[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 30 (Friday, February 13, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E285-E287]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               THE INTRODUCTION OF THE YOUTH PROMISE ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                     HON. ROBERT C. ``BOBBY'' SCOTT

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, February 13, 2009

  Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I rise today, along with the 
gentleman from Delaware, Mr. Castle, to introduce the ``Youth Prison 
Reduction through Mentoring, Intervention, Support and Education Act'', 
or ``Youth PROMISE Act,'' a bill we believe will greatly reduce crime 
and its associated costs and losses. Companion legislation to this bill 
is also being filed today in the Senate by Senator Casey of 
Pennsylvania, and Senator Snowe of Maine.
  The Youth PROMISE Act implements the best policy recommendations from 
crime policy makers, researchers, practitioners, analysts, and law 
enforcement officials from across the political spectrum concerning 
evidence- and research-based strategies to reduce gang violence and 
crime. Under the Youth PROMISE Act, communities facing the greatest 
youth gang and crime challenges will be able to enact a comprehensive 
response to prevention and intervention of youth violence through a 
coordinated response that includes the active involvement of 
representatives from law enforcement, court services, schools, social 
services, health and mental health providers, foster care providers, 
Boys and Girls Clubs and other community-based service organizations, 
including faith-based organizations. These key players will form a 
council to develop a comprehensive plan for implementing evidence-based 
prevention and intervention strategies. These strategies will be 
targeted at young people who are involved, or at risk of becoming 
involved, in gangs or the juvenile or criminal justice system to 
redirect them toward productive and law-abiding alternatives. The Youth 
PROMISE Act will also enhance state and local law enforcement efforts 
regarding youth and gang violence.
  Title I: Federal Coordination of Local and Tribal Juvenile Justice 
Information and Efforts. Sec. 101 creates a PROMISE Advisory Panel. 
This Panel will assist the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency 
Prevention in selecting PROMISE community grantees. The Panel will also 
develop standards for the evaluation of juvenile delinquency and 
criminal street gang activity prevention and intervention approaches 
carried out under the PROMISE Act. Sec. 102 provides for specific data 
collection in each designated geographic area to assess the needs and 
existing resources for juvenile delinquency and criminal street gang 
activity prevention and intervention. This data will then facilitate 
the strategic geographic allocation of resources provided under the Act 
to areas of greatest need for assistance.
  Title II: PROMISE Grants. Sec. 201 establishes grants to enable local 
and tribal communities, via PROMISE Coordinating Councils, PCCs, Sec. 
202, to conduct an objective assessment, Sec. 203, regarding juvenile 
delinquency and criminal street gang activity and resource needs and 
strengths in the community. Based upon the assessment, the PCCs then 
will develop plans that include a broad array of evidence-based 
prevention and intervention programs. These programs will be responsive 
to the needs and strengths of the community, account for the 
community's cultural and linguistic needs, and utilize approaches that 
have been proven to be effective in reducing involvement in or 
continuing involvement in delinquent conduct or criminal street gang 
activity. The PCCs can then apply for federal funds, on the basis of 
greatest need, to implement their PROMISE plans, Sec. 211-213. Title II 
also provides for national evaluation of PROMISE programs and 
activities, Sec. 222, based on performance standards developed by the 
PROMISE Advisory Panel.
  Title III: PROMISE Research Center. Sec. 301 establishes a National 
Research Center for Proven Juvenile Justice Practices. This Center will 
collect and disseminate information to PROMISE Coordinating Councils 
and the public on current research and other information about 
evidence-based and promising practices related to juvenile delinquency 
and criminal street gang activity and intervention. Sec. 302 provides 
for regional academic research partners to assist PCCs in developing 
their assessments and plans.
  Title IV: Youth-Oriented Policing Services. Sec. 402 provides, within 
the office of Community Oriented Policing Services, for the hiring and 
training of Youth Oriented Policing, YOPS, officers to address juvenile 
delinquency and criminal street gang activity in coordination with PCCs 
and other local youth services organizations. Sec. 403 also establishes 
a Center for Youth Oriented Policing, which will be responsible for 
identification, development and dissemination of information related to 
strategic policing practices and technologies to law enforcement 
agencies related to youth.
  Title V: Enhancing Federal Support of Local Law Enforcement--
Mynisha's Law. Mynisha's Law provides appropriate federal coordination 
and collaboration by requiring the placement of an interagency task 
force--consisting of representatives from the Departments of Justice, 
Labor, Education, HUD and HHS--to prevent and address gang activity in 
specific designated high intensity gang areas. The interagency task 
force would be responsible for identifying and coordinating access to 
federal gang prevention resources, such as afterschool programs, Job 
Corp programs, and low income affordable housing.

