[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 155 (Saturday, September 27, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9993-S9994]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    JUVENILE JUSTICE AND DELINQUENCY PREVENTION REAUTHORIZATION ACT

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. Presdient, in July, the Senate Judiciary Committee 
reported the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention 
Reauthorization Act, an important bill designed to protect our 
communities and particularly our most precious asset, our children. I 
am disappointed that Republican objections continue to prevent this 
vital bipartisan legislation from passing the Senate this year.
  This bill seeks to not only keep our children safe and out of 
trouble, but also to help ensure they have the opportunity to become 
productive adult members of society. Senator Specter and Senator Kohl 
have been leaders in this area of the law for decades, and I was 
honored to join with them once again to introduce this important 
initiative.
  The Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act sets out Federal 
policy and standards for the administration of juvenile justice in the 
states. It authorizes key Federal resources for States to improve their 
juvenile justice systems and for communities to develop programs to 
prevent young people from getting into trouble. With the proposed 
reauthorization of this important legislation, we recommit to these 
important goals. We also push the law forward in key ways to better 
serve our communities and our children.
  The basic goals of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention 
Act remain the same: keeping our communities safe by reducing juvenile 
crime, advancing programs and policies that keep children out of the 
criminal justice system, and encouraging States to implement policies 
designed to steer those children who do enter the juvenile justice 
system back onto a track to become contributing members of society.
  The reauthorization that we consider today augments these goals in 
several ways. First, this bill encourages states to move away from 
keeping young people in adult jails. The Centers for Disease Control 
and Prevention concluded late last year that children who are held in 
adult prisons commit more crimes, and more serious crimes, when they 
are released, than children with similar histories who are kept in 
juvenile facilities. After years of pressure to send more and more 
young people to

[[Page S9994]]

adult prisons, it is time to seriously consider the strong evidence 
that this policy is not working.
  We must do this with ample consideration for the fiscal constraints 
on States, particularly in these lean budget times, and with ample 
deference to the traditional role of States in setting their own 
criminal justice policy. We have done so here. But we also must work to 
ensure that unless strong and considered reasons dictate otherwise, the 
presumption must be that children will be kept with other children, 
particularly before they have been convicted of any wrongdoing.
  As a former prosecutor, I know well the importance of holding 
criminals accountable for their crimes with strong sentences. But when 
we are talking about children, we must also think about how best to 
help them become responsible, contributing members of society as 
adults. That keeps us all safer.
  I am disturbed that children from minority communities continue to be 
overrepresented in the juvenile justice system. This bill encourages 
States to take new steps to identify the reasons for this serious and 
continuing problem and to work together with the Federal Government and 
with local communities to find ways to start solving it.
  I am also concerned that too many runaway and homeless young people 
are locked up for so-called status offenses, like truancy, without 
having committed any crime. In a Judiciary Committee hearing earlier 
this year on the reauthorization of the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act, 
I was amazed by the plight of this vulnerable population, even in the 
wealthiest country in the world, and inspired by the ability of so many 
children in this desperate situation to rise above that adversity.
  This reauthorization of the Juvenile Justice Act takes strong and 
significant steps to move States away from detaining children from at-
risk populations for status offenses and requires States to phase out 
the practice entirely in 3 years, but with a safety valve for those 
States that are unable to move quite so quickly due to limited 
resources.
  As I have worked with experts on this legislation, it has become 
abundantly clear that mental health and drug treatment are fundamental 
to making real progress toward keeping juvenile offenders from 
reoffending. Mental disorders are two to three times more common among 
children in the juvenile justice system than in the general population, 
and fully 80 percent of young people in the juvenile justice system 
have been found by some studies to have a connection to substance 
abuse. This bill takes new and important steps to prioritize and fund 
mental health and drug treatment.
  The bill tackles several other key facets of juvenile justice reform. 
It emphasizes effective training of personnel who work with young 
people in the juvenile justice system, both to encourage the use of 
approaches that have been proven effective and to eliminate cruel and 
unnecessary treatment of juveniles. The bill also creates incentives 
for the use of programs that research and testing have shown to work 
best.
  Finally, the bill refocuses attention on prevention programs intended 
to keep children from ever entering the criminal justice system. I was 
struck when Chief Richard Miranda of Tucson, AZ, said in a December 
hearing on this bill that we cannot arrest our way out of the problem. 
I heard the same sentiment from Chief Anthony Bossi and others at the 
Judiciary Committee's field hearing earlier this year on young people 
and violent crime in Rutland, VT. When seasoned police officers from 
Rutland, VT, to Tucson, AZ, tell me that prevention programs are 
pivotal, I pay attention.
  Just as this administration and recent Republican Congresses have 
gutted programs that support State and local law enforcement, so they 
have consistently cut and narrowed effective prevention programs, 
creating a dangerous vacuum. We need to reverse this trend and help our 
communities implement programs proven to help kids turn their lives 
around.
  I have long supported a strong Federal commitment to preventing youth 
violence, and I have worked hard on past reauthorizations of this 
legislation, as have Senators Specter and Kohl and others on the 
Judiciary Committee. We have learned the importance of balancing strong 
law enforcement with effective prevention programs. This 
reauthorization pushes forward new ways to help children move out of 
the criminal justice system, return to school, and become responsible, 
hard-working members of our communities.
  This legislation seeks to move the country in new directions to 
protect our communities and give our children the chance they need to 
grow up to be productive members of society. But we were careful to do 
so with full respect for the discretion due to law enforcement and 
judges, with deference to states, and with a regard for difficult 
fiscal realities.
  It is unfortunate that, despite the bipartisan nature of the 
legislation and the careful consideration and consultation that went 
into drafting it, Republican objections have prevented this important 
bill from passing and helping to keep our children and our communities 
safe. I hope, while there is still time, that all Senators will decide 
to support and pass this vital reauthorization.

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