BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — Southern University Law Center is getting $250,000 to help shape juvenile justice reforms moving forward.

“If we don’t take care of the kids today, our future is doomed,” Chancellor John Pierre said.

The federal grant is coming from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. 

The Law Center will be able to hire interns and trained staff to assist the Louisiana Juvenile Justice Reform Act Implementation Commission. They’ll help collect data, meet with stakeholders, and offer suggestions to legislators on a commission created in 2003 when sweeping reform was passed.

“When we passed Act 1225, people said it wasn’t going to happen. The commission was moving and things were happening. But, you know, life happens in Louisiana,” said Gina Womack, Executive Director of Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children. “And when it became different, folks were like, ‘You’re spinning your wheels, this is not going to happen.”

The legislation was passed to offer a more rehabilitative approach to handling children who commit crimes or are impacted by the justice system. It is similar to the Missouri Model that focuses on intervention and community resources to help children rather than putting more in the detention facilities. 

“You cannot do this work without having lots of partners who are focused on a single goal. And what we want to do is we want to serve the children of Louisiana in a way that they are worthy of being served,” Pierre said.

The commission was put in place to aid in implementing the major changes and hold agencies accountable. 

“Our focus should always be on treating children like children because we have two systems,” said State. Sen. Royce Duplessis, D-New Orleans.

Many believe the promises of the decades old legislation have never come to full light due to funding and not being fully implemented. With rumblings of more reform in a new administration the commission wants to have a seat at the table.

“Those who want to pit that effort against achieving public safety. We cannot fall for it. We have to treat the two as being one and the same because that is what they are,” Duplessis said.

With the funding, advocates hope there will be a renewed push to get kids the help they need to have successful outcomes.