STATE HOUSE — The Senate today voted to approve Senate Judiciary Committee Chairwoman Dawn Euer’s bill to give Rhode Island Family Court concurrent jurisdiction on juvenile cases arising from military bases and installations located in Rhode Island.
“Currently military bases are subject to exclusive federal jurisdiction, which means that all juveniles involved in these cases end up in the federal system, which doesn’t have all the support services and diversion programs that we have in Rhode Island,” said Senator Euer (D-Dist. 13, Newport, Jamestown). “This bill allows Family Court to handle the cases it was designed for and keeps these cases out of a federal system that the Department of Defense agrees is ill-suited to handle them.”
This legislation (2024-S 2457), which will now move to the House, would give state courts jurisdiction over cases involving a child who is alleged to have committed a crime within the boundaries of a military instillation in Rhode Island, so long as the United States Attorney or the appropriate Federal Court waives exclusive jurisdiction and the alleged act is also a crime under state law.
The bill was developed in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Defense, who also submitted testimony in support of its passage, which noted that allowing state juvenile courts to adjudicate juvenile offenses allows “for more appropriate sentencing and case management outcomes.”
