Justice reform advocates: Louisiana session won’t cut crime, could cost state millions

BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — The Louisiana Legislature is moving forward with the final passage of several bills with tougher consequences for criminals during the special session.

“One of the things that is very obvious about this session and very clear is we are trying to talk about what is going to keep us safe and everybody in Louisiana really deserves to be safe, but we’re really tired of going back to these tough-on-crime playbooks that have failed every single time,” Sarah Omojola, the director of Vera, a group with a mission to end mass incarceration, said.

Omojola said if the state “continues on this path,” then Louisiana will again be the most incarcerated place in the U.S.

Criminal justice reform advocates are keeping a close eye on Senate Bill 3, which would treat 17-year-olds as adults in the criminal justice system and reverse the bipartisan “Raise the Age” legislation passed several years ago.

Gov. Jeff Landry advocated raising the legal age of prostitution and keeping juveniles convicted of violent crimes in custody for at least three years. He said lowering the age has led some adults to recruit minors to commit certain crimes, knowing they’ve had a lesser penalty.

“We do definitely need to deal with youth of crime and we need to deal with youth violence,” Omojola said. “The things that are being pushed, what our elected officials are pushing are strategies that assume that violence will always just happen to us and there’s nothing they can do to prevent it.”

Criminal justice reform supporters argue this special session will do little to reduce crime and will cost the state millions of dollars to keep people behind bars longer.

On Tuesday, the Senate Finance Committee particularly considered the costs of House Bill 9 and HB10. One would eliminate parole for anyone who commits a crime after Aug. 1, and the other would do away with early release for “good time.”

The Legislative Fiscal Office noted there could be an increase in spending caused by keeping people in local and state prisons longer.

She said prevention efforts are needed, saying studies show that crime victims want prevention strategies in addition to accountability.

“This special session, all of the measures that have been pushed forward do nothing to prevent or respond to crisis or reduce violence and they’ll only add people to our prisons and jail at the cost of millions, if not billions, of dollars,” Omojola said.

She said solutions look like investments in health care, education, jobs, mental health services, counseling and diversion programs.