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[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 871 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

<DOC>

118th CONGRESS
  2d Session
S. RES. 871

 Expressing support for the designation of October 2024 as ``National 
                     Youth Justice Action Month''.

_______________________________________________________________________

                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           September 25, 2024

 Mr. Whitehouse submitted the following resolution; which was referred 
                   to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION

 
 Expressing support for the designation of October 2024 as ``National 
                     Youth Justice Action Month''.

Whereas the historical role of the juvenile court system is to rehabilitate and 
        treat young people while holding them accountable and maintaining public 
        safety, and the juvenile court system is therefore better equipped to 
        work with youth than the adult criminal justice system, which is 
        punitive in nature;
Whereas youth are developmentally different from adults, and those differences 
        have been--

    (1) documented by research on the adolescent brain; and

    (2) acknowledged by the Supreme Court of the United States, State 
supreme courts, and many State and Federal laws that prohibit youth under 
the age of 18 from taking on major adult responsibilities such as voting, 
jury duty, and military service;

Whereas most laws allowing the prosecution of youth as adults were enacted 
        before the publication of research-based evidence by the Centers for 
        Disease Control and Prevention and the Office of Juvenile Justice and 
        Delinquency Prevention of the Department of Justice demonstrating that 
        prosecuting youth in adult court actually decreases public safety, as, 
        on average, youth prosecuted in adult court are 34 percent more likely 
        to commit future crimes than youth retained in the juvenile court 
        system;
Whereas youth deserve an opportunity to demonstrate their potential to grow and 
        change, and youth who are placed under the commitment of the juvenile 
        court system often do not receive access to age-appropriate services and 
        education and remain far from their families, which increases the 
        likelihood that those youth will commit offenses in the future;
Whereas, between 2000 and 2022, there was a 75 percent decline in youth 
        incarceration in the United States, but troubling disparities remain;
Whereas youth of color, youth with disabilities, youth with mental health 
        challenges, and youth in foster care are disproportionately represented 
        at all stages of the criminal justice system;
Whereas it is harmful to public safety and to young people in the legal system 
        to confine youth in adult jails or prisons where they are significantly 
        more likely to be physically and sexually assaulted, and are often 
        placed in solitary confinement;
Whereas youth sentenced as adults receive an adult criminal record that hinders 
        future education, housing, and employment opportunities; and
Whereas, in October, people around the United States participate in Youth 
        Justice Action Month--

    (1) to increase public awareness of the impact of the justice system; 
and

    (2) to provide people across the United States with an opportunity to 
develop action-oriented events in their communities: Now, therefore, be it

    Resolved, That the Senate--
            (1) acknowledges that the collateral consequences normally 
        applied in the adult criminal justice system should not 
        automatically apply to youth arrested for crimes before the age 
        of 18;
            (2) expresses support for the designation of October 2024 
        as ``National Youth Justice Action Month'';
            (3) recognizes and supports the goals and ideals of 
        National Youth Justice Action Month; and
            (4) recognizes the 50th anniversary of the enactment of the 
        Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974 (34 
        U.S.C. 11101 et seq.), as amended by the Juvenile Justice 
        Reform Act of 2018 (Public Law 115-385; 132 Stat. 5123), and 
        the importance of reauthorization, funding, and continued 
        implementation in a manner consistent with the spirit and 
        intent of the law.
                                 <all>
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