Kids Who Kill

Should there be tougher penalties in juvenile court for kids who kill? Currently, a minor tried as a juvenile can only be behind bars until they’re 21 years old. District Attorney Dan May tells me it’s the same if that same child stole a car. May tells me, “Under the current system you can’t do consecutive sentencing. You only get one sentence and it doesn’t matter how many victims or how many other crimes we have in that episode. We need to close the gap and gives the courts the power they need.”

May wants the juvenile court judges to have more options, less or more time depending on each child. He wants to change the one size fits all approach in juvenile court. May says, “If they think the best focus is to give them a light sentence, they can do that. This allows if they need to, to have a longer sentence. The juvenile court judge can do that.”

The El Paso, Teller Counties, District Attorney says Colorado law enforcement and District Attorneys are behind this change. He hopes to see something introduced in the 2012 state legislature.