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Summary of Public Hearing on SB 440 - 1/17/03 7pm - 11:30pm
By Brooke Silverthorn

Legislators in Attendance:
1. Senator Vincent Fort - 39th
2. Senator Adleman - 42nd
3. Rep. Thomas - 33rd Post 2
4. Rep. Able-Mable Thomas - 43rd
5. Rep. Noel - 44th
6. Rep. Gardner - 42nd **Attended hearing because a constituent asked her to attend.

The Georgia legislature passed SB 440 in 1994 and although many have lobbied for its repeal in the last 8 years, legislators have not been willing to listen. That all changed on January 17, 2003. At 7pm sharp room 317 of the Legislative Office Building was already filled beyond capacity. The rainy weather outside could not keep this crowd from the opportunity to speak out against SB440 to legislators who were finally willing to listen. The crowd mostly seemed to be comprised of those whose lives, both professional and personal, have been directly affected by SB440 - mothers, fathers, siblings, attorneys, clergy, and judges to name a few. The hearing began with panels of three invited to come to the microphone and say what was on their minds. Interestingly, many of the panels were comprised of both family members and legal or other professionals.

The family members, mostly parents and siblings, spoke about the same tragic circumstances that face kids incarcerated under SB440. In fact, the legislators were particularly interested in whether, contrary to the word of the Department of Corrections, adults have access to juveniles in prison. In Georgia, Lee Arrendale prison houses juveniles convicted of SB 440 until they turn 17. Supposedly, the juveniles are kept separate from the adults. However, parent after parent told the legislators that their sons were in fact being exposed to and harassed by the adults at Arrendale. One mother said, "my son's 'friend' is 46 years old." A son called his father one night from prison and said, "Dad, I'm afraid for my life in here." And a 15 year-old was told by a prison guard, "if you don't want to be the victim, you must become a predator." Another mother, whose son was sent to prison at age 15, testified that she paid extortion money to inmates in order to save her son's life, after he was declared the "property" of an older inmate and sold for sexual favors.

Another mother testified that her son was taken out of prison in a body bag. The prison officials told her he was murdered, but the autopsy ruled severe heart failure as the cause of death. Her son kept telling the prison guards that he was sick, but they responded by telling him, "there is no such thing as a sick inmate." Now, she says, " I actually see it as a blessing that my son is dead because he wasn't living in there. I'm glad that God took him home."

Furthermore, a representative from the Southern Center for Human Rights testified as to an incident that happened at Lee Arrendale prison in which several juveniles were escorted to a field outside and strip-searched in front of their adult counter-parts while cars passed by on the side of the road. A lawsuit is currently pending against the prison on failure to protect grounds.

While the parents and family members focused on the human side, many of the professionals in the juvenile justice field emphasized the research: treating juveniles as adults does not work. We were very fortunate to have Mr. Schindler, an attorney from the Youth Law Center in Washington, D.C., at the hearing to testify. He emphasized three issues involved in laws treating juveniles as adults:
1). Are they safe?
2). Do they work?
3). Is it fair?
Mr. Schindler testified that the research overwhelmingly supports a negative answer to all three questions. Some statistics he emphasized include:

Juveniles incarcerated in an adult system are:
· 5 times more likely to be sexually assaulted
· 8 times more likely to commit suicide
· re-offending more quickly
· committing more serious crimes when they get out

Mr. Schindler concluded by declaring this a civil rights issue because of the vast disproportionality of juveniles of color convicted under SB 440 and similar bills in other states across the nation. He said, … "if 75% of white middle class kids were being convicted under SB 440, we would not let this happen."

Judge Hickson, Chief Judge of Fulton County Juvenile Court, expressed her personal concern about this law because the juvenile court system has specialized trained judges to deal with juveniles. She testified that there has always been a way to transfer a juvenile to adult court if the circumstances warrant a transfer. Under this law, the discretion is taken out of the hands of the Judge and put into the hands of the District Attorney who can decide whether, and on what charge, to indict. Another major problem she noted is that under SB440 juveniles are automatically under the jurisdiction of the Superior Court, but if the D.A. eventually decides not to indict on a charge under this law, then the child may get sent back to juvenile court. At that point, the juvenile may have languished in the adult system for a year or longer and by the time they get back to juvenile court, they are no longer the same child.

The testimony continued for four and a half hours. Senator Fort was determined to make sure that everyone who had something to say was given the opportunity to speak. It is hard to capture in one summary all of the information, emotion and energy of the evening, but one thing is for sure: we got the legislators' attention. And now, if nothing else, they can't say that they weren't aware of how this law has affected our families and damaged our children. Stay tuned….

Learn more about Juvenile Transfers to Adult Court in Georgia

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