Missouri expands prosecutors’ role in juvenile cases, lengthens prison terms

Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe signed a bill Tuesday expanding the role of prosecutors in juvenile court proceedings and increasing access to juvenile records by law enforcement.

The new law also increases the mandatory minimum percentage people will have to serve in prison before they become eligible for parole.

Republican state Sen. Nick Schroer of Defiance, the sponsor of the bill, said it would end a cycle of “catch and release” preventing young people from facing consequences of breaking the law and provide “truth in sentencing” to defendants and victims.

Republican state Rep. Brad Christ of St. Louis County, the bill’s handler in the House, said the bill is about “rehabilitation” as well as “accountability.”

To its critics, however, the bill was rushed through the legislature and conflicts with the aim of the juvenile justice system to rehabilitate young people.

The bill passed the Senate after 3 a.m. on March 5, after hours of debate and negotiation. A House committee passed the bill on March 9 — the next day the legislature convened. Committees often wait a week after a bill’s public hearing to vote. The House voted to send the bill to Kehoe three days later.

Democratic state Rep. David Tyson Smith of Columbia, a criminal defense attorney, told The Independent that the bill reverses hard-won criminal justice reforms state lawmakers passed after the 2020 killing of George Floyd by law enforcement officers.

“It was not properly vetted,” Smith said. “It was rushed through. And it’s a major rollback of the criminal justice reform we’ve seen.

Officials from the Missouri Department of Corrections also estimate the changes to parole eligibility in the bill could fill the state’s prisons by July 2029 or earlier — potentially requiring the construction of a new maximum security prison at a cost of $825 million.

Kehoe told reporters after the bill signing that “sentencing certainty” is worth the potential cost of increasing Missouri’s prison population.

“Prisons are expensive, but committing crimes can’t be tolerated,” Kehoe said. “Most Missourians, I think, would agree that you don’t want to be soft on crime because you ran out of room.”

Juvenile justice

The bill carves out a bigger role for prosecutors earlier in a young person’s case.

Currently, only a juvenile officer or the court can request a hearing to determine if a young person will be tried as an adult. The bill permits prosecutors to initiate that process and requires juvenile officers to share all records related to the offense allegedly committed by the young person.

Smith said this change risks bringing politics into juvenile court decisions, since prosecutors are elected officials.

“Now you’re going to have elected prosecutors sticking their nose in a case involving juveniles, and they’re going to push for certifications just so that [they’re] elected, just so they can say they’re tough on crime,” Smith said.

But the bill narrows the alleged crimes for which young people can be tried as adults from any felony to class A and B felonies and some sexual offenses.

The bill also requires juvenile officers and courts to submit all juvenile records and fingerprints to be included in the state’s criminal history database, which would be open to law enforcement officers, prosecutors and courts.

Democratic state Rep. Michael Johnson of Kansas City told reporters last week that the measure could bias law enforcement and judges against adults for offenses they committed as juveniles.

Johnson said lawmakers’ “priorities are not in the right place” if they are willing to “say, ‘Hey, let’s reopen the file and re-prosecute them after they’ve already served their time in juvenile.”

Mandatory minimum prison time

Kehoe told reporters that adding mandatory minimums to state law will provide clarity and predictability to law enforcement and victims about how much time defendants will spend in prison after being convicted of a crime.

“That’s what you saw so many law enforcement folks here, especially our elected sheriffs, who walk out of the courthouse after a hearing and walk to the county square and aren’t sure how long that person is actually going to serve,” Kehoe said.

Department regulations already include minimum percentages that people convicted of felonies must serve before they become eligible for parole.

The new law increases those minimums, including for relatively low-level nonviolent and drug offenses.

People convicted of offenses classified as “dangerous felonies,” including murder and first-degree assault, will still have to serve 85% of their sentence to become eligible for parole.

The new mandatory minimum percentages are:

Class A offense: 70%

Class B offense: 50%

Class C sex offense: 40%

Class C other offense: 30%

Class D or E sex offense: 25%

Class D other offense: 20%

Class E other offense: 15%

Someone convicted of possession of more than 35 grams but less than 30 kilograms of marijuana — a class D felony — would be required to serve 20% of their sentence under the new law. For the maximum sentence of 7 years, that would mean a little less than a year and a half. Currently, they would become eligible for parole after serving 15% of their sentence, or just over a year.

The changes will have the biggest impact on people convicted of more serious nonviolent and drug offenses, in some cases almost tripling the amount of time they would have to serve.

Department regulations currently allow people convicted of drug or nonviolent class A and B felonies to be considered for parole after serving 25% of their sentence.

Someone convicted of selling a pound of cocaine and given a 10-year sentence —the minimum for a class A felony — will now have to serve 7 years under the new law, rather than two and half.

Smith said the new law doesn’t necessarily bring more transparency in sentencing, since department regulations already set mandatory minimum percentages.

“We knew there was basically a minimum before,” Smith said. “If you knew what you were doing in the courtroom, you generally knew someone’s going to do 15% [for a class D or E felony]. Now we know they’re going to do maybe 20%, but they could go higher.”

Democratic state Sen. Karla May of St. Louis told The Independent that “the biggest problem is if we’re building prisons and not schools.”

“If we’re not dealing with the underlying causes of crime, that’s the problem,” May said. “Poverty, lack of education, deteriorating infrastructure, dilapidated neighborhoods. If we’re not going to address that, then we’re not going to solve crime.”