JJDPA Reauthorization
The Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act is the single most important piece of federal legislation affecting youth in juvenile justice systems across the country. It is the primary vehicle through which the federal government sets standards for state and local juvenile justice systems, and provides direct funding for states, research, training and technical assistance, and evaluation.Since the original enactment of the JJDPA in 1974, the periodic reauthorizations have been very contentious, as the Act's opponents have sought to weaken its protections for youth, reduce prevention resources, and encourage the transfer of youth to the adult criminal justice system. The Center for Children’s Law and Policy is working to ensure the passage of a reauthorized JJDPA that reflects current knowledge about best practices in juvenile justice.
The Current JJDPA
The JJDPA contains four “core protections” with which states must comply as a condition of receiving federal juvenile justice funding. The core protections do not apply to youth who are prosecuted in adult court.
- Deinstitutionalization of Status Offenders (DSO)
Status offenses are offenses that are only crimes if committed by children, such as skipping school, running away, breaking curfew, and possession or use of alcohol. Under the JJDPA, status offenders may not be held in secure detention or confinement. Instead, these children are to receive community-based services, such as day treatment or residential home treatment, counseling, mentoring, alternative education and job development support.
- Jail Removal
Juveniles may not be detained in adult jails except for limited ("de minimis") periods before release or transporting them to an appropriate juvenile placement (6 hours), in rural areas (24 hours plus weekends and holidays), or when weather and travel conditions prevent authorities from transporting them. Research indicates that children housed in adult jails are eight times as likely to commit suicide, five times as likely to be sexually assaulted, twice as likely to be assaulted by staff, and 50 percent more likely to be attacked with a weapon, than children in juvenile facilities.
- Sight and Sound Separation
When children are held in an adult jail under the exceptions listed above, they may not have any sight or sound contact with adult inmates. Thus, children cannot be housed with adult inmates or next to adult cells, share dining halls, recreation areas, or any other common spaces with adult inmates, or be placed in any circumstances in which they could have any visual or verbal contact with adult inmates. In reauthorizations of the JJDPA, some law enforcement officials have often sought to change this requirement to prohibit only “regular contact” (vs. occasional or sporadic contact) with adult inmates.
- Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC)
Under the DMC requirement, states must assess and address the disproportionate contact of youth of color at key decision points in the juvenile justice system. In the last reauthorization, the DMC requirement was broadened from disproportionate incarceration (confinement) of minority youth to disproportionate contact, i.e., disproportionate representation throughout the juvenile justice system. Unfortunately, the DMC requirement is vague and many states have done little to address the issue.
JJDPA Reauthorization
The Center for Children’s Law and Policy supports a strengthened JJDPA that ensures the effectiveness of the law’s four core protections by:
- Strengthening the deinstitutionalization of status offenders (DSO) core requirement.
Under current law, status offenders such as children who are truant or runaway, or who violate curfew, alcohol or tobacco laws, may be held in juvenile detention facilities under the Valid Court Order (VCO) exception, which allows judges to detain youth if they violate court orders (e.g., court orders not to truant). The practice is widespread and persists despite evidence that securely detaining status offenders is harmful to youth development and costly, especially compared to more effective responses such as shelter care, crisis counseling, family support, and/or community and school based interventions. CCLP supports eliminating the use of the VCO within three years, and allowing states to apply for additional one-year hardship extensions through the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP).
- Improving the Jail Removal and Sight and Sound core requirements.
Research shows youth confined in adult jails and lock-ups face increased recidivism and high risks of assault and suicide. CCLP supports extending the jail removal and sight and sound core requirements to keep youth awaiting trial in criminal court out of adult jails and lockups, with a three-year phase-in. This change would allow judges to keep youth in jails if they find, after a hearing and by written order, that such is “in the interests of justice,” but it would create a presumption that youth prosecuted in criminal court will not be held in adult jails and lockups.
- Allowing states to continue to place youth convicted in adult court in juvenile facilities without jeopardizing federal funding.
CCLP supports permitting states to allow youth convicted in adult court to serve their sentence in juvenile facilities until they reach the extended juvenile jurisdiction age. Under current law, states can be penalized by loss of funds for utilizing these more appropriate and humane placements for youth.
- Strengthening the Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC) core requirement.
CCLP supports requiring states and localities to develop oversight committees that guide DMC efforts, plan and implement data-driven approaches to ensure fairness and reduce racial and ethnic disparities, set measurable objectives for DMC reduction, and publicly report on progress.
CCLP supports a reauthorized JJDPA that also focuses on overall improvements to juvenile justice systems across the country by:
- Improving conditions of confinement in juvenile facilities.
To improve conditions of confinement, CCLP supports a reauthorized JJDPA that requires states to develop policies and procedures to eliminate the use of dangerous practices and the unreasonable use of restraints and isolation, particularly through the use of alternative behavior management techniques. CCLP also supports calling for the OJJDP Administrator to report annually on state data regarding the uses of isolation and restraints in juvenile detention and corrections facilities, and encouraging training of facility staff to eliminate dangerous practices.
- Providing comprehensive services and supports for youth.
CCLP supports a reauthorized JJDPA that promotes alternatives to detention, improves assessments and treatments for mental health and substance abuse, enhances child welfare and juvenile justice integration, supports effective assistance of counsel, and improves case management and transitional care for youth upon re-entry.
- Fact Sheet: Community-Based and Home-Based Alternatives to Incarceration [download full version] [download short version]
This fact sheet reviews the types of community-based and home-based alternatives to incarceration, their successes, and how the reauthorized JJDPA should encourage those placements.
- Fact Sheet: Protection of Incarcerated Youth [download]
The JJDPA currently does not address conditions and practices in juvenile facilities. This fact sheet suggests how the JJDPA can be strengthened through new provisions that bar dangerous practices and encourage states to reduce and eliminate the use of those practices.
- Fact Sheet: Disproportionate Minority Contact [download]
This fact sheet addresses how the DMC core requirement should be strengthgened in the reauthorized JJDPA and provides examples of jurisdictions that have achieved DMC reductions in recent years through targeted reforms.
- Potential for Change: Public Attitudes and Policy Preferences for Juvenile Justice Systems Reform [download]
This CCLP report contains new polling data on Americans’ attitudes about youth, race and crime, revealing strong support for juvenile justice reforms that focus on rehabilitating youthful offenders rather than locking them up in
adult prisons. The public also believes that African American and poor youth receive less favorable treatment than those who are white or middle class.