CHILD ENDANGERMENT BILL TARGETS METH LABS

Gov. Sonny Perdue plans to push a child endangerment bill that
includes penalties for parents who make methamphetamine.

The governor is crafting legislation to help protect children from
abusive and reckless behavior, spokeswoman Loretta Lepore said Wednesday.

Georgia is the only state in the nation without a law that penalizes
parents and caregivers who recklessly put children in peril or fail to
keep them from danger.

Efforts in recent years to pass a child endangerment law have failed.
Legislators working to get a bill enacted have had to mollify various
groups who fear they would be targeted by its broad language.

One worry is that overzealous prosecutors might try to punish
well-meaning parents who make mistakes, such as the mother who turns
her head for a moment and her child runs into traffic.

But Lepore said the governor's proposal "would not infringe on the
rights of responsible parents and caregivers. This is going to address
abuse and reckless conduct - versus a toddler falling and innocently
bumping his head or some other form of accident."

The governor's bill would incorporate a GBI request to target adults
who endanger children by exposing them to the toxic and explosive
ingredients used in making methamphetamine, Lepore said.

Lab Raids Increase

The GBI is reacting to a growing problem of people making the illegal
stimulant in their homes and the damage the drug labs do to children.
From 1999 through 2002, the number of meth labs raided by police
jumped from 29 to 395, according to GBI figures. In the last fiscal
year, which ended in September, the number shot up to 439 labs.

"When people are making methamphetamine, the child has no control over
that situation, and that child could die," GBI spokesman John Bankhead
said.

Unless children are physically harmed, holding parents criminally
responsible for exposing their children to methamphetamine's dangers
is difficult, prosecutors say.

Perdue supported a child endangerment bill last year, but did not
fight for it. The push to enact the bill was led in part by Lt. Gov.
Mark Taylor.

Sponsors had revised the bill in the Legislature to appease several
groups. Early on, child protection caseworkers feared they would be
held criminally liable if they allowed a child to stay in a troubled
home and the child was subsequently abused. Advocates feared battered
spouses could be charged with child endangerment if they didn't leave
the home they shared with an abuser.

The bill failed when abortion foes and gun advocates tried to adapt it
for their own purposes. The measure was approved by the Senate but
never came to a vote in the House.

'Wholly About' Children

The legislation approved by the Senate provided for as many as 20
years in prison, depending on the seriousness of the offense. For
instance, a person could get three years in prison for causing a child
"cruel or excessive physical or mental pain."

It's not clear whether the Republican governor's child endangerment
proposal will compete against the bill being pushed by the Democratic
lieutenant governor.

A spokeswoman for Taylor, Kristi Huller, said he wants to read the
governor's bill before deciding how to approach the
legislation.

"Child endangerment is a broad term. It could mean shaking a baby, or
a child drowning in a bathtub, or leaving a child in a hot car," she
said. What's important is getting a child endangerment law on the
books, she said, not who succeeds in getting it adopted. "This is
wholly about having laws in place that protect children," Huller said.

Bill Earns Praise

Child welfare advocates praised the governor's stated goal of making
parents more accountable for the safety and welfare of their children.

"The more support we can get behind this bill, the better chance it
has of passing," said Wendi Clifton, interim director of Prevent Child
Abuse Georgia, a private nonprofit organization based in Atlanta.

Dee Simms, head of the state Office of the Child Advocate, praised the
governor's proposal. "It is time that Georgia move on this, that we
pass the child endangerment law, and that we not be lagging behind in
our legal initiative to protect the children of Georgia," she said.
"Georgia cannot be at the bottom of the pile forever."