Rose-sponsored legislation expands juvenile justice to incentivize good behavior
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 2, 2025
(NASHVILLE) As 2025 begins, there are new Tennessee laws that will go into effect. January 1, 2025 will be the first date that certain laws passed by the General Assembly in the last legislative session will go into effect. Senator Paul Rose (R-Covington) cracked down on illegal immigration, protected children, and protected land.
“Regardless of age, we must hold people accountable for their actions,” said Rose. “The blended sentence offers a third option to juvenile offenders and closes loopholes that otherwise would be there. Effective on January 1, 2025, this law will incentivize good behavior to possibly avoid the adult sentence.”
On January 1, the new laws sponsored and co-sponsored by Rose include:
Collection of data of illegal immigrants requires the DAGC to collect and compile data on the cost to Tennessee taxpayers of illegal immigrants in state custody for criminal offenses. It also requires the DAGC to collect data from law enforcement agencies on the number of persons not lawfully present in the United States. The report will be submitted to the Governor and both speakers of the General Assembly. The budget allocates $383,500 to implement this law and ensure the DA’s Conference has necessary resources to compile the report.
Protect Tennessee Minors Act requires online media companies and operators will be required to verify users’ ages in order to access sites with explicit adult content. Additionally, this act requires companies to match a photograph of an active user to a photograph on a valid form of ID.
Protecting Tennessee property from foreign adversaries further protected Tennessee from land being purchased to hostile foreign nations. This bill prevents prohibited foreign parties designated by the federal government from owning or acquiring property in the state unless certain conditions are met. The new law strengthens a similar law passed last year with stricter protections and reporting requirements. Any prohibited foreign party or business that currently owns land in the state would have to divest itself from the property within two years, according to the bill. The Office of Agriculture Intelligence would also be created within the Tennessee Department of Agriculture to collect data and analyze information regarding the unlawful sale or possession of agricultural land statewide.
Blended sentencing for juvenile offenders prevents juveniles from avoiding the consequences of the crimes. Additionally this bill incentivizes convicted juveniles who have worked to turn their lives around. The new law allows for a juvenile convicted in criminal court to receive a ‘blended sentence’, so the juvenile would serve both a juvenile and adult sentence – keeping them in prison up to age 24. Currently, if a juvenile is convicted of a violent offense, there are only two options. One option is to handle the case in the juvenile court system where the juvenile offender will be released at age 19 with their record expunged. The other option is to try that juvenile in adult court if the offense is violent enough. Then, if convicted, the juvenile will be incarcerated in adult prison. This new blended sentencing law offers a third option for the offender to be treated as a juvenile delinquent until age 19 and then be given an adult sentence until age 24. It closes loopholes that enabled juveniles to commit serious, violent offenses.
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