[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 198 (Monday, December 17, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1680-E1681]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     PASSAGE OF H.R. 6964, THE JUVENILE JUSTICE REFORM ACT OF 2018

                                 ______
                                 

                     HON. ROBERT C. ``BOBBY'' SCOTT

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, December 17, 2018

  Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, today is a great day for our 
nation's youth and their communities. I would like to take a moment and 
reflect on the passage of H.R. 6964 as amended by the Senate, the 
Juvenile Justice Reform Act of 2018, a comprehensive reauthorization of 
the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974 (JJDPA), 
which is now headed to the President's desk for his signature.
  Last authorized in 2002, JJDPA sets the federal guardrails that 
protect children in the custody of our state juvenile justice systems. 
JJDPA contains four core protections for youth in state juvenile 
justice systems:
  Jail Removal: Children in the system cannot be housed in the same 
facility as adult offenders, except under limited circumstances.
  Sight and Sound Separation: In the limited circumstances that 
children are housed in the same facility as adult offenders, they must 
have sight and sound separation.
  Deinstitutionalization of Status Offenders (DSO): Children who have 
committed status offenses--infractions based solely on their age (e.g., 
underage drinking, truancy--cannot be placed in secure detention, 
except under limited circumstances.
  Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC): State systems must 
detertmine if their system has disproportionate contact with minority 
offenders.
  These protections were created and refined over time through 
Congressional reauthorizations that built upon the evidence-based best 
practices of states. I'm proud to say that H.R. 6964 makes strides to 
improve each of the four core protections. The bill improves the `Jail 
Removal' and `Sight and Sound Separation' core protections by 
simplifying the definition of contact and phasing in sight and sound 
separation for youth under the age of 18 being held pretrial in adult 
criminal court.
  It strengthens the DSO core protection by increasing the oversight 
required when a state uses one of the limited circumstances available 
in the law--the valid court order (VCO)--to detain a status offender. 
And the bill refines the DMC core protection to ensure that states must 
collect and report data on decision points in the juvenile justice 
system to identify where disparities occur. This is a contravention of 
harmful proposals offered by the current Administrator of the federal 
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP).
  While enactment of H.R. 6964 is a good first step, I join my House 
Republican colleagues who championed this bill in expressing regret 
that the legislation in its final form does not go far enough to 
improve the core protections. Specifically, I am disappointed that H.R. 
6964 does not eliminate the VCO exception to DSO.
  The VCO exception was added to JJDPA in the 1980's after a push by 
juvenile court judges. It is used by judges to detain repeat status 
offenders and juveniles who fail to appear in court. But the research 
suggests that the VCO exception has not been effective as a means of 
reducing juvenile delinquency and

[[Page E1681]]

