[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 100 (Tuesday, July 15, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H5189-H5190]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   JUVENILE CRIME CONTROL ACT OF 1997

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 21, 1997, the gentleman from Florida [Mr. McCollum] is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McCOLLUM. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to address what I am seeing 
as an increasing number of ads and op-ed pieces that mischaracterize 
H.R. 3, the juvenile crime bill, which passed this body back in May and 
which is being deliberated in one version or another in the other body 
right now.
  A number of op-eds have said lately things that just are not so. One 
of the myths is that H.R. 3 mandates that children as young as 13 must 
be prosecuted as adults and requires States to do the same. That is 
absolutely false. The juvenile crime bill, H.R. 3, that we passed 
includes a modest expansion of Federal law which already provides for 
discretionary prosecution of 13-year-olds. H.R. 3 does not require 
States to do the same.
  Discretionary authority for Federal prosecution of 13-year-old 
juvenile offenders as adults for the most serious of crimes is nothing 
new. It became law in the 1994 crime bill through an amendment offered 
by Senator Carol Moseley-Braun of Illinois, a Democrat. Moreover, H.R. 
3 does not require States to have this same standard. H.R. 3 provides 
incentive grants to States to provide prosecuters the option of 
prosecuting as adults those juveniles who are 15 and older and who have 
committed murder, rape, or assault with a firearm.
  Most States already provide for this option. We wanted to make 
certain, if they were going to get Federal moneys to improve their 
juvenile justice systems, that all States did this, and it

[[Page H5190]]

would not make sense for States to not prosecute murderers and rapists 
who are 15-, 16-, and 17-year-olds, especially if they are repeat 
violent offenders, as adults, because if they do not prosecute them as 
adults and they did it as juveniles, they will be back on the streets 
when they do reach the age of adulthood.
  The second myth that we are hearing a lot about is that H.R. 3 allows 
youths as young as 13 to be confined in adult jails and prisons. This 
also is absolutely false. Nothing in H.R. 3 authorizes or even 
encourages housing of juveniles with adults. In fact, H.R. 3 prohibits 
such housing in the Federal system and does nothing to change current 
laws and regulations affecting State housing policies.
  Current Federal law explicitly prohibits housing juveniles with 
adults in the Federal juvenile justice system. The standard has long 
been codified in Federal law. It is unchanged by H.R. 3. It is one that 
prohibits any regular contact between juveniles and adult criminals 
during any stage of the justice process, pretrial, presentencing, or 
postsentencing.
  So the myth that is out there is that somehow those of us who support 
H.R. 3 are not concerned with prevention. Well, that is not the purpose 
of the juvenile crime bill that came forward this time, prevention, but 
we are concerned with it. Trying to stop and interdict the young person 
before they get involved with a juvenile offense, misdemeanor or 
otherwise is very important. There are $4 billion of Federal at-risk 
grant programs already available out there and existing, and we are 
going to be reauthorizing one of them here very shortly dealing with 
OJJDP, which is the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency 
Prevention, Mr. Speaker, 4 billion dollars' worth of prevention 
programs, 131 of those programs in 16 different agencies.
  But what H.R. 3 is all about is an effort to try to fix the broken 
juvenile justice system of this Nation. Some critics are saying this is 
a State responsibility and the Federal Government does not have any 
business there. And that I would suggest is not the right way to look 
at this. Yes, juvenile justice types of programs are in the States, not 
the Federal system, but the system is broken and there is a Federal 
responsibility to deal with it.
  Today, if a young person comes in contact with the law by having 
vandalized a home or a store or by spray-painting graffiti on a 
warehouse, well, the chances are the police will not even take that 
young person to a juvenile court. And when they do see a juvenile 
judge, it is often 10 or 12 appearances before they receive any kind of 
punishment at all. That is not a working juvenile justice system.
  Is it any wonder that when a juvenile, having experienced that and 
some day does pick up a gun in a situation where he might use it, that 
he thinks about pulling that trigger, believing there are no 
consequences? There have to be consequences in the juvenile justice 
system of this Nation. We need more probation officers, more juvenile 
judges and more juvenile detention facilities so we can treat 
juveniles the proper way, and to put consequences into the juvenile 
justice system again so that there is punishment from the very first 
juvenile delinquent act.

  It is a very important part of what we passed here on the floor with 
H.R. 3, because it is a requirement in order to get the $500 million a 
year authorized by that bill to improve the juvenile justice systems of 
the States that the State demonstrate to the Justice Department of the 
United States that they will have in place, and do have in place, a 
system to sanction the very first juvenile misdemeanor crime of every 
juvenile who commits one, and graduated, increasing sanctions for every 
one thereafter.
  It is also important, and we have in place as part of this incentive 
grant program, that records be kept of those who commit felony crimes 
for the second offense.
  H.R. 3 is a good bill. It is a juvenile crime bill. Prevention is 
also important. The myths about this bill are wrong, and we are proud 
we passed it. We look forward to seeing the bill from the other body so 
we can get one to the President shortly.

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