BATON ROUGE, La. — Changes could be coming to the Louisiana Juvenile Justice System after leaders have spent months criticizing the lack of monitoring of teens who have allegedly committed crimes.
On Tuesday, state and local leaders met in a closed-door meeting in the Governor's office about the state's Office of Juvenile Justice. While we don't know the exact topics of conversation, Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams said it went well.
"I don’t think it’d be prudent to get into the details of anything at this point, only the fact that you’ve got the most powerful people in the state who are in charge of this issue focused on it. That’s the rare thing, that’s the exciting thing," Williams said.
The meeting comes after WWL Louisiana reported at least two juveniles who were supposed to be on electronic monitoring, were still able to allegedly commit crimes. One teen is accused of killing Washington tourist Jacob Carter.
Another is accused of killing French Quarter tour guide Kristie Thibodeaux while she was in her car. Back in July, WWL Louisiana obtained a letter from Orleans Parish Juvenile Court that shows the contract for the electronic monitoring company back in 2023. When we obtained it, the DA's office told us they were never informed.
But Tuesday, DA Williams said the meeting was a positive step forward.
"This was not political at all, this was just an issue spotting session, making sure everyone understood what we were facing then coming up with common sense solutions quickly to make it more effective," Williams said.
"This is absolutely a positive step forward, having folks focused on a problem that’s been a problem for a long time. It’s been tough to get folks to look at this, now you have the Governor, you have the AG, you have OJJ, [and] you have the Supreme Court all focused on this. That’s [a] good thing, that’s good for the people of the city it’s good for the people of the state and it means we’re going to get things done."
AG Liz Murrill declined to comment on the meeting.
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Video: Orleans DA says ankle monitoring program for juveniles is not working
