GA-S.B. 207 Open Juvenile Courts

[Jim]

PDF of the bill......
www.legis.state.ga.us/legis/2009_10/pdf/sb207.pdf

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
1 To amend Chapter 11 of Title 15 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to
2 juvenile proceedings, so as to admit the general public to certain proceedings in juvenile
3 court with certain exceptions; to define certain terms; to authorize a juvenile court to close
4 a hearing under certain circumstances; to require a written order to close certain hearings; to
5 prohibit the media from publicizing the identifying information of any child involved in open
6 juvenile court proceedings; to provide that certain records may be sealed; to provide for
7 sharing of confidential information; to provide for related matters; to provide for an effective
8 date and applicability; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.

[Jim]

Open juvenile court hearings to help abused kidsBy Alice McQuade, Julie Bolen

For the Journal-Constitution

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

We may wince at terrible brutality visited on children by their parents, especially those returned to abusive situations by Georgia’s juvenile courts, but the public is largely unaware of the plight of Georgia’s foster children until one of them makes the news. Closed juvenile court hearings for abused and neglected children ensure that we remain in the dark.

At least 59 Georgia children died of child abuse in 2007. An unknown number were seriously injured. Recent tragic examples were Nateyonna Banks (age 2 at death), Aiden Richards (age 10 months at time of near-fatal injury) and Adrianna Swain (age 3 at time of near-fatal injury). Each was injured or alleged to have been injured by his or her parents after being returned to those parents from foster care. In theory, Georgia’s abused and neglected children have several layers of protection. Caseworkers from the Department of Family and Children Services investigate reports of abuse and decide if there is sufficient evidence to bring a child into foster care. A court-appointed attorney is supposedly named to represent the best interests of the child. In many counties, citizens’ review panels examine cases of children in DFACS custody every three to six months and make recommendations to the judge. A judge may also appoint a court-appointed special advocate, a trained volunteer, to investigate the child and the family and offer an independent assessment.

But even if one or more of these responsible parties raises a warning flag about the safety of sending a child back home, the judge decides whether to heed those warnings. In each of the abuse cases above, a juvenile judge decided to send the child home —- decisions seemingly based more on wishful thinking than good judgment. In the case of Adrianna Swain, the judge ignored the warnings of the court-appointed attorney, the special advocate and the citizen review panel when she sent Adrianna home.

Parties concerned in a case —- such as extended family, teachers, neighbors, and friends of the family —- are excluded from juvenile court, even though they might offer additional information to the judge. Foster parents may even be excluded. Opening juvenile court deprivation hearings would help hold judges, caseworkers and attorneys accountable and make it more difficult for judges to ignore red flags about sending a child back to a potentially unsafe environment.

Opening deprivation hearings could also help the public have confidence in the process, support early intervention efforts and potentially bring in community resources to help children in foster care. Delinquency hearings will still be closed to protect the child.

Twenty-one states have open or partially open deprivation hearings. Some have had open courts for close to 20 years. None of the states that have opened deprivation proceedings have reversed that decision. None have reported significant harm to the children due to open deprivation hearings.

Two bills to open juvenile courts in Georgia are pending in the legislature, Senate Bill 207 and House Bill 616. These bills reserve the right of a juvenile judge to close the courtroom if in the best interest of the child and if a written reason is given. But these bills are an attempt to bring transparency to juvenile courts —- the only Georgia courts in which closed doors are the rule, not the exception.

> Alice McQuade and Julie Bolen, both of Marietta, are members of Better Courts for Kids, advocating juvenile court reform.

[Jim]

UPDATE: for open Juvenile Courts in GA
Today SB-207, a bill to open hearings for abused and neglected children, passed the GA House of Representatives 152 in favor and 10 opposed.
In the next few days the website for the GA legislature will show the most current version of the bill and how each representative voted on SB-207.
www.legis.ga.gov/legis/2009_10/sum/sb207.htm

Thank you for your support of this legislation. Please consider writing to you representative thanking them for their vote, after you confirm they voted yes.

We also request that you write to Governor Purdue asking him to sign SB-207 into law. It is very important that he knows there are lots of people in Georgia
who want to see this legislation enacted. He has 40 days to sign the bill. If he does not veto the bill, but does not sign it, it will become law when the 40 days expires.

Below are 2 links to 2 articles that ran in the Augusta Chronicle today on open courts that might be of interest.

Throw open juvenile courts' doors
www.legis.ga.gov/legis/2009_10/sum/sb207.htm

Quit hiding behind our kids : Juvenile court must be open to the public to keep adults accountable
chronicle.augusta.com/stories/2009/04/01/edi_516662.shtml

[Jim]

Important UPDATE!!!!!

Great news for Georgia Juvenile Courts...and GA Children.

Georgia Passes Open Court Legislation

On April 30, 2009 Governor Sonny Perdue signed SB-207 into law. This bill opens Georgia ’s juvenile courts hearings for abused and neglected children to the public except when the juvenile court judge determines that the hearing should be closed in order to serve the best interests of the child. The law goes into effect on January 1, 2010.