A hard look at prosecuting juveniles in adult court.

They described it as "justice by geography"--where children in certain circuits are more likely to be prosecuted as adults, because of the discretionary power of elected state attorneys calling the shots without judicial review.

They bemoaned using "direct file" as a threat to get juveniles to plead guilty, to avoid being punished with harsher adult sanctions.

They spoke out against sending juveniles to the troubled Department of Corrections, losing out on Department of Juvenile Justice programs and therapy that help them change their lives. Adult prison time, they argue, only teaches children how to be better criminals, committing more offenses once they are freed.

At the House Criminal Justice Subcommittee on December 1, the list went on, as many urged Florida to change its direct-file law.

Florida leads the nation in the number of children prosecuted as adults. According to a 2014 Human Rights Watch report, in the last five years, more than 12,000 juvenile suspects in Florida were transferred to the adult court system, even though more than 60 percent were for nonviolent felonies. Only 2.7 percent were prosecuted for murder.

Even though the proposed committee substitute for HB 129--drafted to get the support of prosecutors--is "far from perfect," Rep. Katie Edwards, D-Sunrise, urged its passage as "a starting point for taking the issue forward this session."

The proposed committee substitute for HB 129 passed unanimously, with pledges from legislators to keep working on the bill.

The bill would, in part, eliminate the mandatory direct-file system and create a two-tier discretionary direct-file system, and would eliminate requirements that the court impose adult sanctions in specified situations.

But the crux of what advocates had hoped for --that judges have oversight in direct-file cases --was removed from the proposed committee substitute to appease prosecutors who want to keep their discretion. The bill is now in the Justice Appropriations Subcommittee, its second of three committee stops.

"What I hear is 'I am not prepared to say, "I do," but let's have one more date and see how it goes.' I would ask you to do just that, not to marry this, but to recognize that this long commitment to a concept needs to be something that we work towards," Edwards said in closing on her bill, co-sponsored by Rep. Kathleen Peters, R-St. Petersburg, and Rep. Bobby Powell, D-West Palm Beach.

"And we do say, 'I do,' this session, because I am tired of...