To establish a meaningful opportunity for parole or similar release for child offenders sentenced to life in prison, and for other purposes.

Summary: Juvenile Justice Accountability and Improvement Act of 2009 - Requires states to: (1) enact laws and adopt policies to grant child offenders who are serving a life sentence a meaningful opportunity for parole or supervised release at least once during their first 15 years of incarceration and at least once every three years thereafter; and (2) provide notice of such laws and policies to the public and to victims of child offenders. Defines "child offender who is serving a life sentence" as an individual who is convicted of a criminal offense before attaining the age of 18 and sentenced to a term of imprisonment for life or a term exceeding 15 years.

Requires the Attorney General to: (1) establish and implement a system of early release for each child offender who is under a life sentence in a federal prison; and (2) award grants to states to improve legal representation and other services for child defendants charged with an offense carrying a possible sentence of life in prison.

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Juvenile Justice Accountability and 
Improvement Act of 2009''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Historically, courts in the United States have 
        recognized the undeniable differences between adult and youth 
        offenders.
            (2) While writing for the majority in Roper v. Simmons (125 
        S. Ct. 1183), a recent Supreme Court decision abolishing use of 
        the death penalty for juveniles, Justice Kennedy declared such 
        differences to be ``marked and well understood''.
            (3) Notwithstanding such edicts, many youth are being 
        sentenced in a manner that has typically been reserved for 
        adults. These sentences include a term of imprisonment of life 
        without the possibility of parole.
            (4) The decision to sentence youthful offenders to life 
        without parole is an issue of growing national concern.
            (5) While there are no youth serving such sentences in the 
        rest of the world, research indicates that there are over 2,500 
        youth offenders serving life without parole in the United 
        States.
            (6) The estimated rate at which the sentence of life 
        without parole is imposed on children nationwide remains at 
        least 3 times higher today than it was 15 years ago.
            (7) The majority of youth sentenced to life without parole 
        are first-time offenders.
            (8) Sixteen percent of these individuals were age 15 or 
        younger when they committed their crimes.

SEC. 3. ESTABLISHING A MEANINGFUL OPPORTUNITY FOR PAROLE FOR CHILD 
              OFFENDERS.

    (a) In General.--
            (1) Requirements.--For each fiscal year after the 
        expiration of the period specified in subsection (d)(1), each 
        State shall have in effect laws and policies under which each 
        child offender who is serving a life sentence receives, not 
        less than once during the first 15 years of incarceration, and 
        not less than once every 3 years of incarceration thereafter, a 
        meaningful opportunity for parole or other form of supervised 
        release. This provision shall in no way be construed to limit 
        the access of child offenders to other programs and appeals 
        which they were rightly due prior to the enactment of this Act.
            (2) Regulations.--Not later than 1 year after the date of 
        the enactment of this Act, the Attorney General shall issue 
        guidelines and regulations to interpret and implement this 
        section.
    (b) Definition.--In this section and section 4, the term ``child 
offender who is serving a life sentence'' means an individual who--
            (1) is convicted of one or more offenses committed before 
        the individual attained the age of 18; and
            (2) is sentenced, for such an offense or offenses, to a 
        term of imprisonment of life, or of any number of years 
        exceeding 15 years, cumulatively.
    (c) Applicability.--This section shall apply to individuals 
sentenced before, on, or after the date of the enactment of this Act.
    (d) Compliance and Consequences.--
            (1) Compliance date.--Each State shall have not more than 3 
        years from the date of enactment of this Act to be in 
        compliance with this section, except that the Attorney General 
        may grant a 2-year extension to a State that is making a good 
        faith effort to comply with this section.
            (2) Consequence of noncompliance.--For any fiscal year 
        after the expiration of the period specified in paragraph (1), 
        a State that fails to be in compliance with this section shall 
        not receive 10 percent of the funds that would otherwise be 
        allocated for that fiscal year to that State under subpart 1 of 
        part E of title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets 
        Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. 3750 et seq.), whether characterized as 
        the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program or 
        otherwise.
            (3) Reallocation.--Amounts not allocated under a program 
        referred to in paragraph (2) to a State for failure to be in 
        compliance with this section shall be reallocated under that 
        program to States that are in compliance with this section.

SEC. 4. NOTICE TO VICTIMS.

    Each State that has in effect laws and policies in accordance with 
the requirements of section 3 shall, not later than 1 year after the 
date of compliance with such section--
            (1) provide notice to the public of such laws and policies, 
        which shall include--
                    (A) a description of the opportunities for parole 
                or supervised release available to child offenders who 
                are serving a life sentence, and how those 
                opportunities differ from the laws and policies in 
                effect before compliance with section 3; and
                    (B) the name and contact information of the office, 
                agency, or other entity that may be contacted for 
                additional information about such laws and policies, 
                including the application of such laws and policies to 
                a child offender who is serving a life sentence, by a 
                victim who was directly and proximately harmed as a 
                result of an offense described in section 3(b) that was 
                committed by such a child offender; and
            (2) provide procedures whereby a victim who was directly 
        and proximately harmed as a result of an offense described in 
        section 3(b) that was committed by a child offender who is 
        serving a life sentence may, upon request, receive information 
        about the specific opportunities for parole or supervised 
        release to be provided to such child offender in accordance 
        with such laws and policies, including dates of parole or 
        supervised release hearings and notice of decisions granting or 
        denying parole or supervised release.

SEC. 5. ESTABLISHING A PARALLEL SYSTEM FOR CHILD OFFENDERS SERVING LIFE 
              SENTENCES AT THE FEDERAL LEVEL.

    Section 3624 of title 18, United States Code, is amended--
            (1) in subsection (a) by striking ``A prisoner'' and 
        inserting ``Except as otherwise provided by law, a prisoner''; 
        and
            (2) by adding at the end the following:
    ``(g) Opportunity for Release for Child Offenders Serving a Life 
Sentence.--Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of 
this subsection, the Attorney General shall establish and implement a 
system of opportunity for release that will apply to child offenders 
who are serving a life sentence (as defined in section 3 of the 
Juvenile Justice Accountability and Improvement Act of 2009) for 
Federal offenses. The system shall conform as nearly as practicable to 
the laws and policies required of a State under section 3(a) of such 
Act and shall include provision for the same or similar notice to 
victims as States are required to provide under section 4 of such Act. 
The system shall be in addition to any other method of release that 
might apply to such an offender.''.

SEC. 6. GRANTS TO IMPROVE LEGAL REPRESENTATION OF CHILDREN FACING OR 
              SERVING LIFE IN PRISON.

    (a) Grants Authorized.--The Attorney General shall, subject to the 
availability of appropriations, award grants to States to improve the 
quality of legal representation of certain child defendants and child 
offenders by providing for competent legal representation for 
individuals who--
            (1) are charged with committing an offense, before the 
        individual attained the age of 18, that is subject to a 
        sentence that may include a term of imprisonment of life, or 
        the functional equivalent in years or more; or
            (2) are convicted of an offense committed before the 
        individual attained the age of 18, and are sentenced to a term 
        of imprisonment of life, or the functional equivalent in years 
        or more, for that offense, and who seek appellate or collateral 
        relief, including review in the Supreme Court of the United 
        States.
    (b) Legal Representation.--In this section, the term ``legal 
representation'' means legal counsel and investigative, expert, and 
other services necessary for competent representation.
    (c) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized to be 
appropriated to carry out this section such sums as may be necessary.