WASHINGTON (AP) A juvenile crime bill that could lead to many more adult
trials of youths as young as 14 has moved to the Senate floor for a fall
fight.

Like a counterpart measure the House passed in May, the bill approved
Thursday by the Senate Judiciary Committee pushes states, which handle most
juvenile crime, to tighten up treatment of those offenders by offering them
$500 million per year in incentive grants.

``I think it'll make a heck of a difference on the problem of juvenile crime
in this country,'' said committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, RUtah, after the
126 vote.

The committee intentionally avoided confrontations on many Democratic gun and
crimeprevention proposals, delaying those inevitable battles until the bill
is debated on the Senate floor, which likely will not happen until October at
the earliest.

Two Democrats Sens. Dianne Feinstein of California and Robert Torricelli of
New Jersey joined Republicans in voting for the bill.

Under the Senate version, states would have to make reasonable efforts to
ensure that by July 1, 2000, they:

Could try juveniles 14 and older as adults for a serious violent felony.

Impose graduated sanctions for juvenile repeat offenders.

Conduct drug tests on juveniles arrested on felony charges.

Fingerprint and photograph juveniles arrested on felony charges and send
copies to the FBI.

Maintain criminal records on juveniles like those kept on adults, make them
available to law enforcement, courts and schools and maintain them as long as
adult records are kept. However, under a Biden amendment the panel accepted,
states could keep laws that require that juvenile records be expunged when
offenders become adults.

Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the committee's top Democrat, complained,
``We've basically made an awful lot of state legislatures, or all 50,
irrelevant in a lot of areas.''

Attorney General Janet Reno said the bill ``heads us in the right direction,
but does not get us to where we need to go.''

She praised it for giving prosecutors more discretion, increasing victims'
rights and toughening penalties for illicit gun sales and drug transactions
involving children.

``But to win the longterm fight against juvenile crime, we must do more to
break the link between kids and guns by barring violent juveniles from
obtaining guns after they turn 18 and enacting a child safety lock
requirement,'' Reno said. The bill must also balance tough enforcement with
``targeted, effective crime prevention and intervention,'' she said.

The legislation requires states to use 35 percent of the grant money for
building juvenile detention facilities, 15 percent for drug testing of
juvenile arrestees, 10 percent for criminal recordkeeping and 40 percent for
a variety of approved purposes, including crime prevention.

There is no requirement that any be used for prevention, and the House bill
bars the use of the grant money for prevention.

The panel rejected, 98, an amendment by Sen. Arlen Specter, RPa., to
require states to use 50 percent of the money for literacy, job training and
substance abuse treatment for juvenile offenders.

The bill also would make it easier to try youths 14 and older as adults in
federal court, leaving the decision to prosecutors, not judges.

The committee rejected the Clinton administration's proposal that safety
locks be sold with every firearm, supporting only a requirement that firearms
dealers stock the devices.

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