[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 177 (Wednesday, November 16, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Page S6744]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





                         SUBMITTED RESOLUTIONS

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   SENATE RESOLUTION 835--EXPRESSING SUPPORT FOR THE DESIGNATION OF 
        OCTOBER 2022 AS ``NATIONAL YOUTH JUSTICE ACTION MONTH''

  Mr. WHITEHOUSE (for himself and Ms. Warren) submitted the following 
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary:

                              S. Res. 835

       Whereas the historical role of the juvenile court system is 
     to rehabilitate and treat young people while holding them 
     accountable and maintaining public safety, and the juvenile 
     court system is therefore better equipped to work with youth 
     than the adult criminal justice system, which is punitive in 
     nature;
       Whereas youth are developmentally different from adults, 
     and those differences have been--
       (1) documented by research on the adolescent brain; and
       (2) acknowledged by the Supreme Court of the United States, 
     State supreme courts, and many State and Federal laws that 
     prohibit youth under the age of 18 from taking on major adult 
     responsibilities such as voting, jury duty, and military 
     service;
       Whereas youth who are placed under the commitment of the 
     juvenile court system often do not receive access to age-
     appropriate services and education and remain far from their 
     families, which increases the likelihood that those youth 
     will commit offenses in the future;
       Whereas, every year in the United States, an estimated 
     53,000 youths are tried, sentenced, or incarcerated as 
     adults, and most of those youth are prosecuted for nonviolent 
     offenses;
       Whereas most laws allowing the prosecution of youth as 
     adults were enacted before the publication of research-based 
     evidence by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 
     and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention 
     of the Department of Justice demonstrating that prosecuting 
     youth in adult court actually decreases public safety as, on 
     average, youth prosecuted in adult court are 34 percent more 
     likely to commit future crimes than youth retained in the 
     juvenile court system;
       Whereas youth of color, youth with disabilities, and youth 
     with mental health issues are disproportionately represented 
     at all stages of the criminal justice system;
       Whereas confining youth in adult jails or prisons, where 
     youth are significantly more likely to be physically and 
     sexually assaulted and are often placed in solitary 
     confinement, is harmful to public safety and to young people 
     in the legal system;
       Whereas youth sentenced as adults receive an adult criminal 
     record that hinders future education and employment 
     opportunities;
       Whereas youth who receive extremely long sentences deserve 
     an opportunity to demonstrate their potential to grow and 
     change; and
       Whereas, in October, people around the United States 
     participate in Youth Justice Action Month to--
       (1) increase public awareness of the need to protect the 
     constitutional rights of youth, establish a minimum age for 
     arresting children;
       (2) remove youth from adult courts and prisons;
       (3) end the practice of sentencing children to life 
     imprisonment without parole and consecutive or lengthy 
     sentences that amount to de facto life imprisonment without 
     parole; and
       (4) provide people across the United States with an 
     opportunity to develop action-oriented events in their 
     communities: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) acknowledges that the collateral consequences normally 
     applied in the adult criminal justice system should not 
     automatically apply to youth arrested for crimes before the 
     age of 18;
       (2) expresses support for the designation of ``National 
     Youth Justice Action Month'';
       (3) recognizes and supports the goals and ideals of 
     National Youth Justice Action Month; and
       (4) recognizes the importance of and encourages the Office 
     of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention to fully 
     implement the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act 
     of 1974 (34 U.S.C. 11101 et seq.), as amended by the Juvenile 
     Justice Reform Act of 2018 (Public Law 115-385; 132 Stat. 
     5123), in a manner in keeping with the spirit and intent of 
     the law.

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