1.This Act may be cited as the
Family Justice Act of
2010
.
2.The Congress finds the following:
(1)According to the National Center for Mental
Health and Juvenile Justice, the successful rehabilitation of youth in the
juvenile justice system, and their sustained reintegration into the community
rely upon the mutual support of juvenile justice systems and families in the
accomplishment of their goals.
(2)Involving families
benefits the youth, the family, the juvenile justice system, and the
community.
(3)Valid information
and consistent communication between families and juvenile justice facilities
reduces confusion, frustration, and disappointment.
(4)Training of
juvenile justice personnel on the importance of involving families can help the
former better understand the family perspective and the potential opportunities
for families to be educated about the system, its processes and
protocols.
(5)Families working
together with juvenile justice systems can improve outcomes for
justice-involved youth with mental health issues.
3.
(a)Establishment of
Demonstration Grant ProgramTitle II of the Juvenile Justice and
Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974 (42 U.S.C. 5611 et seq.) is amended—
(1)by redesignating
part (F) as part (G), and
(2)by inserting after
part (E) the following:
FEstablishing
Increased Family Engagement and Independent Monitoring Programs
271.
(a)The
purposes of this section are the following:
(1)To strengthen the
relationships between—
(A)individuals who
are employed by juvenile justice or adult criminal justice agencies, including
individuals employed at juvenile detention or corrections facilities or adult
jails or prisons; and
(B)individuals who
are not employed in the agencies or facilities, but are involved with the
juvenile justice or adult criminal justice system, particularly youth held in
juvenile detention or corrections facilities or adult jails or prisons and
their families.
(2)To create a process through which
administrators and staff at such facilities engage in a dialogue with
individuals the facilities incarcerate, including youth in juvenile detention
or corrections facilities or adult jails or prisons and families of these
youth, as well as other community-based stakeholders, to collect feedback and
input about the facilities’ policies, procedures, and practices.
(3)To ensure that the
feedback and input from youth in these facilities, their families, and
community-based stakeholders are integrated into the facilities’ policies,
procedures, and practices.
(4)To allow families of youth incarcerated in
a facility and community-based stakeholders access to the facility and the
youth in order to conduct an initial assessment of the facility, to assess
which policies and practices help families support youth’s rehabilitation prior
to, during, and after their stay in a facility, and as well as to monitor the
facility’s progress towards recommendations made by a panel described in
subsection (b)(1).
(b)
(1)Family
engagement demonstration grantsThe Administrator may make grants in each
fiscal year to local or statewide nonprofit organizations proven to be family
oriented and based in best practices to establish panels to monitor juvenile
detention and corrections facilities in which youth are held and provide youth
in those facilities and their family members with the ability to assist in the
development of policies, procedures, and practices in these facilities to
improve outcomes for youth and better prepare families to support youth’s
rehabilitation and transition back into the community.
(2)Grants shall be
made with preference given to those organizations that have a demonstrable
track record of working with families of incarcerated youth and incorporating
family input into their decisionmaking processes. In making grants under this
section, the Administrator shall, to the extent practicable, ensure that a
grant is made to one nonprofit organization in each State.
(c)
(1)Each
local or statewide nonprofit organization that desires a grant under this
section shall submit an application, in partnership with State or local
juvenile justice and criminal justice agencies, courts, or juvenile detention
or corrections facilities or adult jails or prisons, to the Administrator in
such manner, and accompanied by such information, as the Administrator may
require.
(2)Each
application submitted under paragraph (1) shall, at a minimum, include the
following:
(A)A description of
the organization’s experience working with youth involved in the juvenile
justice or adult criminal justice system and their families.
(B)A description of
the organization’s approach to family engagement in the juvenile justice or
adult criminal justice system, including the organization’s use of parent
advocates.
(C)A list of the
juvenile detention or correctional facilities or adult jails and prisons
holding youth that the panel will monitor.
(D)A description of
the State or local partner with which the monitoring panel will work and which
has the authority to make the changes in the facilities listed under
subparagraph (C).
(E)Assurances that
the organization will create a monitoring panel that shall include—
(i)two
representatives from each of—
(I)family members of youth currently
incarcerated or incarcerated within the last 2 years in the particular
monitored facility;
(II)youth currently incarcerated or
incarcerated within the last 2 years in the particular monitored facility or a
youth advocate who is in regular contact with the facility; and
(III)nonprofit organizations that provide
assistance to youth involved in the juvenile justice or adult criminal justice
systems or their families; and
(ii)one
representative from each of—
(I)a public defender’s office or
court-appointed private attorney representing youth in one of the jurisdictions
served by a facility that the panel will monitor;
(II)the State Attorney General’s office or a
prosecutor’s office in one of the jurisdictions served by a facility that the
panel will monitor;
(III)a representative from the State Advisory
Group (SAG) or a JJDPA State staff representative;
(IV)the family liaison for mental health
services or a State or local children’s mental health provider;
(V)the Governor’s
office;
(VI)a State or local
child welfare agency; and
(VII)the family liaison for special education or
a State or local education agency representative.
