Local opinion: Alma and Consuelo Hernandez are champions for the youth

The youth of our community are fortunate to have Reps. Alma and Consuelo Hernandez fighting for their rights in our state legislature. They have been brave enough to take on important juvenile justice reform.

They are effective, in part, because they have relationships with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. Getting bills passed takes the support of members from both parties, especially when Republicans hold the majority in both chambers.

I have been an attorney defending children charged with criminal matters in juvenile court for 30 years. My caseload includes children from many marginalized communities and families in difficult circumstances.

One of my frustrations is the outdated Arizona laws that do not reflect the current reality and evidence regarding children.

We have learned since the 1990s, when most of our current juvenile laws were passed, is that children are very different than adults. Adolescent brain development research has shown that children are still regulating their emotions and have impulse control issues that develop into late adolescence.

The last major attempt to reform these laws came from the Children’s Action Alliance 16 years ago.

When I brought some of my concerns about unfairness that I see every day for my clients to Alma and Consuelo, they both listened to me and took my concerns to the legislature.

For the last three legislative sessions, Rep. Alma Hernandez brought a bill forward to help my clients in areas of employment, housing and education. Currently, there is one law that allows destruction of records at age 18 for most felonies, but another law that our Pima County court interprets as requiring people to wait until two years after they are off probation.

Since many of my clients get off probation at 17 or 18, they are forced to wait until they are 20 years old to get their records destroyed. That impacts them during a crucial time in their lives, when they are trying to set a foundation for their life. Alma’s bill she proposed would fix this discrepancy. Her bills passed the House two of the three years she proposed them but, unfortunately, they did not advance in the State Senate.

Another daily issue of unfairness I come across for my clients is how easily their case is transferred to adult court for low-level felonies. Under current law, if a juvenile 15 or over has two prior low-level felonies from separate dispositions (sentencings), they are charged as adults automatically if they are charged with a third low-level felony. (Commonly known as Juvenile 3 strikes).

This law was passed as part of a false “Superpredator” panic in the 1990s, and many states have fixed their laws to fit what we now know about children.

Rep. Consuelo Hernandez was brave enough to submit a bill to the State House of Representatives last session to address this miscarriage of justice in Arizona and restrict the “juvenile 3 strikes” to higher-level serious felonies.

The bill to update the juvenile 3-strikes law in the House of Representatives passed unanimously. Unfortunately, it was killed in the Senate by Senator Warren Petersen.

The bills were only heard in committee because of the bipartisan relationships Alma and Consuelo have fostered over the years. The committee members from both parties were very receptive to the bills.

One Republican noted at the hearing that, “On both sides of the aisle, a lot of people don’t want to go into the realm of criminal justice for some reason, and we really really need some reform in our criminal justice system, so I really appreciate Rep Hernandez bringing this bill.”

Another Republican noted at a committee hearing that Alma’s bill will help young men get into the military.

Alma is currently running for the State Senate in LD 20. Her opponent, Rocque Perez, has made criticism of Alma for working in a bipartisan manner one of the cornerstones of his campaign. He has shown he lacks the temperament, understanding and maturity to be a member of the State legislature.

Alma and Consuelo Hernandez have been champions for the youth of our community, and I would urge all to vote for them in the upcoming election.