  Sec. 511 authorizes the COPS Office to make grants to local and 
tribal governments with a PROMISE Council to develop community-based 
programs that provide crime prevention, research, and intervention 
services designed for gang members and at-risk youth. Sec. 522 
authorizes the Attorney General, in consultation with the Secretary of 
Health and Human Services to award grants to partnerships between a 
state mental health authority and one or more local public or private 
entities to prevent or alleviate the effects of youth violence in urban 
communities with a high or increasing incidence of such violence by 
providing violence-prevention education, mentoring, counseling, and 
mental health services to children and adolescents. Priority is given 
to grant applicants that agree to use the grant in communities that 
lack the resources to address youth violence.
  Title VI: Precaution Act. To coordinate the volumes of data and 
research on crime prevention and intervention, this Title creates a 
national commission on crime prevention and intervention strategies to 
identify those programs that are most ready for replication around the 
country, and to provide guidance in a direct and accessible format to 
state and local law enforcement on how to implement those strategies. 
The commission also would identify those promising areas of crime 
prevention and intervention programming that would benefit from further 
research and development, and would report to federal, state, and local 
law enforcement on the outcomes of a grant program administered by the 
National Institute of Justice to pilot programs in these areas and test 
their effectiveness. The use of this information would ensure that the 
criminal justice community is investing its limited resources in the 
most cost-effective way possible.
  Title VII: Additional Improvements to Juvenile Justice. Sec. 701 
provides additional improvements to current laws affecting juvenile 
delinquency and criminal street gang activity, including support for 
youth victim and witness protection programs. Sec. 702 provides for an 
expansion of the Mentoring Initiatives program for system-involved 
youth. And Sec. 703 calls for a study on adolescent development and the 
effectiveness of juvenile sentences in the Federal system.
  During my more than 30 years of public service, I have learned that 
when it comes to crime policy, we have a choice--we can reduce crime or 
we can play politics. For far too

[[Page E286]]

