III 

117TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. RES. 835 

Expressing support for the designation of October 2022 as ‘‘National Youth 

Justice Action Month’’. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

NOVEMBER 16, 2022 

Mr. WHITEHOUSE (for himself and Ms. WARREN) submitted the following 

resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 

RESOLUTION 

Expressing support for the designation of October 2022 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 


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•SRES 835 IS 

from taking on major adult responsibilities such as voting, jury duty, and military service; 

Whereas youth who are placed under the commitment of the 

juvenile court system often do not receive access to ageappropriate services and education and remain far from 

their families, which increases the likelihood that those 

youth will commit offenses in the future; 

Whereas, every year in the United States, an estimated 

53,000 youths are tried, sentenced, or incarcerated as 

adults, and most of those youth are prosecuted for nonviolent offenses; 

Whereas most laws allowing the prosecution of youth as 

adults were enacted before the publication of researchbased 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 of color, youth with disabilities, and youth 

with mental health issues are disproportionately represented at all stages of the criminal justice system; 

Whereas confining youth in adult jails or prisons, where 

youth are significantly more likely to be physically and 

sexually assaulted and are often placed in solitary confinement, is harmful to public safety and to young people 

in the legal system; 


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•SRES 835 IS 

Whereas youth sentenced as adults receive an adult criminal 

record that hinders future education and employment opportunities; 

Whereas youth who receive extremely long sentences deserve 

an opportunity to demonstrate their potential to grow 

and change; and 

Whereas, in October, people around the United States participate in Youth Justice Action Month to— 

(1) increase public awareness of the need to protect 

the constitutional rights of youth, establish a minimum 

age for arresting children; 

(2) remove youth from adult courts and prisons; 

(3) end the practice of sentencing children to life imprisonment without parole and consecutive or lengthy 

sentences that amount to de facto life imprisonment without parole; and 

(4) provide people across the United States with an 

opportunity to develop action-oriented events in their 

communities: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the Senate— 

2 (1) acknowledges that the collateral con3 sequences normally applied in the adult criminal jus4 tice system should not automatically apply to youth 

5 arrested for crimes before the age of 18; 

6 (2) expresses support for the designation of 

7 ‘‘National Youth Justice Action Month’’; 

8 (3) recognizes and supports the goals and ideals 

9 of National Youth Justice Action Month; and 


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•SRES 835 IS 

1 (4) recognizes the importance of and encour2 ages the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency 

3 Prevention to fully implement the Juvenile Justice 

4 and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974 (34 U.S.C. 

5 11101 et seq.), as amended by the Juvenile Justice 

6 Reform Act of 2018 (Public Law 115–385; 132 

7 Stat. 5123), in a manner in keeping with the spirit 

8 and intent of the law. 

Æ 


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