1.This Act may be cited as the
Civic Justice Corps Act of
2011
.
2.The purpose of this Act is to develop,
implement, and expand educational and work experience opportunities for
court-involved, previously incarcerated, and otherwise disadvantaged youth and
young adults through service and conservation corps and other community-based
service organizations.
3.The Congress finds as follows:
(1)On any given day, more than 500,000
juvenile court cases in the United States end in incarceration or
probation.
(2)The per diem cost
of locking up one young person in a juvenile facility ranges from $24 in
Wyoming to $726 in Connecticut, but the American Correctional Association
estimates that, on average, it costs States $240.99 per day, or around $88,000
a year, for every young person in a juvenile facility.
(3)States spend
nearly $6,000,000,000 a year incarcerating youth.
(4)Youth who are
imprisoned are up to 50 percent more likely to recidivate than their
counterparts who remain in their communities.
(5)Nearly 70 percent
of youth in residential facilities have been adjudicated for nonviolent
offenses and could be safely managed within their communities.
(6)The most effective
programs at reducing recidivism rates and promoting positive life outcomes for
youth are administered within communities, outside of the criminal juvenile
justice system.
(7)In the United
States there are more than 150 service and conservation corps, the direct
descendants of the Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930s, that operate in
all 50 States, provide educational and economic opportunities to more than
30,000 young people each year, and make important contributions in the
communities in which they are located.
(8)The Civic Justice
Corps Model, developed by The Corps Network in conjunction with the Gates and
Open Society Foundations, utilizes community service projects to deliver life
skills, education, workforce readiness, and supportive and transitional
services to formerly incarcerated and court-involved youth and young adults
between the ages of 16 and 25.
(9)Data from 14
original Civic Justice Corps sites demonstrate 80 percent post-program
participant placement rates and 11 percent recidivism rates among program
participants (as opposed to the prevailing recidivism rate of 50 to 70
percent).
4.In this Act:
(1)Civic Justice
Corps ModelThe term Civic Justice Corps Model
refers to programs that—
(A)intentionally
recruit and primarily enroll as participants in the program court-involved,
previously incarcerated, and otherwise disadvantaged youth and young adults
between the ages of 16 and 25;
(B)provide such
participants with educational programming and support designed to lead to a
high school diploma or its recognized equivalent;
(C)provide such
participants with assessment, career planning, workforce readiness, and service
or work experience designed to lead to unsubsidized employment, enrollment in
postsecondary education or an apprenticeship program, the obtainment of an
industry-recognized credential, or some other type of career pathway program,
including military service;
(D)demonstrate
relationships with local criminal, juvenile justice, and other social service
agencies and provide a range of supportive and transitional services to
participants;
(E)engage
participants in relevant, necessary, and team-based community service projects
designed to instill life and jobs skills and long-term civic engagement;
(F)demonstrate relationships with local boards
(as such term is defined in section 101 of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998
(29 U.S.C. 2801)) and local employers and can provide participants with
appropriate post-program placements;
(G)require participants to be enrolled in the
program for not less than 6 months, and provide participants with at least 12
months of post-program support and services;
(H)collect
post-program data for at least the 12 months after such participants complete
the program; and
(I)have in place a
plan for sustaining the program after the expiration of the grant.
(2)The term local subgrantee refers to a
service and conservation corps or other community-based service organization
that—
(A)has been
competitively selected by a national intermediary to carry out a Civic Justice
Corps program that implements the Civic Justice Corps Model; and
(B)demonstrates—
(i)a
local need for a Civic Justice Corps program;
(ii)the
ability to recruit and enroll court-involved, previously incarcerated, and
otherwise disadvantaged youth and young adults between the ages of 16 and
25;
(iii)the ability to
provide the education, workforce
development, service and work experience, and supportive and follow-up services
described in
paragraph (1);
(iv)relationships
with local criminal, juvenile justice, and social service agencies;
(v)relationships with local boards (as such
term is defined in section 101 of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (29
U.S.C. 2801)) and employers and the ability to place participants upon program
completion;
(vi)the
ability to collect data and report on the performance measures described in
section 6(b); and
(vii)a
plan to sustain the Civic Justice Corps program after the expiration of the
subgrant.