long, Congress has chosen to play politics by enacting so-called 
``tough on crime'' slogans such as ``three strikes and you're out'' , 
``mandatory minimum sentencing'', ``life without parole'', ``abolish 
parole'' or ``you do the adult crime, you do the adult time''. My 
personal favorite is ``no cable TV.'' You can imagine the cable guy 
disconnecting the cable and then waiting for the crime rate to drop. As 
appealing as these policies may sound, their impacts range from a 
negligible reduction in crime to an increase in crime.
  However, over the past two decades, we continued to enact slogan-
based sentencing policies. As a result, the United States now has the 
highest average incarceration rate of any nation in the world. At over 
700 persons incarcerated for every 100,000 in the population, the U.S. 
far exceeds the world average incarceration rate of about 100 per 
100,000. Russia is the next closest in rate of incarceration with about 
600 per 100,000 citizens. Every other major incarcerator is much below 
that. Among countries most comparable to the U.S., Great Britain is 146 
per 100,000, Australia is 126, Canada is 107, Germany is 95, France is 
85, and Japan is 62. India, the world's largest Democracy, is 36 per 
100,000 and China, the world's largest country by population, is 118 
per 100,000. Since 1970, the number of individuals incarcerated in the 
U.S. has risen from approximately 300,000 to over 2 million.
  All this increase in incarceration does not come for free. Since 
1982, the cost of incarceration in this country has risen from $9 
billion annually to over $65 billion a year.
  And the U.S. has some of the world's most severe punishments for 
crime, including for juveniles. Of the more than 2400 juveniles now 
serving sentences of life without parole, all are in the U.S. Some were 
given their sentence as first-time offenders under circumstances such 
as being a passenger in a car from which there was a drive-by shooting.
  The impact of all this focus on tough law enforcement approaches 
falls disproportionately on minorities, particularly Blacks and 
Hispanics. While the average incarceration rate in the United States is 
7 times the international average, for Blacks the average rate is over 
2200 per 100,000, and the rate in some jurisdictions exceeds 4,000 per 
100,000 Blacks, a rate 40 times the international average. For Black 
boys being born today, the Sentencing Project estimates that one in 
every three will end up incarcerated in their lifetime without an 
appropriate intervention. These children are on what the Children's 
Defense Fund has described as a ``cradle-to-prison pipeline.''
  Despite all of our concentration on being tough on crime, the problem 
persists and reports suggest that it is growing in some jurisdictions. 
While nothing in the Youth PROMISE Act eliminates any of the current 
tough on crime laws, and while it is understood that law enforcement 
will still continue to enforce those laws, research and analysis, as 
well as common sense, tells us that no matter how tough we are on the 
people we prosecute today, unless we are addressing the underlying 
reasons for their developing into serious criminals, nothing will 
change. The next wave of offenders will simply replace the ones we take 
out and the crimes continue. So, just continuing to be ``tough'' will 
have little long term impact on crime.
  There is now overwhelming evidence to show that it is entirely 
feasible to move children from a cradle to prison pipeline to a cradle 
to college, or jobs, pipeline. All the credible research and evidence 
shows that a continuum of evidenced-based prevention and intervention 
programs for youth identified as being at risk of involvement in 
delinquent behavior, and those already involved, will greatly reduce 
crime and save much more than they cost when compared to the avoided 
law enforcement and social welfare expenditures. There are programs for 
teen pregnancy prevention, pre-natal care, new parent training, nurse 
home visits, Head Start, quality education, after-school programs, 
Summer recreation and jobs, guaranteed college scholarships, and job-
training that have been scientifically proven to cost-effectively 
reduce crime. And the research reveals that these programs are most 
effective when provided in the context of a coordinated, collaborative 
local strategy involving law enforcement, social services and other 
local public and private entities working with children identified as 
at risk of involvement in the criminal justice system. This is what the 
Youth PROMISE Act provides for.
  Aside from reducing crime and providing better results in the lives 
of our youth, many of these programs funded under the Youth PROMISE Act 
will save more money than they cost. The state of Pennsylvania 
implemented in 100 communities across the state a process very similar 
to the one provided for in the Youth PROMISE Act. The state found that 
it saved, on average, $5 for every $1 spent during the study period.
  The bill is supported by 69 original co-sponsors. A coalition of over 
200 national, state and local organizations, listed below, supported 
the Youth PROMISE Act last Congress, and we expect that list to 
continue to grow this Congress. We know how to reduce crime and we know 
that we can do it in a way that saves much more money that it costs. 
Our children, victims of crime, taxpayers and our economy can no longer 
afford for us to delay adoption of the Youth PROMISE Act. So, I ask my 
colleagues to join me in passing and this bill and seeing to it that it 
is quickly enacted into law.

