Juvenile Justice

As founding members of the Indiana Coalition for Youth Justice, MCCOY supports any efforts to create a youth justice system that is fair, age- and developmentally-appropriate, and results in the best possible outcomes for Indiana's youth and public safety. 

There are three pending bills before the House and Senate that expand the legal pathways for direct filing children into adult court:

• SB 197-"Criminal Law Issues"
• HB 1256- "Juvenile Court Jurisdiction"
• HB 1369- "Firearms Matters"

If passed, they will change current law to expand direct file to include gun possession offenses. Though we want to keep guns out of the hands of all children, including this offense would re-establish the second leading driver of children into adult court, an overwhelming majority of whom are black male youth. We oppose this effort and are sending a letter asking legislators to amend these three bills to remove gun possession as a listed offense for direct file. Interested in joining us as a signatory on the letter? Click on the link below!

Good news from the State House

• SB 259, "Parents with disabilities" has passed the Senate with unanimous support and has been referred to the House
• SB 369, "Juvenile Justice" has passed the Senate and referred to House Committee with bipartisan co-sponsorship.
• HB 1009, "TANF Program" passed the House and has been referred to the Senate Committee on Family and Children Services. Similarly, SB 233, "TANF eligibility" has passed the senate and referred to the House.
• HB 1008, "Student Learning Recovery Grant Program" has passed the House and has been referred to the Senate Committee on Appropriations.
• SB 19, "Required information on student ID cards" passed the Senate and has been referred to the House Committee on Education. 

Bad news from the State House

• HB 1001, "State Budget" has increases for K-12 education, but those increases favor private school vouchers which takes much needed funding away from Indiana public schools. 
• Governor Holcomb's veto of SEA148 was overridden by both the House and Senate. It now has gone into effect putting Indianapolis renters at higher risk of eviction.
• The Indiana legislature has failed to pass a comprehensive pregnancy accommodations bill, and instead has voted to support HB 1309, Pregnancy Accommodation, which does not require employers to provide reasonable accommodations for pregnant workers. 
• HB 1261, "Closed Captioning," failed to pass the full House chamber, which would have required businesses to support our friends who are deaf or hard of hearing by turning closed captioning on their public televisions. This also would have helped children who are learning to read or are learning English as a second language. 

Learning Opportunity!

Lumina Foundation is holding a virtual conversation with Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, National Book Award winner and author of How to Be an Antiracist, Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, and editor of Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019. Dr. Kendi leads the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research.

This conversation, facilitated by Lumina Foundation Senior Vice President and Chief Policy Officer Dr. Danette Howard, will explore how racism and inequity are entrenched and advanced through public policy, and how public policy can become a tool for equity and justice.