[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 108 (Tuesday, June 22, 2021)]
[House]
[Pages H2958-H2961]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
JUSTICE FOR JUVENILES ACT
Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the
bill (H.R. 961) to exempt juveniles from the requirements for suits by
prisoners, and for other purposes, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 961
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 ``Justice for Juveniles Act''.
SEC. 2. EXEMPTION OF JUVENILES FROM THE REQUIREMENTS FOR
SUITS BY PRISONERS.
Section 7 of the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons
Act (42 U.S.C. 1997e) is amended--
(1) in subsection (h), by striking ``sentenced for, or
adjudicated delinquent for,'' and inserting ``or sentenced
for''; and
[[Page H2959]]
(2) by adding at the end the following:
``(i) Exemption of Juvenile Prisoners.--This section shall
not apply to an action pending on the date of enactment of
the Justice for Juveniles Act or filed on or after such date
if such action is--
``(1) brought by a prisoner who has not attained 22 years
of age; or
``(2) brought by any prisoner with respect to a prison
condition that occurred before the prisoner attained 22 years
of age.''.
SEC. 3. DETERMINATION OF BUDGETARY EFFECTS.
The budgetary effects of this Act, for the purpose of
complying with the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010, shall
be determined by reference to the latest statement titled
``Budgetary Effects of PAYGO Legislation'' for this Act,
submitted for printing in the Congressional Record by the
Chairman of the House Budget Committee, provided that such
statement has been submitted prior to the vote on passage.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from New
York (Mr. Nadler) and the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Bishop)
each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New York.
General Leave
Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include
extraneous material on H.R. 961.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from New York?
There was no objection.
Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 961, the Justice for
Juveniles Act.
This bipartisan bill would eliminate the administrative exhaustion
requirement for incarcerated youth before they may file a lawsuit
challenging the conditions of their incarceration.
By passing this bill today, the House would correct the manifest
wrong currently present in Federal law and would continue bipartisan
efforts to support incarcerated youth.
This bill recognizes the same conclusion that has been embraced by
the Supreme Court and experts for decades, that incarcerated young
people have different cognitive abilities than adults, are less mature,
and have a higher chance of being assaulted while incarcerated.
In recent years, our Nation has finally come to the realization that
youth and adults have fundamentally different decisionmaking abilities.
The Supreme Court has repeatedly cited adolescents' lack of maturity as
a reason why they are not as culpable as adults for their actions or
able to recognize certain dangers.
Yet, in current law, there are no allowances for these differences in
cognitive abilities when it comes to addressing deficiencies in
conditions of confinement.
Complying with current law, which requires an understanding of
detailed grievance procedures and timelines, is nearly impossible for
most incarcerated youth. Compliance with grievance procedures not only
requires an understanding of the grievance process but, on a more basic
level, it requires that an incarcerated person be able to read, which,
sadly, many incarcerated people cannot do.
According to one study, among incarcerated youth, 85 percent are
functionally illiterate, and the baseline reading levels vary from
grade one to grade six. In addition, approximately 70 percent of
incarcerated juveniles have at least one learning disability.
Youth are, furthermore, less likely than adults to recognize as risks
the circumstances they face in a correctional facility. Youth may not
recognize the impending or imminent danger of some of the risks they
face.
Compounding these challenges, incarcerated youth, as a group,
experience extraordinarily high rates of mental illness. Nearly 50
percent of incarcerated 16- to 18-year-olds suffer from a mental
illness. Juveniles housed with adults are 10 times more likely to have
psychotic episodes, and they have a suicide rate that is 7.7 times
higher than those housed in juvenile facilities.
In recent years, the public has become more aware of the many dangers
that lurk in correctional facilities. Hurricanes have flooded
facilities; cold snaps have left prisoners freezing to death; and heat
waves have killed prisoners when they lacked proper ventilation or air
conditions. These conditions pose a special danger to youth, who do not
have the ability or experience to recognize that they are in immediate
danger.
While natural disasters can pose an extraordinary risk to youth,
prison life itself may also pose life-threatening dangers. Adolescents
incarcerated with adults are also more prone to both physical and
mental abuse. Youth are 50 percent more likely to be physically
assaulted when they are housed in adult facilities than in juvenile
facilities.
Taken together, most incarcerated youth are simply not able to
recognize or to effectively communicate when their prison conditions
become dangerous or unconstitutionally deficient.
There remains little doubt that the current process needs to be
changed.
This bill proposes a modest reform to the Prison Litigation Reform
Act. It simply exempts youth in correctional facilities from having to
comply with technical grievance procedures before they can go to court
to challenge the unconstitutional conditions of their confinement.
While I would like to see us do much more to protect incarcerated
youth, this bill is a necessary first step.