             Organizations Supporting the Youth PROMISE Act


                         National Organizations

       Alliance for Children and Families
       American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
       American Correctional Association
       American Council of Chief Defenders
       American Federation of School Administrators, AFL-CIO
       American Federation of Teachers (AFT)
       American Jewish Congress
       American Psychological Association
       Asian American Justice Center
       ASPIRA, Inc.
       Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law
       Campaign for Youth Justice
       Catholic Charities USA
       Center for Children's Law and Policy
       Child Welfare League of America
       Children's Defense Fund
       Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants (CURE), 
     International
       Coalition for Juvenile Justice
       Coalition on Human Needs
       Correctional Education Association
       Council for Educators of At-Risk and Delinquent Youth
       Council for Opportunity in Education
       Council of Juvenile Correctional Administrators (CJCA)
       Covenant House International Headquarters
       Federal CURE
       Fight Crime: Invest in Kids
       Girls Inc.
       Human Rights Watch
       Immigrant Justice Network
       Institute for Community Peace
       International Community Corrections Association
       Justice Policy Institute
       Juvenile Justice Trainers Association
       Legal Action Center
       Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service
       Mennonite Central Committee Washington Office
       Mental Health America
       Mexican American Legal Defense & Educational Fund (MALDEF)
       National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good 
     Shepherd
       National African-American Drug Policy Coalition, Inc.
       National Alliance to End Homelessness
       National Alliance for Faith and Justice
       National Association for the Advancement of Colored People 
     (NAACP)
       National Association of Blacks in Criminal Justice
       National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
       National Association of Juvenile Correctional Agencies
       National Association of Secondary School Principals
       National Black Caucus of Local Elected Officials (NBC-LEO)
       National Black Police Association
       National Center for Youth Law
       National Consortium of TASC (Treatment Accountability for 
     Safer Communities) Programs
       National Council for Community Behavioral Health
       National Council of La Raza
       National Council on Crime and Delinquency
       National Council on Educating Black Children
       National Council for Urban (Gang) Peace, Justice and 
     Empowerment
       National Education Association
       National Federation of Families for Children's Mental 
     Health
       National Head Start Association
       National Hire Network
       National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild
       National Juvenile Defender Center
       National Juvenile Detention Association
       National Juvenile Justice Network
       National Network for Youth
       National Organization of Concerned Black Men, Inc.
       National Partnership for Juvenile Services
       National Parent Teacher Association (PTA)
       National Trust for the Development of African-American Men
       National Urban League
       National Women's Law Center
       Penal Reform International
       Presbyterian Church (USA), Washington Office
       Prison Legal News
       Prisons Foundation
       Southeast Asia Resource Action Center
       Southern Poverty Law Center
       The Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, Public Policy 
     Section
       The Rebecca Project for Human Rights
       The School Social Work Association of America
       The Sentencing Project
       Therapeutic Communities of America (TCA)
       Time Dollar Youth Court
       TimeBanks USA
       Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations

[[Page E287]]

       United Church of Christ, Justice and Witness Ministries
       United Methodist Church, General Board of Church and 
     Society
       United Neighborhood Centers of America
       VOICES for America's Children
       W. Haywood Burns Institute
       Washington Office on Latin America
       World Vision
       Youth Law Center
       Youth Matter America