(F)Assurances that
administrators of the State or local juvenile justice and criminal justice
agencies, courts, juvenile detention or corrections facilities, or adult jails
or prisons with which the nonprofit is partnering will create a facility
implementation team that will include two individuals employed by each facility
being monitored who have the authority to make changes recommended by the
panel.
(G)Assurances that the applicant, as part of
its application, has consulted, or will within 30 days of being notified of an
award will consult, with the State Advisory Group (SAG) or the JJDPA State
staff to discuss how the activities of the monitoring panel can support and
strengthen the State’s JJDPA compliance monitoring activities.
(d)Grants received under this section shall be used to ensure
meaningful input from youth in juvenile detention and corrections facilities
and adult jails and prisons, their families, and community-based stakeholders
by providing funds—
(1)to allow the
monitoring panel to conduct an initial assessment and continued monitoring of
the facility to determine how the facility collects, analyzes, and integrates
the input from youth in the facility, their families, and other community-based
stakeholders into the facility’s policies, practices, and procedures, including
by—
(A)conducting
confidential interviews with youth and staff in the facility for the purpose of
evaluating the facility for the purposes above; and
(B)making unannounced visits to the facility
to observe and assess conditions of confinement;
(2)to allow the
monitoring panel to make recommendations to the facility implementation team on
how to integrate input from youth, their families, and community-based
stakeholders into the facility’s policies, procedures, and practices,
including—
(A)creating more
access to the facility for outside groups, including—
(i)allowing
additional community-based organizations that work with youth or individuals to
conduct visits to the facility;
(ii)providing office
space in the facility for entities that act in the interest of youth in the
facility, including community-based advocacy groups, guardians ad litem, and
public defender offices; or
(iii)assigning a
court-appointed attorney to be available in the facilities on a regular basis
for youth to speak with about their grievances with the facility;
(B)creating a support
group for families of youth in the facility;
(C)improving
communications between facility administrators and staff and families, and
encouraging dialogue between these individuals and staff in the facility (such
as officers, medical professionals, and educators) by—
(i)providing regular
updates on individual youth’s status and progress while in the facility;
(ii)integrating
family input into the process of making decisions regarding youth, such as
medical, mental health, or educational decisions;
(iii)creating a youth
and family liaison position or point of contact for youth and their families to
help advocate for the youth and their families;
(iv)providing an
orientation for youth and families to the facility, the programs, and the
formal grievance system of the facility that includes information on how youth
and families can express problems, questions, or comments; and
(v)ensuring that
youth and their families receive information on the research on the
consequences of juvenile justice system involvement, including the long-term
effects of this involvement and how it can affect a child later in life;
(D)improving
visitation and contact policies with youth in the facilities, including—
(i)reducing
restrictions on who can visit, including allowing visitation from individuals
outside the youth’s immediate family that provide positive support to the
youth, such as siblings, godparents, a parent’s unmarried partner, aunts,
uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews, mentors, teachers, coaches, and
pastors;
(ii)modifying or
extending visitation time to include additional hours or days of the week to
facilitate visitation with youth; and
(iii)reducing
transportation barriers for individuals to visit the facility, particularly if
the facility is not located near public transit or near the communities from
which the youth in the facility are referred; and
(E)ensuring that quality and effective after
care plans are established that reduce recidivism and help youth successfully
reintegrate into their communities; and
(3)to provide funds
to the facility to implement the recommendations of the monitoring panel, only
to be available to the facility after—
(A)the monitoring
panel has presented a publicly available written report with its
recommendations to the facility;
(B)the monitoring
panel and the facility implementation team meet to discuss the recommendations
and the facility implementation team have a meaningful opportunity to provide
input into the recommendations; and
(C)the monitoring
panel and the facility implementation team agree by a vote on which
recommendations to fund, in order for any funds to be spent by the facility to
implement a recommendation, the use of those funds must be supported by the
votes of two-thirds of individuals on the monitoring panel and the facility
implementation team, and by the vote of at least one individual as
follows:
(i)A
representative from the facility implementation team.
(ii)A
representative from the monitoring panel.
(iii)A representative from the monitoring panel
who is a youth or family member.
(e)The Administrator shall reserve 10 percent of the
amount made available to carry out this section for the purpose of evaluating
such demonstrations conducted under this section and issuing a report
describing the approaches and aspects of the demonstrations that the
Administrator determines to be most effective and appropriate for fulfilling
the purposes of juvenile justice detention and corrections facilities and adult
jails and prisons, integrating input from youth in the facilities and their
families in the facility’s polices, procedures, and practices, taking into
account the demographics of the various localities to be
served.
.
(b)Authorization of
appropriationsSection 299 of
the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974 (42 U.S.C. 5671) is
amended—
(1)in subsection
(a)—
(A)in the heading by striking
Parts C and
E
and inserting Parts C, E, and F
,
and
(B)in paragraph (2) by striking parts
C and E
and inserting parts C, E, and F
,
(2)by redesignating subsection (d) as
subsection (e), and
(3)by inserting after
subsection (c) the following:
(d)Authorization of
appropriations for part FThere are authorized to be appropriated
to carry out part F such sums as may be necessary for fiscal years 2011, 2012,
2013, 2014, 2015, and
2016.
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