House Bill 1405
By: Representatives Hong of the 103rd, Rice of the 139th, Ballard of the 147th, Crowe of the
118th, and Holcomb of the 101st
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
To amend Article 6 of Chapter 11 of Title 15 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated,
relating to delinquency, so as to provide for cognitive behavioral therapy for certain children
in restrictive custody with the Department of Juvenile Justice; to provide for criteria and
evaluation for participation; to require DJJ to provide such services; to provide for a
minimum number of hours of provided therapy for such children; to require DJJ to annually
produce a report on the provision of such services; to provide for contents and recipients of
such report; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF GEORGIA:
SECTION 1.
Article 6 of Chapter 11 of Title 15 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to
delinquency, is amended in Code Section 15-11-602, relating to disposition of class A or
class B designated felony acts, by adding a new subsection to read as follows:
<ins>"(i)(1) DJJ shall evaluate any child adjudicated for a class A designated felony act or
class B designated felony act and placed in restrictive custody to determine whether such
child exhibits behavior that indicates the child could benefit from cognitive behavioral
therapy. For any such child, DJJ shall provide and such child shall attend cognitive
</ins>
<ins>behavioral therapy until he or she completes at least 200 hours of such therapy or until
he or she is released from restrictive custody, whichever event occurs first.
(2) DJJ shall, on or before July 1, 2027, and annually thereafter, produce a report stating
the number of children who received cognitive behavioral therapy pursuant to this
subsection as well as the three-year recidivism rate for those children. Such report shall
contain only anonymized data. Such report shall be provided to the Governor, the
Lieutenant Governor, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the director of the
Criminal Justice Coordinating Council."
</ins> SECTION 2.
All laws and parts of laws in conflict with this Act are repealed.