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Opposition rises to Pillen-led push to detain juvenile offenders in Nebraska as young as 11

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Opposition rises to Pillen-led push to detain juvenile offenders in Nebraska as young as 11

By Cindy Gonzalez
Opposition rises against Pillen-led effort to detain juvenile offenders in Nebraska as young as 11
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Nature Villegas shared testimony Thursday of being detained as a youth. She was among several speakers at a news conference led by nonprofit organizations opposed to proposed legislation that would allow offenders as young as 11 to be detained and felony offenders as young as 12 to be charged as adults. (Courtesy of Chad Green, ChadCRG Images)

LINCOLN — Child and civil rights advocates on Thursday railed against a proposed law, promoted by Gov. Jim Pillen, that would give prosecutors and judges new authority to put Nebraskans as young as 11 in detention facilities and let them charge certain 12-year-olds as adults.

State Sen. Merv Riepe of Ralston said he introduced Legislative Bill 556 at the request of the governor and urging of Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine.

Opposition rises to Pillen-led push to detain juvenile offenders in Nebraska as young as 11
Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine speaks at a news conference about a juvenile justice priority bill promoted by Gov. Jim Pillen and State Sen. Merv Riepe of Ralston. From left, Douglas County Sheriff Aaron Hanson, Pillen, Kleine, Riepe.

Opponents led by Voices for Children in Nebraska, ACLU of Nebraska, and RISE, a nonprofit focused on prison and community re-entry support, held a Capitol news conference and also issued statements in opposition. 

“Let us be clear, LB 556 contemplates jailing and criminally prosecuting children who are still young enough to bring home a weekly spelling list,” said Juliet Summers, executive director of Voices for Children.

She said juvenile court, under current law, has a broad spectrum of measures and services when pre-teens “are acting in ways that scare us.” That ranges, her statement said, from treatment and supervision to removal from the home and residential placement.

“All this proposal would add is incarceration, a proposal as costly and wasteful as it is inhumane.” Summers said.

Pillen, flanked by multiple law enforcement officials, including from Lancaster County, hosted his own news conference and called the proposal an “important tool for juvenile justice and for our society.”

Nebraska kids could be detained for serious crimes younger, at age 11, charged as adults at 12

He said nobody “wants to come to the reality that we have young boys committing extraordinary acts.” Pillen noted that Douglas County law enforcement officials are “ground zero” and have called on the state to raise the stakes.

Said Riepe: “Contrary to concerns raised, this bill does not seek to lock up juveniles indiscriminately.”

The Ralston senator reiterated his stance, reported previously by the Nebraska Examiner, that his goal was not to be punitive. He said detention offers opportunities for “meaningful intervention” at earlier ages, including mandatory treatment of problems such as substance abuse, that could help rebuild the futures of youths while also protecting the public.

Under the legislation to be considered this session, the age at which a Nebraska child could be detained for an alleged crime would be lowered, from 13 to 11, and the age at which a minor could be charged as an adult for the “most serious” felonies would drop from 14 to 12.

Among those at the opposition news conference were State Sens. Terrell McKinney and Ashlei Spivey, both of North Omaha, former State Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks of Lincoln, representing the board of Voices for Children, Kimara Snipes, community organizer, Anne Hobbs of the Juvenile Justice Institute at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and several youths.

Shakur Abdullah, a Nebraskan previously charged and sentenced in criminal court at a young age, in a statement called LB 556 a regressive move that fails to address root causes of a child’s behavior when that youth faces trauma, poverty and unmet mental health challenges.

“Rather than investing in prevention, rehabilitation and the crucial social and habilitative processes that have been shown to improve outcomes for at-risk children, this proposal doubles down on punitive measures,” which, Abdullah said, don’t improve public safety or long-term outcomes.

Opposition rises to Pillen-led push to detain juvenile offenders in Nebraska as young as 11
Jason Witmer, policy fellow at the ACLU Nebraska. (Courtesy of Chad Green, ChadCRG Images)

Said McKinney: “The bill is being pushed by a bunch of white men that are essentially looking to lock up black and brown kids, considering the disproportionate population of youth in the juvenile justice system that are being failed by our state, especially in the child welfare system.”

Douglas County Sheriff Aaron Hanson was among the slate of all male speakers at the governor’s news conference. He said he was “so appreciative” that LB 556 is a legislative priority.

“Since 2017, in Douglas County, we have seen an over 1,500% increase in repeat felonious juvenile crimes,” with youths progressing, Hanson said, from car theft to carjackings to shootings to murder.

Voices for Children offers a different scenario.

Felony cases involving youths under 18 — in Douglas County’s District Court and Juvenile Court combined — went from 150 in 2017 to 216 in 2023, according to a report the nonprofit presented in November to the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee. That’s a 44% increase.

Douglas County minors under age 18 who were prosecuted as adults for felonies in District Court rose about 52%, from 27 in 2017 to 41 in 2023.

Summers said juvenile arrests in the county have been on an overall downward trend since 2000, based on data from the Nebraska Commission on Crime and Law Enforcement — with arrests dropping from 5,420 in 2000 to 2,895 in 2022.

The child advocates said they believe the better approach is treatment and family interventions.

“The idea of changing the law so that we can detain more kids and charge younger kids as adults runs counter to Nebraskans’ most important shared values,” said Jason Witmer, policy fellow at the ACLU Nebraska. “What happened to protecting kids and helping them get on the right path?