Connecticut Senate Republicans have released a draft of their juvenile crime bill. It’s aimed at tackling what they say is a surge of violent crime in the state.
The GOP call their plan “A Better Way to a Safer Connecticut.” In a promotional video, Senate Minority Leader Kevin Kelly said it includes criminal justice reforms, supports law enforcement and make it easier to prosecute juveniles for certain crimes.
“I want my children and yours to live in a place where they don’t have to turn on the news everyday and hear about escalating violence. Or children being the victims of crime,” he said.
State Senator Gary Winfield, a Democrat from New Haven and a state judiciary committee co-chair, said this GOP plan was announced during an election year. He said Democrats are skeptical about the proposals but would consider them.
‘Would the policy proposals in front of us actually do what we are suggesting to people they would do," Winfield said. "That’s what the question really should be.”
Winfield said he’d prefer better implementation of the laws that are already on the books. And he would be opposed to any rollback of the law enforcement reforms that were passed in the wake of the George Floyd protests in 2020.