I thank Ms. Scanlon and Mr. Armstrong for introducing this bipartisan
legislation, and I urge all Members to support it.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. BISHOP of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time
as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 961, the Justice for Juveniles
Act. This bill eliminates some of the administrative hurdles for
juvenile prisoners seeking relief in Federal court.
Juvenile offenders often lack the knowledge to pursue and exhaust all
the complex administrative rules and grievance procedures in
correctional facilities. H.R. 961 will address that problem by
providing juvenile offenders with quicker access to courts when they
feel they are being abused or mistreated.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this bill,
and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentlewoman from
Pennsylvania (Ms. Scanlon).
Ms. SCANLON. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to be here today to advance the
Justice for Juveniles Act. I thank Chairman Nadler, Leader Hoyer, and
my colleague, Congressman Armstrong, for their support and
partnership on this effort.
The Prison Litigation Reform Act, or PLRA, was passed in 1996 in an
effort to decrease so-called frivolous lawsuits brought by prisoners.
Chief among the PLRA's mandates was a requirement that before seeking
relief for civil rights violations in court, a detained person must
exhaust administrative remedies.
Whatever the merits of that underlying legislation, we now have broad
bipartisan agreement that the language is overbroad in its application
to juveniles.
Studies have consistently shown that juveniles are both more likely
to be abused while in detention and less likely to navigate the
administrative remedies that bar them from seeking relief.
For those of us who have kids or who have worked with children, it is
easy to imagine the difficulty a young person in detention might have
navigating complex legal systems necessary to raise a complaint.
Young people in the criminal or juvenile justice system are more
likely than not to be functionally illiterate, and science has shown
that the brain is not fully developed until a person is in their mid-
twenties. It is one of the many reasons our justice system makes a
distinction between juvenile and adult offenses.
That is what we hope to acknowledge with the Justice for Juveniles
Act by exempting juveniles from the requirements of the PLRA.
In addition, the PLRA also limits the kind of relief that juveniles
might seek for civil rights violations while in detention. They cannot
seek relief now for emotional injuries without physical ones as well,
but studies show that youth are especially prone to psychological
injury and abuse, which they often face in detention.
Finally, the PLRA limits the recovery of attorney's fees in such
cases. Again, juveniles are less likely to have
[[Page H2960]]
independent resources to fund an attorney, so that makes it harder for
young people to find an attorney to vindicate their rights.
To those who might question whether we need to correct the PLRA, I
offer the story of the Glen Mills Schools, which inspired this bill.
For almost 200 years, youth from across the United States were sent
to Glen Mills when they ran afoul of the law. But the school's bucolic
campus and renowned athletic teams masked serious daily violence
inflicted upon children placed there.
An explosive 2019 report by The Philadelphia Inquirer revealed years
of sexual, physical, and psychological abuse of the young residents,
including broken bones, threats of retaliation, and sustained physical
assaults at the hands of staff members. Although the stories from Glen
Mills are heartbreaking, they are not unique.
{time} 1615
Reports show that mistreatment of young people in juvenile facilities
happens all the time across the country.
Just this past March, despite the recent example of Glen Mills,
children were removed from yet another juvenile detention facility,
just a few miles away, after horrifying new allegations of abuse.
This commonsense, bipartisan legislation passed unanimously on the
House floor last Congress and has the support of over 60 organizations.
I, again, thank Chairman Nadler and the committee members and staff
who helped advance this bill, and I thank the dedicated leadership team
who brought the bill to the floor.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this important
legislation again.
Mr. BISHOP of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of
my time.
Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished
gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the manager and the chairman of
the full committee, Committee on the Judiciary, and to the manager for
our friends on the other side of the aisle.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 961, the Justice for
Juveniles Act.
This is very close to my heart as the chair of the Judiciary
Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security working on
these juvenile justice issues. And this is a necessary and important
bipartisan bill that will save incarcerated young persons' lives.
As indicated, chairing the subcommittee, we recently held a hearing
titled, ``Juvenile Justice Pipeline and the Road Back to Integration.''
I thank the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania (Ms. Scanlon) for this very
effective and important initiative.
During the hearing, we heard testimony from witness after witness who
acknowledged the body of scientific research that has been embraced by
experts and the Supreme Court--and that I have known and seen over the
years as we have written legislation--demonstrating that juveniles do
not have the same cognitive and emotional maturity as adults.
In fact, there is data that says that the brain does not fully mature
until age 25. This bill makes a good change to the Prison Litigation
Reform Act to take into account that the overwhelming majority of
juveniles cannot comply with the law's complex grievance procedures by
themselves. This bill is an important bipartisan step to ensuring
incarcerated juveniles are rehabilitated and given the best chance
possible to reintegrate into society.
