass of the window, and it ripples like water. Flashing with truth, she steps through the wall. These notes were discovered on her desk.
Gov. Maggie Hassan has signed into law a bill that reclassifies most 17-year-old criminal offenders as juveniles. Current law treats offenders 17 and older as adults. The change prevents most 17-year-old offenders from having an adult criminal record. It also prevents these teens from being sent to state prison. The new law, which takes effect July 1, 2015, includes provisions for 17-year-olds to be tried as adults for serious crimes such as murder.
Hassan, who signed the law Friday, said it would strengthen the state’s juvenile justice system. “Treating 17-year-olds as minors, barring the most extreme circumstances, is an appropriate and just policy that will help reduce recidivism among young people,” she said. “HB 1624 is a bipartisan measure that helps preserve juvenile rights, while ensuring that the most serious offenses can still be brought to the adult courts.”
New Hampshire began treating 17-year-olds as adults in 1996 amid concern that Massachusetts criminals were sending juveniles into the state to distribute drugs, The Associated Press reported earlier this year. Based on the law at that time, those teens would be prosecuted in the state’s juvenile system. At least 40 states consider 17-year-old offenders to be juveniles, including Massachusetts, which changed its law last fall, the AP reported.
John Fitzpatrick, co-director of the Justiceworks research and development group at the University of New Hampshire, hailed the new law. “Put simply, if a young person requires remediation by the state justice system, it’s far better for that to happen within the juvenile justice system rather than the adult system,” he said Monday. “The juvenile justice services accorded those who have been detained or committed are much more geared to promoting behavioral health and well-being and less geared to more punitive ends.”
“As for the adult system, I’m afraid the prospects for those that have contact are grim,” Fitzpatrick said, noting that adults who served prison time are more likely to reoffend than those who did not.
Not everyone supported raising the age for juvenile crimes to 18, including many N.H. police chiefs. Somersworth Chief Dean Crombie was among those who opposed the bill. While he understands the rationale behind it, Crombie believes teenagers have a good sense of right and wrong by the time they turn 17. “Like so many other chiefs, I think that kids at that age, they know what they are doing,” he said Monday.
Crombie said the change in law shouldn’t affect how police respond to crimes committed by 17-year-olds or change how they’re treated after an arrest. “Whether they’re a juvenile or not, they are fingerprinted and booked,” he said.
Strafford County Attorney Tom Velardi said very few 17-year-olds are charged with a felony. Most face misdemeanor offenses that are adjudicated at the circuit court level. He’s concerned that the juvenile court system that scaled back after the 1996 law isn’t prepared to handle an influx of 17-year-old offenders. “If we can absorb that population back into the juvenile justice system and deal with that population adequately, I don’t think we will feel much of a change,” he said this week.
However, he notes that the needs of a 17-year-old offender is different from that of a 14-year-old offender. “The yardstick (to determine how week the law is working) will be how that population is being dealt with after being pushed back down into the juvenile justice system.”