Bipartisan group pushes for juvenile justice reform.

Right now in Ohio, children as young as 10 can be incarcerated, but that could soon change.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine created a juvenile justice reform working group to take a look at how Ohio handles its youngest offenders. The bipartisan group came before the Senate Judicial Committee at the statehouse with three recommendations for Ohio lawmakers.

“First of all, is to raise the minimum age for youth commitment to the Department of Youth Services from 10 to 14 years of age,” Ohio Sen. Paula Hicks-Hudson (D-Toledo) said. “Can you imagine a 10-year-old being sentenced to a correctional facility? Then secondly, it would allow for more judicial discretion when sentencing youth who are adjudicated of a gun specification.”

Hicks-Hudson is the Democrat co-chairing the working group. She said the third recommendation is to prohibit non-violent first-time offenders from being placed in facilities.

“Trying to keep, you know, our kids out of that system, so that they don't become more criminalized, if that's a word,” she said.

Hicks-Hudson and her Republican counterpart Nathan Manning (R-North Ridgeville) took their recommendations to the Senate Judicial Committee.

“But, unfortunately, oftentimes when we come out with recommendations, there’s not action taken by the General Assembly,” Hicks-Hudson said.

“Juveniles are different than adults,” Manning said. “Certainly, many of these violations or crimes are very serious, and incarceration is certainly appropriate, but we want to leave that up to the judge's discretion.

Hicks-Hudson said the recommendations are aimed at saving the child instead of incarcerating them. As an example, when asked about the juvenile car thieves in Columbus, she said alternatives to incarceration could be considered.

“I'm saying that what we have to do with young people that are involved in these kinds of criminal behaviors is to give them alternatives, and locking them up isn't going to do that,” Hicks-Hudson said. “I think more importantly, not only that the kid, but also bringing that parent along with them, or that custodian along with them, to figure out what it is to stop that kind of behavior.”

She said the changes are rooted in the belief that children can be rehabilitated and their behaviors can change.

“And we have to understand that what you did at the age of 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, should not define who you are at the age of 35, but if we don't intervene sooner rather than later, you're going to have a 16-year-old who's going to spend two years in a juvenile system and then be transferred to an adult system because we didn't get to them earlier,” Hicks-Hudson said.

There were 11 members on the committee, including judges, lawmakers, and faith leaders.