{"id":9111,"date":"2026-04-08T05:55:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T10:55:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/08\/missouri-expands-prosecutors-role-in-juvenile-cases-lengthens-prison-terms\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T05:55:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T10:55:18","slug":"missouri-expands-prosecutors-role-in-juvenile-cases-lengthens-prison-terms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/08\/missouri-expands-prosecutors-role-in-juvenile-cases-lengthens-prison-terms\/","title":{"rendered":"Missouri expands prosecutors\u2019 role in juvenile cases, lengthens prison terms"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
\n

State Sen. Nick Schroer, left, speaks as Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe prepares to sign a bill making changes to the state’s juvenile and criminal justice systems on Tuesday. Attorney General Catherine Hanaway, second from left, and state Reps. Brad Christ, Bennie Cook and John Black look on (Steph Quinn\/Missouri Independent).<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe signed a <\/span>bill<\/span><\/a> Tuesday expanding the role of prosecutors in juvenile court proceedings and increasing access to juvenile records by law enforcement.<\/span><\/p>\n

The new law also increases the mandatory minimum percentage people will have to serve in prison before they become eligible for parole.<\/span><\/p>\n

Republican state Sen. Nick Schroer of Defiance, the sponsor of the bill, said it would end a cycle of \u201ccatch and release\u201d preventing young people from facing consequences of breaking the law and provide \u201ctruth in sentencing\u201d to defendants and victims.<\/span><\/p>\n

Republican state Rep. Brad Christ of St. Louis County, the bill\u2019s handler in the House, said the bill is about \u201crehabilitation\u201d as well as \u201caccountability.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0To its critics, however, the bill was rushed through the legislature and conflicts with the aim of the juvenile justice system to rehabilitate young people.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The bill passed the Senate after 3 a.m. on March 5, after hours of debate and negotiation. A House committee passed the bill on March 9 \u2014 the next day the legislature convened. Committees often wait a week after a bill\u2019s public hearing to vote. The House voted<\/a> to send the bill to Kehoe three days later.<\/span><\/p>\n

Democratic state Rep. David Tyson Smith of Columbia, a criminal defense attorney, told The Independent that the bill reverses hard-won criminal justice reforms state lawmakers passed after the 2020 killing of George Floyd by law enforcement officers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was not properly vetted,\u201d Smith said. \u201cIt was rushed through. And it\u2019s a major rollback of the criminal justice reform we\u2019ve seen.<\/span><\/p>\n

Officials from the Missouri Department of Corrections also <\/span>estimate<\/span><\/a> the changes to parole eligibility in the bill could fill the state\u2019s prisons by July 2029 or earlier \u2014 potentially requiring the construction of a new maximum security prison at a cost of $825 million.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kehoe told reporters after the bill signing that \u201csentencing certainty\u201d is worth the potential cost of increasing Missouri\u2019s prison population.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPrisons are expensive, but committing crimes can\u2019t be tolerated,\u201d Kehoe said. \u201cMost Missourians, I think, would agree that you don\u2019t want to be soft on crime because you ran out of room.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/b><\/p>\n

Juvenile justice<\/h4>\n

\t<\/p>\n

The bill carves out a bigger role for prosecutors earlier in a young person\u2019s case.<\/span><\/p>\n

Currently, only a juvenile officer or the court can request a hearing to determine if a young person will be tried as an adult. The bill permits prosecutors to initiate that process and requires juvenile officers to share all records related to the offense allegedly committed by the young person.<\/span><\/p>\n

Smith said this change risks bringing politics into juvenile court decisions, since prosecutors are elected officials.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNow you\u2019re going to have elected prosecutors sticking their nose in a case involving juveniles, and they\u2019re going to push for certifications just so that [they\u2019re] elected, just so they can say they\u2019re tough on crime,\u201d Smith said.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the bill narrows the alleged crimes for which young people can be tried as adults from any felony to class A and B felonies and some sexual offenses.<\/span><\/p>\n

The bill also requires juvenile officers and courts to submit all juvenile records and fingerprints to be included in the state\u2019s criminal history database, which would be open to law enforcement officers, prosecutors and courts.<\/span><\/p>\n

Democratic state Rep. Michael Johnson of Kansas City told reporters last week that the measure could bias law enforcement and judges against adults for offenses they committed as juveniles.<\/span><\/p>\n

