I 

118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 8626 

To amend the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974 

to eliminate the use of valid court orders to secure lockup of status 

offenders, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JUNE 5, 2024 

Mr. CA ́RDENAS introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on Education and the Workforce 

A BILL 

To amend the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention 

Act of 1974 to eliminate the use of valid court orders 

to secure lockup of status offenders, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Prohibiting Detention 

5 of Youth Status Offenders Act of 2024’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds the following: 


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1 (1) Under the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency 

2 Prevention Act of 1974 (34 U.S.C. 11101 et seq.), 

3 Congress recognized the need to set clear standards 

4 and protect juveniles across the United States by, 

5 among other things, providing that States should 

6 not place youth in secure detention for status of7 fenses, which are offenses that would not be criminal 

8 offenses if committed by an adult. 

9 (2) In 1980, Congress amended the Juvenile 

10 Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974 (34 

11 U.S.C. 11101 et seq.) to create an exception that 

12 permits judges to place a youth in secure detention 

13 if the youth violates a valid court order (referred to 

14 in this section as ‘‘the VCO exception’’). The VCO 

15 exception has led to thousands of youth being placed 

16 in secure detention for noncriminal status offenses. 

17 (3) Placing a child charged with a noncriminal 

18 status offense in secure confinement with children 

19 who have been accused of serious criminal offenses 

20 can expose the child to negative influences and be21 haviors that could contribute to that child returning 

22 into the status offense system or the delinquency 

23 system. 

24 (4) The 5 most common juvenile status offense 

25 include skipping school, drinking while underage, 


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1 running away from home, violating curfew, and act2 ing out. 

3 (5) In 2019— 

4 (A) 11 percent of formally processed juve5 nile court cases were for a status offense; and 

6 (B) although most petitioned status of7 fense cases involved white youth (61 percent), 

8 Black youth and American Indian and Alaska 

9 Native youth were overrepresented among peti10 tioned status offenses cases relative to their 

11 population size. 

12 (6) Girls are more often sent to the justice sys13 tem for less serious offenses, such as status offenses, 

14 than boys. In 2019, the female share of formally 

15 processed status offense cases (44 percent) was 

16 greater than the share of female delinquency cases 

17 (28 percent). 

18 (7) Girls often engage in status offense behav19 iors in response to abuse or trauma and may, for ex20 ample, run away to escape abuse at home or in a 

21 foster care placement. 

22 (8) Anyone under the age of majority, which, in 

23 most States, is the age of 18, is subject to status of24 fense charges, but teenagers between the ages of 14 

25 and 17 comprise most status offense cases. 


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1 (9) Most youth who engage in status and other 

2 minor offenses never progress to more serious behav3 ior and will age out of the behavior without court 

4 intervention. 

5 (10) Since 1980, more than half of States have 

6 recognized the dangers of placing youth in secure 

7 detention for noncriminal status offenses and have 

8 stopped using the VCO exception. 

9 (11) While the number of status offenses peti10 tioned in courts decreased by 53 percent between 

11 2005 and 2019, during 2021, there were still ap12 proximately 1,400 instances of a youth being de13 tained in response to a status offense. 

14 (12) Congress recognized the need to reform 

15 the VCO exception under the Juvenile Justice Re16 form Act of 2018 (115–385; 132 Stat. 5123), which, 

17 among other things, limited the time that a juvenile 

18 could be detained under a VCO exception to not 

19 more than 7 days. 

20 (13) Congress must now act to eliminate the 

21 VCO exception and fully return to the original intent 

22 of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention 

23 Act of 1974 (34 U.S.C. 11101 et seq.), which origi24 nally provided that no youth should be held in secure 

25 detention for a noncriminal status offense. 


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1 SEC. 3. DEINSTITUTIONALIZATION OF STATUS OFFENDERS. 

2 Section 223 of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency 

3 Prevention Act of 1974 (34 U.S.C. 11133) is amended— 

4 (1) in subsection (a)— 

5 (A) in paragraph (11)(A)(i)(III), by insert6 ing ‘‘a runaway’’ before ‘‘held’’; and 

7 (B) in paragraph (23)— 

8 (i) in subparagraph (C)(iii)— 

9 (I) in subclause (I)(dd), by strik10 ing ‘‘7’’ and inserting ‘‘3’’; and 

11 (II) in subclause (II), by striking 

12 ‘‘and’’ at the end; 

13 (ii) in subparagraph (D)— 

14 (I) by striking ‘‘7’’ and inserting 

15 ‘‘3’’; and 

16 (II) by adding ‘‘and’’ at the end; 

17 and 

18 (iii) by inserting after subparagraph 

19 (D) the following: 

20 ‘‘(E) the juvenile may only be held in a se21 cure detention facility or secure correctional fa22 cility if the detention— 

23 ‘‘(i) is pursuant to a court order de24 scribed in subparagraph (C)(iii) and the 

25 other conditions set forth in subparagraph 

26 (C) are satisfied; and 


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1 ‘‘(ii) occurs only 1 time in any 6- 

2 month period;’’; and 

3 (2) by adding at the end the following: 

4 ‘‘(h) ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENT.— 

5 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in para6 graph (2), not later than 1 year after the date of en7 actment of this subsection, no State receiving a for8 mula grant under this part may use a valid court 

9 order described in subsection (a)(23)(C)(iii) to place 

10 a juvenile status offender in a secure detention facil11 ity or secure correctional facility. 

12 ‘‘(2) EXTENSION.—A State that can dem13 onstrate hardship, as determined by the Adminis14 trator, may submit to the Administrator an applica15 tion for a single 1-year extension of the 1-year pe16 riod described in paragraph (1) to comply with para17 graph (1), which shall describe— 

18 ‘‘(A) the measurable progress and good ef19 fort in the State to reduce the number of juve20 nile status offenders who are placed in a secure 

21 detention facility or correctional facility pursu22 ant to a court order described in subsection 

23 (a)(23)(C)(iii); and 


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1 ‘‘(B) a plan to comply with the require2 ment described in paragraph (1) not later than 

3 1 year after the date the extension is granted.’’. 

Æ 


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