Passage of H.R. the Juvenile Justice Reform Act of 2018

Floor Speech

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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 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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