[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 4]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 5045-5046]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 INTRODUCTION OF H.R. 1150, THE JUVENILE CRIME CONTROL AND DELINQUENCY 
                             PREVENTION ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. MICHAEL N. CASTLE

                              of delaware

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 18, 1999

  Mr. CASTLE. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to join with my colleague from 
Pennsylvania, Mr. Greenwood, to introduce H.R. 1150, the Juvenile Crime 
Control and Delinquency Prevention Act. It is essential that Congress 
join together to fight and reduce the rising rates of crime, 
particularly violent crime among children.
  Our children are our most important resource. They are our future 
teachers, doctors, lawyers, engineers, and parents. We need to make 
sure that we do everything in our power to keep them safe from harm and 
prevent them from becoming involved in at-risk activities, such as 
drugs, alcohol abuse, and crime. In 1996 alone, there were over 100,000 
arrests of children and youth under the age of 18 for violent crimes. 
Over 1,000 of those crimes were committed by those under the

[[Page 5046]]

age of 10 and 6,500 were committed by youths between the ages of 10 and 
12. In my home state of Delaware, one out of every five persons 
arrested in 1996 was a juvenile.
  The key to lowering these statistics and stopping juvenile crime in 
its tracks is prevention and that is what we do in the Juvenile Crime 
Control and Delinquency Prevention Act. This bill acknowledges that 
most successful solutions to juvenile crime are developed at the state 
and local levels by people who understand the unique characteristics of 
youth in their particular area. H.R. 1150 goes a long way toward 
providing states and local providers with more flexibility in 
addressing juvenile crime by reducing burdensome state requirements and 
streamlining current law. Funds in H.R. 1150 can be used for prevention 
activities, including for hiring probation officers to monitor youth to 
ensure they abide by the terms of their probation. The bill also 
acknowledges that interventions and prevention activities such as 
educational assistance, job training employment services are effective 
tools in reducing and preventing juvenile crime. Also included in this 
bill is the Runaway Homeless Youth Act, which targets prevention as the 
best means to combat juvenile violent crime. H.R. 1150 authorizes 
programs to keep youth off the streets and away from criminal activity, 
so they will never even have the opportunity to become involved in 
violent crime. The Juvenile Crime Control and Delinquency Prevention 
Act provides the missing link in our efforts to combat juvenile crime.
  Identical legislation to H.R. 1150 passed the House of 
Representatives by a vote of 413 to 14 last year. This widely supported 
legislation can go a long way in providing kids support when they are 
most in need.

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