How will E2SSB 6160 impact juvenile departments?
Steps to Override Offense Category Code
Pursuant to E2SSB 6160- Juvenile Court Jurisdiction, JCS will be changing to accommodate this legislation.
Revising conditions under which a person is subject to exclusive adult jurisdiction and extending juvenile court jurisdiction over serious cases to age 25. New age categories added to existing RCWs, and the new establishment of decline hearings result in several law table changes.
- These offenses transferred from the exclusive original jurisdiction of adult court to the exclusive original jurisdiction of juvenile court when committed by a youth
aged 16 or 17. - Sentencing ranges under the Juvenile Justice Act are modified to create a new A++ sentencing range of 129 to 260 weeks, which is applied to persons age 16 or 17 adjudicated for Drive-By Shooting, and Robbery 1.
- The penalty range of Burglary 1 increased for all 16–17-year-old, with a resulting increase in standard range sanctions, for example, from 15-36 weeks to 30-40 weeks for juveniles with no prior adjudications.
- A discretionary decline hearing may not be set unless the juvenile is at least age 15 and charged with a felony, which is a serious violent offense, or unless the juvenile is, age 14 or younger and charged with Murder 1 or Murder 2. Mandatory decline hearings are eliminated, except for allegations of Escape when a juvenile is serving a minimum sentence to age 21.
- The Firearm enhancement under the JJA is increased to 12 months for any juvenile aged 16 or 17 who is adjudicated for a violent offense.
- A sentencing enhancement is created in juvenile court requiring three months total confinement, to be served consecutively with any other enhancement, which must be added to the sentence of a youth aged 16 or 17 who is charged with:
- Robbery 1
- Drive-By Shooting
- Burglary 1
- any violent offense while armed by a firearm if the court finds that the juvenile's participation was related to membership in a criminal street gang or related to advancing the benefit, aggrandizement, gain, profit, or other advantage of a criminal street gang.
- The age limit for placement in a juvenile institution is increased to 25 years of age for juveniles aged 16 or 17 who are convicted of Robbery 1, Drive-By Shooting, or who receive a 12-month firearm sentencing enhancement. For these juveniles, the length of parole increased from 12 to 24 months and may extend until the juvenile's 25th birthday.
- Juvenile Jurisdiction can extend to age 25. This Results in a new Juvenile Offender Sentencing Grid.
- New Category Codes for standard ranges:
- A++
- B++
- Changes to the Sentencing Worksheet in JCS.
- Any Offense Category with a newly assigned age range will display with an asterisk when running the sentencing worksheet. A manual override will need to be completed.
Steps to Override Offense Category
NOTE: The case and referral must be linked before an override can happen.
- Search for the referral using the referral number or case number.
- Under Maintenance, click Referral Reason.
- Click the Related Charges hyperlink for the reason to be linked to a case charge.
- In the Case Charge List section, click the checkbox to select the charge filed by the prosecutor related to the referral reason displayed.
- Click the Link to Reason button.
- Optional: Link additional referral reason to case charges.
- Click the back to Referral Reasons List link.
- In the Case Charges section of the screen, if any of the charges appear with an * in the Cat field, select the appropriate code from the drop-down list.
NOTE: It is not necessary to link all referral reasons to case charges. If no charges were filed on a referral reason, do not link the referral reason to any case charge.
RN id: 2494