by Alander Rocha, Georgia Recorder, [This article first appeared in the Georgia Recorder, republished with permission]

February 23, 2026

The Georgia House on Friday passed a bill to create a special committee to study raising the age of juvenile court jurisdiction to include 17-year-olds, but stopped short of taking action to prevent 17-year-olds from being tried as adults. 

House Bill 1061, originally written to shift 17-year-olds away from the adult criminal justice system to juvenile courts, unanimously passed the House after it was condensed from a 23-page bill into a 3-page measure that creates an “organizational committee” tasked with studying how Georgia could make the transition. 

Concord Republican state Rep. Beth Camp, the bill’s sponsor, said when she presented the stripped-down version to the House Juvenile Justice Committee, which she also chairs, that the new version focuses on figuring out if the changes are possible.

“It gives it time for this group of people to come together as a think tank to figure out how we can do this in our state, if it’s possible for us to do it and how much it’s going to cost,” Camp said during the committee meeting.

The bill was named after the late state Rep. Mandi Ballinger, a Canton Republican who led a years-long effort to change this policy but died in October after a long battle with cancer. 

Georgia is one of five states that prosecute 17-year-olds as adults, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Georgia, along with Wisconsin and Texas, are the only three states in the U.S. that have not yet moved to treat those under 18 in the criminal justice system as minors. Two other states, Louisiana and North Carolina, previously passed legislation making the move, but Louisiana has since reversed its “Raise the Age” law and North Carolina now allows 16- and 17-year-olds to be prosecuted as adults for some felonies. 

“I knew Mandi Ballinger very well. This was something she was very passionate about, and she actually worked on this from 2018 until her death last year,” Camp said to the committee.

Joshua Rovner, senior research analyst at The Sentencing Project, a national criminal justice research and advocacy organization, said in an interview that opting to move forward with only a study committee is “laughable” because Georgia has spent years discussing the issue.

“The idea that it needs to be studied more – perhaps members of the Legislature can just watch what Mandi Ballinger did for years. They don’t need to study this more. They need to listen to what the experts have already told them,” Rovner said. “But they don’t like what the experts have already told them, so they’re doing the stalling tactic of saying, ‘let’s study it again.’”

But Camp pushed back against the characterization, saying that this was a “passable” version that will allow the state to better prepare financially for the transition and ensure lawmakers won’t have to backtrack their decision.

“Many times people do not think or feel bills go far enough, but I fully believe that this is a bold step in the right direction with a very good chance the governor will sign,” Camp said. “Moving forward, we can change the code section once we figure out how we’re going to handle everything logistically.”

Mike Mitchell, deputy director of the Georgia Sheriffs’ Association, said the association is “neutral” on the current version, but they remain opposed to the underlying policy.

“We do have concerns. The sheriffs do remain opposed to the idea of raising the age here in the state of Georgia. I don’t think that’s going to change,” Mitchell told the committee. “And I just would caution the committee to proceed cautiously down this path.”

Peter Skandalakis, the executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia,spoke in support of a study committee and said the majority of district attorneys also backdiverting 17-year-olds from the adult criminal justice system.

“That’s the best way to get down to the issues that need to be discussed and hammered out by people who deal with this situation every day,” Skandalakis said.

On the House floor Friday, Camp said the testimony from Mitchell and Skandalakis “reflects a careful balance between public safety, accountability and rehabilitation.”

Carrington Buze, a postgraduate fellow at the Barton Child Law and Policy Center at Emory University School of Law, said Georgia’s treatment of 17-year-olds ignores longstanding research on brain development. She said that 17-year-olds are prosecuted as adults regardless of prior history or the severity of their offense despite some Georgia laws recognizing that “youth up to age 18, and sometimes 21, may require the state’s protection or support for their own safety.” She pointed to juvenile court supervision and the foster care system as examples.

Buze said relatively innocent indiscretions like a “senior skip day” could result in vandalism charges and lead to an adult criminal record, adding that “we are telling children you are a child when we need to protect you, but also you’re an adult when we want to punish you.”

“This bill signals something important. Georgia is ready to stop debating whether this reform makes sense and start focusing on how well to do it,” she said.

Rovner with The Sentencing Project said the evidence overwhelmingly points to the negative effects of treating minors as adults. There is a misconception that treating 17-year-olds as adults is a way of “getting serious about young people when they break the law,” he said, adding that they are also punished as adults for nonviolent crimes.

“There is not a single shred of evidence, peer-reviewed evidence, that backs up the idea that sending kids to the adult system is better for them or better for public safety,” Rovner said.

He said that adult facilities are not equipped to deal with juveniles who often need rehabilitation instead of punishment, and that incarcerating minors with adults is “exceptionally dangerous … without giving a consideration of the underlying factors that led to the crime in the first place.”

“Treating them as if they’re adults puts them at risk of physical and sexual abuse,” Rovner said, adding that “oftentimes, for their own safety, they’re put in solitary confinement, which we know is really a form of torture in order to protect them from the abuse from other prisoners.”

The bill passed the House without discussion Friday and had the support of Democrats in its committee hearing. State Rep. Mary Ann Santos, a McDonough Democrat, called the bill a good “first step” toward fixing a shortcoming in the state’s criminal justice system. The proposal, she said, will bring the relevant groups together to develop a solid plan, especially when it comes to any funding implications.

“I think it’s the right thing to do to take steps and ensuring we’re having the conversation,” Santos said.

Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jill Nolin for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com.