                          State Organizations

       ACLU of Illinois (IL)
       ACLU of North Carolina (NC)
       ACLU of Ohio (OH)
       Action for Children North Carolina (NC)
       Advocates for Children and Youth (MD)
       Alabama Youth Justice Coalition
       Alston Wilkes Society (SC)
       Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Office of Restorative Justice 
     (CA)
       Asian Law Caucus (CA)
       ATTIC Correctional Services, Inc. (WI)
       Barrios Unidos--Santa Cruz Chapter (CA)
       Barrios Unidos--Virginia Chapter (VA)
       CASA of Maryland, Inc. (MD)
       Center for Community Alternatives (NY)
       Central American Legal Assistance (NY)
       Chicago Area Project (IL)
       Children's Action Alliance (AZ)
       Children's Campaign, Inc. (FL)
       Citizens for Juvenile Justice (MA)
       Columbia Heights Shaw Family Collaborative (DC)
       Connecticut Juvenile Justice Alliance (CT)
       Contra Costa County Public Defender's Office (CA)
       Correctional Association of New York (NY)
       Council for Children's Rights (NC)
       DC Alliance of Youth Advocates (DC)
       DC NAACP Youth Council (DC)
       Delaware Center for Justice (DE)
       Equal Justice Initiative (AL)
       Facilitating Leadership in Youth (FLY) (DC)
       Faith Communities for Families and Children (CA)
       Families & Allies of Virginia's Youth (VA)
       Families & Friends of La.'s Incarcerated Children (LA)
       Families Moving Forward (CT)
       Florida Public Defender Association, Inc. (FL)
       Florida Public Defender, Fourth Judicial Circuit (FL)
       Florida Families for Fair Sentences (FL)
       Franklin County Public Defender (OH)
       Fusion Partnerships, Inc. (MD)
       Hispanic Urban Minority Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Outreach 
     Program (OH)
       Homies Unidos (CA)
       H.O.P.E., Inc (KS)
       Identity, Inc. (MD)
       John Howard Association of Illinois (IL)
       JustChildren (VA)
       Justice for DC Youth (DC)
       Juvenile Justice Center of Suffolk University Law School 
     (NY)
       Juvenile Justice Coalition (OH)
       Juvenile Justice Initiative of Illinois (IL)
       Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana (LA)
       Kansas CURE (KS)
       L.A. Youth Justice Coalition (CA)
       Latin American Youth Center (DC)
       Leaders in Community Alternatives, Inc. (CA)
       Life Pieces to Masterpieces, Inc. (DC)
       Law Office of Anthony J. Keber (MA)
       Maryland Juvenile Justice Coalition (MD)
       Maryland Office of the Public Defender (MD)
       Mental Health Association in Pennsylvania (PA)
       Michigan Council on Crime and Delinquency (MI)
       Mid-Atlantic Juvenile Defender Center, Juvenile Law and 
     Policy Clinic, University of Richmond School of Law (VA)
       Midwest Juvenile Defender Center (IL)
       Minnesota Juvenile Justice Coalition (MN)
       Mississippi CURE (MS)
       Mississippi Youth Justice Project (MS)
       New Hampshire Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NH)
       New Jersey Association on Correction (NJ)
       New Mexico Council on Crime and Delinquency (NM)
       New Mexico Criminal Defense Lawyers Association (NM)
       Pacific Juvenile Defender Center (CA)
       Parents Who Care Coalition (SD)
       Parents, Youth, Children and Family Training Institute (AL)
       Partnership for Safety and Justice (OR)
       Puerto Rico Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (PR)
       Public Justice Center (MD)
       PTA of Illinois (IL)
       Southern Juvenile Defender Center (AL)
       Texas Criminal Justice Coalition (TX)
       The Fortune Society (NY)
       The Law Offices of Public Defender Bennett H. Brummer 
     (Miami-Dade Public Defender's Office) (FL)
       The Pendulum Foundation (CO)
       The Poor People's Alliance, Connecticut Chapter (CT)
       The S.T.O.P. Family Investment Center at Oakmont North (VA)
       Southern Poverty Law Center (AL)
       Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth (TN)
       UNC Juvenile Justice Clinic, University of North Carolina 
     at Chapel Hill School of Law (NC)
       United Church of Christ, Justice and Witness Ministries 
     (OH)
       Virginia Coalition for Juvenile Justice (VA)
       Virginia Commonwealth University School of Education (VA)
       Virginia Commonwealth University Center for School-
     Community Collaboration (VA) Virginia C.U.R.E. (VA)
       VOICES for Alabama's Children (AL)
       VOICES for Children in Nebraska (NE)
       VOICES for Ohio's Children (OH)
       Washington Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (WA)
       Washington Defender Association (WA)
       Washington Defender Association's Immigration Project (WA)
       Youth Advocate Programs, Inc. (PA)
       Youth Advocacy Project of the Committee for Public Counsel 
     Services (MA)
       Young America Works Public Charter School (DC)


                    Elected Officials and Academics

       Donna M. Bishop, Northeastern University (MA)
       Susan J. Carstens, Psy.D., L.P. Juvenile Specialist, 
     Crystal Police Dept. (MN)
       The Honorable Toni Harp, Connecticut State Senator
       The Honorable Alice L. Bordsen, North Carolina State 
     Representatives
       Jolanta Juszkiewicz, Ph.D., American University (D.C.)
       The Honorable Kelvin Roldan, Connecticut State 
     Representative
       Tony Roshan Samara, George Mason University (VA)
       Earle Williams, Psy.D. Hampton University, (VA)
       Aaron Kupchik, Ph.D., University of Delaware

                          ____________________