SB148 Alabama 2018 Session

Summary

Primary Sponsor

Cam Ward

Republican

Session

Regular Session 2018

Title

Juvenile Justice, provisions relating to the juvenile justice system substantially revised, adoption of policies for absenteeism and school misconduct required, Juvenile Justice Reinvestment Fund, created, Secs, 12-15-102, 12-15-107, 12-15-110, 12-15-117, 12-15-119, 12-15-120, 12-15-121, 12-15-126, 12-15-127, 12-15-128, 12-15-132, 12-15-203, 12-15-204, 12-15-207, 12-15-209, 12-15-211, 12-15-215, 12-15-221, 12-15-701, 12-25-9, 16-28-2.2, 16-28-8, 16-28-12, 16-28-13, 16-28-14, 16-28-16, 16-28-17, 16-28-18, 44-1-1, 44-1-24, 44-1-36 am'd.

Summary

SB 148 would overhaul Alabama's juvenile justice system to emphasize early intervention, risk-based detention decisions, and community solutions, while creating new funds and oversight to support schools and families.

What This Bill Does

It expands early interventions before court involvement and requires a statewide detention risk assessment tool for pre-adjudication decisions. It creates a Juvenile Justice Reinvestment Fund and a Juvenile Justice Oversight Committee to fund and oversee community-based, evidence-based programs. It establishes risk and needs assessments to guide dispositions, reforms certain transfers to adult courts, and changes voluntary sexual conduct between minors to a child-in-need-of-supervision framework. It also strengthens school-based responses, truancy prevention, and multi-disciplinary collaboration to reduce court referrals while increasing accountability.

Who It Affects

• Youth and families involved in the juvenile justice system (delinquency, dependency, or child in need of supervision) would face new risk assessments, expanded early interventions, and revised adjudication and supervision rules.
• Schools and families (local boards of education and parents) would be affected by requirements to inform about absenteeism, truancy prevention programs, and multi-disciplinary agreements to respond to school-based offenses and reduce court referrals.

Key Provisions

• Establishes the Juvenile Justice Reinvestment Fund to reinvest costs avoided from reducing custody or residential placement into evidence-based community programs, with priority given to models proven to reduce reoffending and to serve youth statewide.
• Creates the Juvenile Justice Oversight Committee to supervise implementation, data collection, training, and inter-agency coordination, with broad representation from state and local officials and juvenile justice stakeholders.
• Replaces or reframes certain juvenile court actions by requiring a validated risk and needs assessment to guide dispositions and case plans, with controlled access to the assessment data for specified participants.
• Develops a statewide detention risk assessment tool and a corresponding scoring system to inform pre-adjudication detention decisions, eligibility for detention, and non-custodial alternatives.
• Expands non-custodial alternatives to detention (including home detention) and provides higher reimbursement for these alternatives, to be used for youth at the greatest risk to public safety or likelihood of failing to appear.
• Requires local boards of education to inform parents about absenteeism and related services, and to annually develop multi-disciplinary agreements with stakeholders to respond to school-based offenses and reduce court referrals.
• Modifies adjudication for voluntary sexual conduct between minors to require handling as a child in need of supervision rather than delinquency or criminal charges.
• Changes transfer rules so that offenses for certain ages (e.g., 14+ and 16+) may be transferred to district or circuit court or removed from juvenile jurisdiction, increasing opportunities for adult prosecution where applicable.
• Implements consent decrees with limited durations and requires risk/needs assessments to guide probation or aftercare, includes earned discharge credits for compliance, and restricts fines, fees, and court costs against children.

AI-generated summary using openai/gpt-5-nano on Feb 24, 2026. May contain errors — refer to the official bill text for accuracy.

Subjects

Juvenile Justice