Criminal Subcommittee

Wednesday, February 18, 2026·1h 16m·▶ Watch / Listen

The Criminal Subcommittee advanced four bills, including a long-contested measure to set a minimum age of 11 for juvenile delinquency adjudication in Virginia, which passed 8-2 after a last-minute procedural dispute over CHINS petition filing requirements. Two other bills — targeting 'gas station heroin' sales and probation revocation for unpaid fines — passed unanimously 10-0, while two bills were deferred.

Key Actions

·SB18 – Children adjudication of delinquencyNo Vote

+ 5 more actions

Controversies

Whether a separate CHINS petition filing is necessary when a child under 11 is brought before the court under SB18

Chair Watts argued that a child being under 11 and brought before the court by law enforcement should automatically trigger the appropriate services without any additional filing, stating: 'I am not convinced that there needs to be any separate filing or petition.' She also raised concern that adding specific filing language could have spinoff effects on other cases. Beth Coyne of OES countered that because a delinquency petition is a criminal matter and a CHINS petition is a civil matter, a judge cannot simply convert one to the other without a separate petition, and that the public defender representing the child in the delinquency matter would no longer represent that child once it becomes a CHINS matter.

+ 1 more controversy

Notable Quotes

“Now, you could conceive that at the point where a petition for juvenile delinquency is being heard in court, the child is possibly being represented by a public defender. But when an amendment is made to convert it to a chins, and frankly I'm not even sure a judge can do that without an actual petition being filed, that public defender will no longer represent that child because they don't represent children in chin's cases. It's a civil action, not a criminal action. So part of what we're proposing”
Senator Mamie E. Locke — Senator Locke responded to a last-minute amendment proposed by the Office of Executive Secretary regarding how courts should process CHINS petitions for children under age 11 who are brought before the court on a delinquency petition under SB18.

+ 3 more quotes

Votes

SB18 be recommended reporting with amendmentNo Vote

Senate Bill 23 / Senate Bill 713 — motion wording not stated in transcriptNo Vote

SB106 — motion to amend (voice vote)No Vote

SB106 as amended — move to reportNo Vote

SB776 — move the amendment (voice vote)No Vote

Senate Bill 776 as amended, be reportedNo Vote

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TranscriptPreview

And I also, for those who may be here for Senate Bill 137, Bukarski, that one will go by for the day. At the request of the patron, The meeting of the Court Subcommittee on Criminal Law will come to order. Clerk, please open the roll. Members, please indicate your presence. Excellent. We have a quorum. The first bill on our. Close the roll. The first bill on our docket is SB18. Senator Locke, are you catch your breath. Thank you, Madam Chair. You've heard this bill before. It's been before this committee probably 3, 4, 5, 6, sometimes several times. And it's been passed by both bodies and vetoed by the governor. The issue that we're facing here is children age 8 to 10 years who have been intake facing intake for delinquency and were criminalized in childhood. Senate Bill 18 will amend Virginia's juvenile code to clarify that children 10 years and under should not be criminalized and best served through existing systems of services. And that is essentially what this bill does. It's not any different than what we've done previously. When this bill has been before you. Are there any questions of the patron? I know…

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