Johnson said lawmakers\u2019 \u201cpriorities are not in the right place\u201d if they are willing to \u201csay, \u2018Hey, let\u2019s reopen the file and re-prosecute them after they\u2019ve already served their time in juvenile.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/b><\/p>\n

Mandatory minimum prison time<\/h4>\n

\t<\/p>\n

Kehoe told reporters that adding mandatory minimums to state law will provide clarity and predictability to law enforcement and victims about how much time defendants will spend in prison after being convicted of a crime.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what you saw so many law enforcement folks here, especially our elected sheriffs, who walk out of the courthouse after a hearing and walk to the county square and aren\u2019t sure how long that person is actually going to serve,\u201d Kehoe said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Department <\/span>regulations<\/span><\/a> already include minimum percentages that people convicted of felonies must serve before they become eligible for parole.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The new law increases those minimums, including for relatively low-level nonviolent and drug offenses.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

People convicted of offenses classified as \u201cdangerous felonies,\u201d including murder and first-degree assault, will still have to serve 85% of their sentence to become eligible for parole.<\/span><\/p>\n

The new mandatory minimum percentages are:<\/span><\/p>\n

Class A offense: 70%<\/span><\/p>\n

Class B offense: 50%<\/span><\/p>\n

Class C sex offense: 40%<\/span><\/p>\n

Class C other offense: 30%<\/span><\/p>\n

Class D or E sex offense: 25%<\/span><\/p>\n

Class D other offense: 20%<\/span><\/p>\n

Class E other offense: 15%<\/span><\/p>\n

Someone convicted of possession of more than 35 grams but less than 30 kilograms of marijuana \u2014 a <\/span>class D felony<\/span><\/a> \u2014 would be required to serve 20% of their sentence under the new law. For the maximum sentence of 7 years, that would mean a little less than a year and a half. Currently, they would become eligible for parole after serving 15% of their sentence, or just over a year.<\/span><\/p>\n

The changes will have the biggest impact on people convicted of more serious nonviolent and drug offenses, in some cases almost tripling the amount of time they would have to serve.<\/span><\/p>\n

Department regulations currently allow people convicted of drug or nonviolent class A and B felonies to be considered for parole after serving 25% of their sentence.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Someone convicted of selling a pound of cocaine and given a 10-year sentence \u2014the minimum for a class A felony \u2014 will now have to serve 7 years under the new law, rather than two and half.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Smith said the new law doesn\u2019t necessarily bring more transparency in sentencing, since department regulations already set mandatory minimum percentages.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew there was basically a minimum before,\u201d Smith said. \u201cIf you knew what you were doing in the courtroom, you generally knew someone\u2019s going to do 15% [for a class D or E felony]. Now we know they\u2019re going to do maybe 20%, but they could go higher.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Democratic state Sen. Karla May of St. Louis told The Independent that \u201cthe biggest problem is if we\u2019re building prisons and not schools.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf we\u2019re not dealing with the underlying causes of crime, that\u2019s the problem,\u201d May said. \u201cPoverty, lack of education, deteriorating infrastructure, dilapidated neighborhoods. If we\u2019re not going to address that, then we\u2019re not going to solve crime.\u201d<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

State Sen. Nick Schroer, left, speaks as Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe prepares to sign a bill making changes to the state’s juvenile and criminal justice systems on Tuesday. Attorney General Catherine Hanaway, second from left, and state Reps. Brad Christ, Bennie Cook and John Black look on (Steph Quinn\/Missouri Independent). Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe signed…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nMissouri expands prosecutors\u2019 role in juvenile cases, lengthens prison terms - WestplexNews.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/08\/missouri-expands-prosecutors-role-in-juvenile-cases-lengthens-prison-terms\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Missouri expands prosecutors\u2019 role in juvenile cases, lengthens prison terms - WestplexNews.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"State Sen. Nick Schroer, left, speaks as Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe prepares to sign a bill making changes to the state’s juvenile and criminal justice systems on Tuesday. Attorney General Catherine Hanaway, second from left, and state Reps. Brad Christ, Bennie Cook and John Black look on (Steph Quinn\/Missouri Independent). Missouri Gov. 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