A BILL to direct the Office of the Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security and the Office of the Secretary of Health and Human Resources to convene a stakeholder work group to submit a plan and recommended timeline for transferring responsibility for the Department of Juvenile Justice.
HB1293 directs the Office of the Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security and the Office of the Secretary of Health and Human Resources to convene a stakeholder work group to develop a plan and recommended timeline for transferring responsibility for the Department of Juvenile Justice from Public Safety to Health and Human Resources. The bill does not itself make the transfer; instead, it creates a planning process and requires the work group to report its recommendations to specified legislative committees by November 1, 2026.
The work group must include a broad range of interested parties, including civil liberty organizations, organizations involved in youth justice and violence prevention, formerly incarcerated persons and their families, and mental health experts. The bill is focused on juvenile justice administration and the potential shift toward a more health- and services-oriented state agency structure.
If enacted, HB1293 would not immediately change the statutory placement of the Department of Juvenile Justice, but it would require executive branch agencies to study and propose how to move DJJ oversight from the Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security to the Secretary of Health and Human Resources. The bill would affect the administration of juvenile justice policy, potentially influencing future legislation, agency organization, and the delivery of services to youth involved in the justice system.
The available context suggests the bill was treated as a study measure rather than a direct policy change, as reflected by its referral to studies subcommittee status and its continuation to the next session in Rules by voice vote. That procedural history indicates limited immediate opposition or support on the record, but also that the proposal did not advance to final enactment during the session.
The main point of contention is the underlying policy question of where juvenile justice should be housed in state government: under public safety or under health and human resources. Supporters of the study approach appear to favor a broader, treatment- and rehabilitation-oriented framework that includes mental health and youth justice stakeholders, while potential opponents may prefer keeping juvenile justice within the public safety structure or may object to reorganizing agency responsibility without a completed implementation plan. Because the bill only requires a work group and report, the debate is likely centered more on the direction of future reform than on immediate operational changes.