Va. legislators should embrace bills to protect juveniles in prison

THERE IS NO safer political bet than supporting legislation to protect children from harm. That bet is tougher when the children in question are juvenile offenders, but it is no less worthy. Virginia lawmakers should muster the courage to endorse two bills that would enhance protections for juvenile offenders.

Housing minors in adult prisons is a bad idea. It raises the risk of physical and sexual abuse of the younger inmates while denying them educational, vocational and psychological services available in juvenile-only programs. Senate Bill 259, sponsored by Sen. L. Louise Lucas (D-Portsmouth), requires that even underage offenders charged as adults must be detained in juvenile facilities; judges may order a transfer to an adult facility if they conclude that an offender poses a danger to other juveniles in detention. This proposal, unanimously passed in the Senate, should be endorsed by lawmakers in the House.

Senate Bill 585 calls for the state to make lawyers available for periodic consultations with incarcerated juveniles. Minors who are charged with a crime are entitled to state-funded lawyers at trial. But they lose access to these lawyers once they are convicted. The bill proposed by Sen. David W. Marsden (D-Fairfax) would require juvenile court judges "to appoint one or more 'diligent and competent' attorneys" to assist juveniles. These would not be full-time assignments; lawyers in private practice would be tapped by the court and would be paid by the hour to visit designated facilities roughly once a week. These lawyers would also serve as confidential sounding boards about conditions of confinement.

Two Virginia juvenile facilities were recently slammed by the Justice Department for their high rates of sexual abuse; the periodic presence of outside lawyers could encourage youths to report and ultimately deter abuses. The cost of these roving lawyers for the entire state is roughly $50,000 a year -- a remarkably modest sum for a potentially important program.