Georgia House passes stripped down ‘Mandi Ballinger Act,’ opting to instead study ‘raise the age’

By: Alander Rocha

Outlets: Georgia Recorder

Published: February 23, 2026

Words: 1,143

Last Updated: 2 weeks, 4 days ago

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The Georgia House on Friday passed a bill to create a special committee to study raising the age of juvenile court jurisdiction to include 17-year-olds, but stopped short of taking action to prevent 17-year-olds from being tried as adults.

House Bill 1061, originally written to shift 17-year-olds away from the adult criminal justice system to juvenile courts, unanimously passed the House after it was condensed from a 23-page bill into a …

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