A key piece of Gov. Asa Hutchinson's plan to reform the state's juvenile justice system through a decreased reliance on youth jails passed a House committee on Tuesday, sending the legislation to the full House.
In the House Judiciary Committee, Sen. Missy Irvin, R-Mountain View, held up a stack of papers, documents and folders about a foot high that she said represented the culmination of six years of work on juvenile justice changes.
Her bill, Senate Bill 152, would mandate the use of a statewide, validated risk assessment tool to determine the needs and risks posed by children in the juvenile courts system. The tool now in use on a pilot basis in several counties is called the Structured Assessment of Violent Risk in Youth.
[RELATED: Complete Democrat-Gazette coverage of the Arkansas Legislature]
Troy Braswell, a juvenile judge in Faulkner County who has been using the tool, said the number of children sent to youth lockups has dropped since his court began using the assessments, as have the number of cases brought to his court.
The committee passed the bill on a unanimous voice vote.
-- John Moritz