Justice for Juveniles Act
Floor Speech
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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
(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.
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Mr. NADLER. 961.
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. BISHOP of North Carolina.
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.
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Mr. NADLER. Scanlon).
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Mr. NADLER. 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.
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 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.
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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.
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Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I join the gentleman in urging Members to support this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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