(3)The term national intermediary means a
national nonprofit organization that—
(A)has experience in
developing and administering programs that utilize community service to deliver
education and work experience to court-involved, formerly incarcerated, and
otherwise disadvantaged youth;
(B)demonstrates an
ability to administer a competitive subgrant process that will result in the
selection of no less than nine geographically diverse local subgrantees to
carry out Civil Justice Corps programs that implement the Civic Justice Corps
Model;
(C)demonstrates an
ability to provide training and technical assistance to subgrantees; and
(D)has the ability to
collect information from the subgrantees on the performance measures described
in section 6(b) and report such information to
the Attorney General on an annual basis.
(4)Service and
conservation corpsThe term
service and conservation corps means any State or local service or
conservation corps, including a service or conservation corps carried out under
the national service laws.
5.Civic Justice
Corps grants
(a)The Attorney General shall award grants to one or more
national intermediaries to develop, implement, and collect data from Civic
Justice Corps programs administered by no fewer than nine local subgrantees in
diverse geographic locations.
(b)Grant and
subgrant periodsEach grant awarded to a national intermediary,
and each subgrant awarded to a local subgrantee, under this section shall be
for a period of 3 years.
(c)
(1)Each national intermediary receiving a grant under this
section shall make at least nine subgrants to local subgrantees to carry out
Civil Justice Corps programs that implement the Civil Justice Corps Model
described in
section 4(1) with the funds provided under
such subgrant.
(2)Each
national intermediary receiving a grant under this section shall
reserve—
(A)not less than 90
percent for subgrants to local subgrantees; and
(B)not more than 10
percent for training and technical assistance to, and data collection from,
such local subgrantees.
(d)An entity receiving a subgrant under this section shall
use the funds made available through such subgrant to carry out a Civic Justice
Corps program that implements the Civic Justice Corps Model. Such program shall
include the provision of educational programming and support to participants,
which may include—
(1)basic instruction
and remedial education;
(2)language
instruction for individuals with limited English proficiency;
(3)secondary
education services and activities, including drop-out prevention, tutoring, and
other activities;
(4)preparation for
and access to postsecondary education opportunities, including counseling and
assistance with applying for student financial aid;
(5)work readiness
training, which may include—
(A)development of
basic skills, such as—
(i)arriving on time
to work;
(ii)being prepared to
work;
(iii)working
independently;
(iv)working with
others;
(v)working safely;
and
(vi)demonstrating a
commitment to produce high quality work;
(B)development of
job-specific occupational skills and on-the-job training; and
(C)assessment of
skills, career counseling, and job search assistance; and
(6)development and
monitoring of individual education and career plans.
6.
(a)Annual reports
to the Attorney GeneralEach
national intermediary receiving a grant under this Act shall submit a report
annually to the Attorney General at such time, in such manner, and providing
such information as the Attorney General may require, including information on
the performance measures reported by subgrantees in accordance with
subsection (b).
(b)Subgrantee
reports on performance measuresEach entity receiving a subgrant under this
section shall annually report to the national intermediary that awarded such
subgrant on the following performance measures of participant progress:
(1)The obtainment of
a high school diploma, a recognized equivalent, or some other
industry-recognized credential.
(2)Post-program placement for each participant
in one of the following, and total post-program placement rates for each of the
following:
(A)Unsubsidized
employment.
(B)Postsecondary
education.
(C)A registered
apprenticeship or further job training.
(D)A career pathway
program, including military service.
(3)Post-program
recidivism rates.
7.Authorization of
appropriationsThere are
authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section $20,000,000 for each of
the fiscal years 2012 through 2018.