has been responsible, in part, for the explosive growth of young girls 
in the juvenile justice system. The use of the VCO exception has been 
phased out in about half of the states, and the National Council of 
Juvenile and Family Court Judges, who once advocated for its inclusion, 
have strongly lobbied for its removal.
  Both bipatiisan versions of this legislation previously passed by the 
full House would have required states to phase-out use of the VCO by 
September 30, 2020, with an allowance for states to apply for a 
hardship extension through OJJDP. Due to the objection of just one 
Senator, this provision could not receive unanimous consent in the 
Senate. Rather than stopping the other improvements in the bill from 
becoming law, this VCO phase-out was removed H.R. 6964. H.R. 6964, 
however, will provide additional safeguards for status offenders in 
locked facilities, including limits on how long status offenders may be 
detained. I urge Congress to eliminate the VCO exception once and for 
all in subsequent legislation.
  JJDPA is more than just a floor of federal protection--it also 
requires states to develop coordinated plans to serve juvenile 
offenders and prevent children from ever becoming involved in 
delinquent activity. H.R. 6964 requires, for the first time, state 
juvenile justice plans to consider the latest scientific research on 
adolescent development and behavior, recognizing the importance of 
prevention and early intervention in juvenile crime policy. Congress 
should not have to mandate consideration of evidence and research, but 
slogans and soundbites have unfortunately dictated our nation's 
approach to crime policy--even juvenile crime. These slogans and 
soundbites often do nothing to decrease crime. In fact, when studied, 
many been shown to actually increase crime.
  H.R. 6964 also encourages states to consider promising practices: 
Programming to ensure youth access to public defenders with juvenile 
court experience; the use of `problem-solving courts' as an alternative 
to probation and confinement; efforts to inform and aid juveniles in 
the process of sealing and expunging their juvenile record; and 
programming to address the needs of girls in or at risk of entering the 
system when developing state plans.
  And finally, the bill retools and retitles Title V of JJDPA, the 
Local Delinquency Prevention Grant program, as the Youth Promise 
Incentive Grants for Local Delinquency Prevention Program. Title V will 
now support communities in the planning and implementation of evidence-
based prevention and intervention programs specifically designed to 
reduce juvenile and delinquency and gang involvement. Grant recipients 
would be required to analyze the unmet delinquency prevention needs of 
youth in the community, then develop and implement a comprehensive 
strategy to address those unmet needs with an emphasis on program 
coordination.
  Research shows that a community-wide, coordinated approach to 
delinquency prevention that utilizes a continuum of services can 
actually save the community money and improve efficiencies. I'd like to 
especially thank my colleagues for working with me on the Title V 
provisions, which are modeled after a bill I've been working on for 
nearly ten years--The Youth P.R.O.M.I.S.E. Act. I am confident that, if 
implemented correctly, this incentive grant program will vastly improve 
the lives of--and long-term economic opportunity for--at-risk youth 
across the country. I look forward to working with OJJDP as it 
implements this new title.
  H.R. 6964 also includes a two-year reauthorization of the Runaway and 
Homeless Youth Act (RHYA). RHYA was originally passed as part of JJDPA 
because this Congress recognized the importance of alternatives to 
detention for youth who were not delinquent but had run away from home 
or foster care.
  While originally passed as a part of JJDPA in 1974, RHYA and JJDPA 
have always been administered separately, and they have been 
reauthorized separately since 1988. Like JJDPA, RHYA is long overdue 
for reauthorization, as it was last reauthorized in 2008. This 
temporary reauthorization of RHYA demonstrates our commitment to its 
programs, particularly considering last year's groundbreaking research 
showing that homelessness was experienced by at least 700,000 
unaccompanied minors age 14 to 17 and 3.2 million young adults age 18 
to 24 in any given year.
  I want to note that this two-year reauthorization does not serve as a 
substitute for a full examination of evidence-based best practices for 
service-delivery impacting runaway and homeless youth. We still need to 
pass a comprehensive RHYA reauthorization that makes needed 
programmatic updates and ensures authorization for appropriate funding 
levels.
  I look forward to working with the Gentlewoman from North Carolina, 
Dr. Foxx and my colleagues in this chamber who have long advocated for 
a full reauthorization of RHYA, as well as advocates for runaway and 
homeless youth providers, to move a full reauthorization of RHYA in the 
next Congress.
  Prevention efforts, especially those targeted at our nation's youth, 
are our most effective way of reducing crime over time. We can choose 
to be as strict or as lenient as we want on adult criminal offenders, 
but if we are not focusing our efforts on changing the trajectory of 
delinquent youth, we have little chance of reducing crime in the 
future. It is my sincere hope that H.R. 6964 will help to change the 
trajectory of many young people and get them on the track to succeeding 
in school and life, which will strengthen communities across the 
country.
  In closing, I'd like to thank Chairwoman Foxx and Representative 
Lewis of Minnesota and their staffs for their steadfast work over 
multiple Congresses to successfully advance JJDPA reauthorization 
through both chambers and to the President's desk. I'd also like to 
thank my hardworking committee and personal office staff past and 
present, specifically Christian Haines, Bobby Vassar, Erin Davies, 
Rashage Green, Carol Chodroff, Evan Chapman, David Dailey, Veronique 
Pluviose, Ilana Bruner, and Jacque Chevalier Mosely for their tireless 
work on both the Youth P.R.O.M.I.S.E. Act and comprehensive JJDPA 
reauthorization.

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