On September 30, 2018, Governor Jerry Brown approved SB-1391.[1] SB-1391 legislation makes changes to the Public Safety And Rehabilitation Act of 2016, “Proposition 57,” which allowed district attorneys to make a motion to transfer a minor from juvenile court to a court of criminal jurisdiction under two circumstances: (1) in a case in which a minor is alleged to have committed a felony when he or she was 16 years of age or older or (2) in a case in which a specified serious offense in alleged to have been committed by a minor when he or she was 14 or 15 years of age.
SB-1391 repeals the authority of district attorneys to make a motion to transfer a minor from juvenile court to a criminal jurisdiction in cases in which the minor is alleged to have committed a specified serious offense when he or she was 14 or 15 years of age, unless the individual was not apprehended prior to the end of juvenile court jurisdiction.
Effective January 1, 2019, Welfare and Institutions Code section 707 now limits the ability for district attorneys to motion to transfer juvenile cases to adult court.
It is clear that through SB-1391, the Legislature is attempting to provide further protection to juveniles and limit the number of minors that will face treatment as adults.
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[1] Visit the following link for the full text: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB1391