State lawmakers are pushing to roll back landmark juvenile justice reforms, called the Raise The Age law, that passed with broad bipartisan support several years ago.

Until 2019, North Carolina was the only state in the country to still automatically charge all 16- and 17-year-olds in adult court, even for the most minor criminal charges. Raise The Age changed that by allowing those teenage offenders to be tried in juvenile court, while also leaving the option for particularly serious crimes to be moved up to adult court.

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But now Republican lawmakers in the state Senate, working with a lobbyist for prosecutors, have proposed HB 834 that would let the state go back to automatically charging 16- and 17-year-olds as adults for a wide range of felony offenses.

It passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday — over opposition from advocates from civil liberties and racial justice groups, as well as Democratic lawmakers.

The bill was one of several the committee advanced Tuesday, some more controversial than others. The proposals also moving forward would:

The changes to mask laws in HB 237 drew passionate comments Tuesday from opponents, which were brushed aside by the bill's sponsor Sen Buck Newton, R-Wilson.

It's part of an effort to crack down on protesters, many of whom have taken to wearing masks in recent years. Democrats on the committee said they weren't necessarily against increasing criminal penalties for people who wear a mask while committing a crime, which is another aim of the bill, but they thought it was unnecessary and irresponsible to also completely eliminate the law that allows for anyone to wear masks in public for health reasons.

Newton said the broad anti-mask changes are necessary, however, to make it easier for police to stop and potentially arrest protesters or others for wearing masks. He said he didn't think police would abuse the power to stop anyone wearing a mask anywhere in public, even if they would have that power should the bill become law.

Juvenile justice

The changes to juvenile justice issues saw a similar type of debate: A long list of critiques that, in the end, failed to stop the committee from advancing the bill.

Opponents all said scientific studies show teenage offenders are less likely to commit more crimes in the future if they go through the juvenile justice system, instead of the adult prison system.

"Teens in adult prisons are far more likely to encounter gangs and drugs, and to be assaulted and raped," Tara Muller said. She leads the group Disability Rights North Carolina, which has filed multiple lawsuits outlining problems in state jails and prisons.

Muller added that beyond being safer, juvenile justice facilities also do more than adult prisons to teach inmates skills and help resolve mental issues that may have contributed to their past criminal behavior: "At the end of the day, these teens will almost all end up back in our communities," she said. "Our society is better off when people when people leaving the system have had their untreated conditions treated."

Supporters say it will help make it easier to use the prison system to punish people who commit violent crimes, even if they're teenagers.

Chuck Spahos, the pro-prosecutor lobbyist for the Conference of District Attorneys, dismissed concerns that the bill would substantially roll back the reforms that passed in Raise The Age just several years ago with bipartisan support. So did the bill's lead sponsor, Sen. Danny Britt, R-Robeson. Britt defended the proposal, saying he has been a criminal defense attorney for 20 years but also recognizes where prosecutors are coming from in pushing for the changes.

Britt and Spahos said the changes would only affect a few hundred cases each year over the entire state, and mostly for the kinds of violent crimes that usually end up with teenage defendants being sent to adult court anyway.

"This is not a mass undoing, of any kind, of Raise The Age," Spahos said. "These are cases that ended up in superior court anyway."

Democratic lawmakers disagreed: "This seems to be a fairly significant rollback of Raise The Age, which there had been a broad commitment to," Sen. Lisa Grafstein, D-Wake, said.

That was echoed by community activists such as Kerwin Pittman, with the racial justice group Emancipate NC.

"The science still rings true that juveniles that go through the juvenile legal system are less likely to reoffend, to recommit crimes," Pittman told the committee Tuesday. "So why are we starting them off, expediting them, to the adult criminal system? It just doesn't make sense."

Sex crimes, NC Bar changes

The committee also passed two other bills, with no discussion from the senators on the committee or any members of the public.

One, HB 591, takes aim at modernizing sex crime laws, particularly by recognizing new technologies and trends. It would ban sex dolls that are made to look like children and would ban AI-generated images simulating child pornography. It would also create a new crime of sexual extortion, aimed at people who threaten to expose someone's nude photos privately unless they send more photos or do something else against their will.

The other bill, SB 790, was the culmination of a committee that met for months earlier this year, charged with making changes to the State Bar's internal operations. The group is in charge of overseeing lawyers throughout the state, with professional trainings as well as disciplinary actions.

Some GOP leaders had previously lobbed accusations of the Bar engaging in politically motivated "cancel culture" against attorneys, but without ever providing any specifics beyond those broad charges.

Several of the new changes being proposed are aimed at bolstering the rights of attorneys during Bar proceedings. Another change would allow attorneys who have been disciplined to later have those charges expunged, so that members of the public would be unable to learn about their record.

No one spoke for or against the changes, or asked any questions, before the committee approved it.