[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 7976 Introduced in House (IH)]

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117th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 7976

To amend the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974 to 
  eliminate the use of valid court orders to secure lockup of status 
                   offenders, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              June 8, 2022

 Mr. Cardenas introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                    Committee on Education and Labor

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974 to 
  eliminate the use of valid court orders to secure lockup of status 
                   offenders, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Prohibiting Detention of Youth 
Status Offenders Act of 2022''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Under the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention 
        Act of 1974 (34 U.S.C. 11101 et seq.), Congress recognized the 
        need to set clear standards and protect juveniles across the 
        United States by, among other things, providing that States 
        should not place youth in secure detention for status offenses, 
        which are offenses that would not be criminal offenses if 
        committed by an adult.
            (2) In 1980, Congress amended the Juvenile Justice and 
        Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974 (34 U.S.C. 11101 et seq.) to 
        create an exception that permits judges to place a youth in 
        secure detention if the youth violates a valid court order 
        (referred to in this section as ``the VCO exception''). The VCO 
        exception has led to thousands of youth being placed in secure 
        detention for noncriminal status offenses.
            (3) Placing a child charged with a noncriminal status 
        offense in secure confinement with children who have been 
        accused of serious criminal offenses can expose the child to 
        negative influences and behaviors that could contribute to that 
        child returning into the status offense system or the 
        delinquency system.
            (4) The 5 most common juvenile status offenses include 
        skipping school, drinking while underage, running away from 
        home, violating curfew, and acting out.
            (5) In 2019--
                    (A) 11 percent of formally processed juvenile court 
                cases were for a status offense; and
                    (B) although most petitioned status offense cases 
                involved White youth (61 percent), Black youth and 
                American Indian and Alaska Native youth were 
                overrepresented among petitioned status offenses cases 
                relative to their population size.
            (6) Girls are more often sent to the justice system for 
        less serious offenses, such as status offenses, than boys. In 
        2013, the female share of formally processed status offense 
        cases (43 percent) was greater than the share of female 
        delinquency cases (27 percent).
            (7) Girls often engage in status offense behaviors in 
        response to abuse or trauma and may, for example, run away to 
        escape abuse at home or in a foster care placement.
            (8) Anyone under the age of majority, which, in most 
        States, is the age of 18, is subject to status offense charges, 
        but teenagers between the ages of 14 and 17 comprise most 
        status offense cases.
            (9) Most youth who engage in status and other minor 
        offenses never progress to more serious behavior and will age 
        out of the behavior without court intervention.
            (10) Since 1980, more than half of States have recognized 
        the dangers of placing youth in secure detention for 
        noncriminal status offenses and have stopped using the VCO 
        exception.
            (11) While the number of status offenses petitioned in 
        courts decreased by 53 percent between 2005 to 2019, during 
        2019, there were still approximately 4,200 instances of a youth 
        being detained in response to a status offense.
            (12) Congress recognized the need to reform the VCO 
        exception under the Juvenile Justice Reform Act of 2018 (115-
        385; 132 Stat. 5123), which, among other things, limited the 
        time that a juvenile could be detained under a VCO exception to 
        not more than 7 days.
            (13) Congress must now act to eliminate the VCO exception 
        and fully return to the original intent of the Juvenile Justice 
        and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974 (34 U.S.C. 11101 et 
        seq.), which originally provided that no youth should be held 
        in secure detention for a noncriminal status offense.

SEC. 3. DEINSTITUTIONALIZATION OF STATUS OFFENDERS.

    Section 223 of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act 
of 1974 (34 U.S.C. 11133) is amended--
            (1) in subsection (a)--
                    (A) in paragraph (11)(A)(i)(III), by inserting ``a 
                runaway'' before ``held''; and
                    (B) in paragraph (23)--
                            (i) in subparagraph (C)(iii)--
                                    (I) in subclause (I)(dd), by 
                                striking ``7'' and inserting ``3''; and
                                    (II) in subclause (II), by striking 
                                ``and'' at the end;
                            (ii) in subparagraph (D)--
                                    (I) by striking ``7'' and inserting 
                                ``3''; and
                                    (II) by adding ``and'' at the end; 
                                and
                            (iii) by inserting after subparagraph (D) 
                        the following:
                    ``(E) the juvenile may only be held in a secure 
                detention facility or secure correctional facility if 
                the detention--
                            ``(i) is pursuant to a court order 
                        described in subparagraph (C)(iii) and the 
                        other conditions set forth in subparagraph (C) 
                        are satisfied; and
                            ``(ii) occurs only 1 time in any 6-month 
                        period;''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following:
    ``(h) Additional Requirement.--
            ``(1) In general.--Except as provided in paragraph (2), not 
        later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this 
        subsection, no State receiving a formula grant under this part 
        may use a valid court order described in subsection 
        (a)(23)(C)(iii) to place a juvenile status offender in a secure 
        detention facility or secure correctional facility.
            ``(2) Extension.--A State that can demonstrate hardship, as 
        determined by the Administrator, may submit to the 
        Administrator an application for a single 1-year extension of 
        the 1-year period described in paragraph (1) to comply with 
        paragraph (1), which shall describe--
                    ``(A) the measurable progress and good effort in 
                the State to reduce the number of juvenile status 
                offenders who are placed in a secure detention facility 
                or correctional facility pursuant to a court order 
                described in subsection (a)(23)(C)(iii); and
                    ``(B) a plan to comply with the requirement 
                described in paragraph (1) not later than 1 year after 
                the date the extension is granted.''.
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