NASHVILLE -- Shelby County Mayor A C Wharton has urged the county's state legislators to back his efforts to crack down on young offenders caught carrying guns and on the worst offenders by allowing judges to hold them in jail before trial.
The mayor is seeking state legislation to allow General Sessions Court judges to retain jurisdiction of a case beyond 11 months and 29 days so they can work through counseling and other measures with young offenders caught with guns and try to head off a life of escalating crime and violence. Offenders who actually use guns in crimes would go on to Criminal Court, where judges have authority to sentence convicts to more than a year.
"Based on my personal experience of working in those courts for 20-something years, I know 11 months, 29 days is not enough time to turn around some, particularly younger people. But General Sessions Courts don't have jurisdiction for longer than that," Wharton told the Shelby delegation's weekly lunch meeting Wednesday.
"The bottom line is, if we deal more effectively on the front end when they first start carrying guns -- if we intervene vigorously with them, and I didn't say lock them up -- you wouldn't have as much controversy on the back end. Let's do something before they start using guns."
On the other end of the spectrum, Wharton has proposed a state constitutional amendment to allow judges to detain in jail without bail select offenders charged with violent crime until their trials.
"One thing I feel strongly about is consideration of an amendment to our constitution to allow pretrial detention in those select cases where the only way we can protect our community is by detaining them before trial. It would be combined with speedy trial legislation. There are some people who are just not going to do right and a $100,000 bond or a $250,0000 bond is not going to stop them."
