Panel opposes direct filing of children to adult courts.

The Florida Bar Legal Needs of Children Committee voted to oppose the direct filing of children to adult court, but if that law is not abolished in Florida, the decision to prosecute children as adults should rest with judges, not prosecutors.

The vote was 18-0 with four abstentions during a July 17 conference call, capping nearly three years that the committee has worked toward consensus.

"I'm excited about the committee's vote," said Chair Bill Booth, of the Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County. "We have made a statement that we hope the state uses to minimize the prosecution of children as adults. Our plan is to seek the Board of Governors' approval of this position statement and to submit this statement to the Department of Juvenile Justice for its consideration during its review of Chapter 985."

Members agreed on this statement: "[The committee] opposes the direct filing of children to adult court in Florida and believes the judiciary should be solely responsible for making the decision as to whether a child should be prosecuted as an adult."

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Among the facts gathered leading up to the vote was that children who are transferred into the adult system re-offend at both a higher and more serious rate than children who are dealt with in the juvenile justice system, yet in 2011-12, more than 2,000 children in Florida were transferred to adult court for prosecution.

"I believe it's a big deal," said outgoing Chair Rob Mason, director of the juvenile division of the Fourth Circuit Public Defender's Office. Mason began pushing the issue in 2010, when he volunteered to chair the committee's Direct Filing Subcommittee.

"For direct file, we believe the laws of Florida are unfair and that it should be a judicial decision, not a prosecutor's decision," Mason said, noting that was recommended by the predecessor Legal Needs of Children Commission in its 2002 final report.

"We've learned so much more about children, since that report actually came out in 2002, with the science. So I think that this vote of a committee as diversified as this is just a really good sign that, hopefully, the tide is turning, and we should turn this over to judges making the decisions, as opposed to prosecutors. And if we don't, then it should be significantly limited.

"The way it works now is any child 16 or 17, on a felony, can be direct filed. They can be direct filed on a misdemeanor if they have one or two priors," Mason said. "At 14, they can...