Just some statistics that I saw recently when I received a note about
a graduation of foster children from high school, saying about 60
percent of those children not having a complete opportunity in life did
not graduate from high school. And so these children wind up in these
facilities. They should not; they should have a life. And therefore, we
should be able--not associating foster care children with those
incarcerated--but we do know the susceptibility to these children and
others who don't have a steady hand in their life. So this is an
important step.
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague on the Subcommittee on Crime,
Terrorism, and Homeland Security, Representative Mary Gay Scanlon, for
authoring this bill.
As I worked on this legislation, it is important to note that to deal
with a grievance system, it requires an understanding of the grievance
process. But on a more basic level, it requires that an incarcerated
person be able to read.
According to one study, we know that incarcerated youth are
functionally illiterate in many instances, and the baseline reading
levels vary from grade 1 to 6. That is a plague, if you will, on
children in our society that can have a bright and wonderful life.
In addition, approximately 70 percent of incarcerated juveniles have
at least one learning disability. And we know that because of what
happens in schools in the recently changed State laws where juveniles
have been sent from the schoolhouse to juvenile detention.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentlewoman has expired.
Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the
gentlewoman from Texas.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, this alone justifies the changes in the
bill, which simply allow incarcerated juveniles to go directly to court
to have serious deficiencies in their incarceration, including
allegations of assault, corrected.
As I said, I thank my colleague, Representative Mary Gay Scanlon. As
I work on legislation to achieve more extensive juvenile justice
reform, I support the passage of this bill--commonsense, overdue--and
ask that my colleagues support this as well.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 961, the ``Justice for
Juveniles Act.'' This is a necessary and important bipartisan bill that
will save incarcerated young people's lives.
The Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security Subcommittee, which I
chair, recently held a hearing titled the ``Juvenile Justice Pipeline
and the Road Back to Integration.''
During the hearing, we heard testimony from witness after witness who
acknowledged the body of scientific research, that has been embraced by
experts and the Supreme Court, demonstrating that juveniles do not have
the same cognitive and emotional maturity as adults.
This bill makes a modest change to the Prison Litigation Reform Act
to take into account that the overwhelming majority of juveniles cannot
comply with the law's complex grievance procedures.
These requirements not only require an understanding of the grievance
process, but on a more basic level, require that an incarcerated person
be able to read. According to one study, among incarcerated youth, 85
percent are functionally illiterate, and the ``baseline reading levels
var[y] from grade 1 to grade 6.''
In addition, approximately 70 percent of incarcerated juveniles have
at least one learning disability.
This alone justifies the changes in the bill, which simply allow
incarcerated juveniles to go directly to court to have serious
deficiencies in their incarceration, including allegations of assault,
corrected.
This bill is a small but important bipartisan step to ensuring
incarcerated juveniles are rehabilitated and given the best chance
possible to reintegrate into society.
I thank my colleague on the Crime Subcommittee, Representative Mary
Gay Scanlon, for authoring this bill.
As I work on legislation to achieve more extensive juvenile justice
reform, I support passage of this bill today and ask that my colleagues
do the same.
Mr. BISHOP of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time
as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I take a moment to note my agreement with the
gentlewoman from Texas' point, that the cognition of juveniles is not
fully developed and that they should not be called upon to make
unalterable, lifelong decisions under those circumstances.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished
gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Cicilline).
Mr. CICILLINE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, our prison systems are ideally meant to rehabilitate,
but all too often, they do exactly the opposite. They are frequently
home to widespread, horrible abuse, including physical and sexual
violence and unsanitary living conditions.
It is unacceptable to subject any person to such conditions--but,
particularly, our youth to this kind of mistreatment. Our system makes
it incredibly difficult for young people to
[[Page H2961]]
file a legal complaint with huge burdens imposed if they want to file a
lawsuit, and major barriers to legal representation.
Mr. Speaker, I was a public defender here in Washington, D.C., at the
start of my career, and I am certain that this is no way to treat
children that we are trying to rehabilitate and prepare for society and
prepare for success in their communities.
These circumstances only make it more difficult for young people and
children and, in fact, they keep them in abusive and delinquency
cycles.
This legislation, however, will remove some of those barriers for
incarcerated juveniles to take their abusers to court and to seek
remedies for mistreatment by their correctional institutions. This bill
will take us one step closer to desperately needed reform in our
criminal justice system and will help to protect our incarcerated
youth.
Mr. Speaker, I really thank and applaud Congresswoman Scanlon for
this important and bipartisan legislation, and it is my honor to
support it today.
Mr. BISHOP of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of
my time.
Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I reserve
the balance of my time.
Mr. BISHOP of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to
support this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I join the gentleman in urging Members to
support this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from New York (Mr. Nadler) that the House suspend the rules
and pass the bill, H.R. 961, as amended.
The question was taken.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
MR. ROSENDALE. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to section 3(s) of House Resolution
8, the yeas and nays are ordered.
Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further proceedings on this motion
are postponed.
____________________