Louisiana needs to invest in the things that prevent violence and support healthy communities: education, health care, social services and supports, and infrastructure.

Starting March 15th through Election Day on March 29th, Louisianans will vote on four constitutional amendments that stand in the way of the safer, more healthy Louisiana we all deserve. 

These amendments, all on a ballot designed to mislead you as a voter, would slash education funding, allow legislators to control the judiciary, make it easier to transfer kids of any age to adult prisons, and create a court system where those without power cannot win their cases. In order to build a state where all Louisianans can thrive, we must vote NO on all four constitutional amendments.

Gov. Jeff Landry, who spent the last year decimating reforms to the criminal legal system, created the special tax session in November that birthed the four constitutional amendments Louisanans are voting on.

We deserve better. 

As someone who taught high school students in Louisiana and who has worked for years trying to safely reduce incarceration rates and prevent violence, I’m particularly alarmed by Amendment 3. The amendment’s proponents are selling it as a way to make Louisiana safer, when in reality transferring young people into the adult criminal legal system robs them of the chance to be rehabilitated and learn from their mistakes, take accountability for their actions, and rejoin their communities as healthy neighbors ready to take on the challenges of tomorrow.

Anyone who knows young people knows they’re simply not the same as adults. Studies have shown that our brains don’t fully develop until we reach our mid-20s. That’s why we create guardrails for our young people—they can’t serve in the military, they can’t drink alcohol, and they can’t smoke—to prevent them from making the kinds of mistakes they can’t recover from.

When our young people make mistakes and cause harm, we address their issues through an age-appropriate juvenile system that was designed to be rehabilitative. The adult system, on the other hand, was not built to provide education, medical care, or programming for children, especially kids with disabilities, autism, and special needs.

Youth in adult jails and prisons are extremely vulnerable to violence and have a high likelihood of dying by suicide. While federal law dictates that young people must be separated from adults by site and sound in prisons, in practice that doesn’t always happen. In Louisiana, because of undertrained corrections staff and jail overcrowding causing space shortages, it’ll be nearly impossible to keep kids safe.

When kids are incarcerated as adults, they are more likely to reoffend when they return to their communities, because they are denied the learning opportunities and support that would help them get back on track. If our lawmakers were serious about our safety, they would invest in rehabilitation, mental health resources, after-school programs, job training, and skill-building programs. 

We’ve seen the games these lawmakers are willing to play—games that risk our childrens’ lives and our communities’ safety. 

Last year, legislators told us that 17-year-olds had to be charged as adults (Louisiana is now the only state in the nation that does so) to address violent crime. Since the change, almost 70% of the 17-year-olds arrested in our largest cities have been arrested for nonviolent, low-level charges.

They’re telling Louisianans that we need harsher punishment for young people who commit heinous crimes when, in fact, district attorneys already have the power to charge youth as young as 14 who commit the most serious crimes as adults.

People who have been harmed by violence deserve safety and healing, regardless of the  responsible party’s age. Those who do harm should take accountability for their actions—committing to never repeating the same mistakes. 

But we have to give our kids the opportunity to learn from their mistakes in age-appropriate ways and ensure that they are supported. That is how we achieve safety. 

We are making positive gains. Crime trended down post-pandemic after trending up slightly, and those declines happened before Governor Landry took office — before the special session to “address “crime.” Any claim that last year’s special session rollbacks contributed to a downturn in crime is false. .

The violent crime decline in New Orleans  leads the nation. At the end of 2024, the New Orleans Police Department reported a 71% decrease in youth homicide victims and a 49% decrease in carjackings.

As a New Orleanian and mom of a toddler, I know this state can be better—for all of us. We all have a role to play in building a better, safer, thriving, and just Louisiana, which starts by voting NO all the way down our ballots this month.

Early voting in New Orleans begins at 8:30 a.m. Saturday, March 15, at City Hall (Room 1W24); Algiers Courthouse (Room 105); the Voting Machine Warehouse, 8870 Chef Menteur Hwy.; and Lake Vista Community Center, 6500 Spanish Fort Blvd.

Next week, early voting continues from 8:30 to 6 p.m. all week: from Monday, March 17 through Saturday, March 22.

On Election Day, Saturday, March 29, polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m Find your polling location by calling the Orleans Registrar of Voters at (504) 658-8300 or through the Louisiana polling locater. Polling information for voters outside Orleans can be found here.